Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Tell me what you can of the care of "yellow monitors". Any info. would be helpful and pics a joy.
Wingert.

Hi,

This species is known to Taliabu, Sanana, and maybe Mangole Islands in central Molucca islands, east of Sulawesi. They may or may not be on Banggai (= Peleng Isl.) anymore? This species is known to foothill streams and rivers on these (mostly) denuded islands, as native peoples are logging their home for cash to the japanese. The natives consider them a pest, and when encountered, while logging routinely behead them. How many were removed from Taliabu before laws restricted them, nobody can say for sure, but I am sure this has had a detrimental effect on their wild populations, given they live on only a few isolated islands in a small archipelago on oceanic islands.

I co-authored a paper on V. melinus in Vivarium magazine, June-july 1999 issue, pp38-40. Aside from taxon-related papers, I do not beleive their is anything written on their natural history, except my paper in Vivarium. Their wild diet is piscivorous mostly (= fish eating), and aquatic invertebrates/vertebrates.
They are secretive, and come out in early dawn hours to forage (in captivity mostly). This is not a first-time monitor keeper
species in my opinion.

You can also check Varanus.nl forum and click species'. Maybe the
"Monitor spot" forum has info on them too?

Good luck,
mbayless

They are very easy to care for. Set up a typical monitor habitat(they need to be able to climb, dig, and swim & have the typical hot spot). I used cyprus mulch; a good 5 inches for babies. They will burry themselves almost all the time. They seem to come out only a few hours a day; from bout 8am to maybe 10am. If you step to close to the cage they will instantly go back under. I have read that they are very easy to "tame" but I had one for two years and she always remained skiddish and often agressive. My opinion: You can get 2-3 other cooler monitors for the price of one melinus. Indicus, jobeinsis, and rudicollis are all alot cheaper and alot more interesting. And although I prefer the tropical spieces, Akies never dissapointed me.

PS; sorry, I can't spell.

Thanx for the great info guys.
Wingert