Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi, I have one adult female ackie and three ten month old juvies (i think 1:2). I decided it was time Mrs Monitor met the three juvies. So I put her into their cage, thinking its their territory she won't be territorial. Within a few seconds she started to shake her head side to side and was almost vibrating! She started to walk towards the juvies, they all came to investigate her. She walked over to the smallest one, climbed onto its back and carried on shaking, then all of a sudden she grabbed it by the neck and shook it like a ragdoll! I quickly intervened, and removed her carefully from the poor little guys neck! She'd broke the skin, but not really damaged the juvie. I took the little guy to the vets for a general checkup and she had some injections to stop it getting infected. But what happened? Has anyone else her had that problem? The juvies are about 12 inches long and the female is only 15 inches, so I though it was about the right time to introduce them - evidently not.

1:3 ackies (Dallas, Leeloo, Diva, and Ruby - all names from 5th Element!)

Well I guess the monitors thought you that what you think, does not matter.

Yes, thats what is so fun about monitors, They will tell you not to think so much.

But if you think about it, what would you expect? I get the feeling the larger one only wants the others to find their own basking spot, burrow, etc. You know, like over there, a few feet away. If you think about it, a few feet is really nothing. In the context of the large amounts of space they use. Kinda like next door.

Being next door, they only have to bob their heads and wiggle their tails to comunicate. But please leave the MGD alone.

Remember, sitting up territories and exhititing behaviors is a sign of the monitors being normal. A sick monitor in bad conditions would just lay there and not care to be normal.

By the way, I saw 5th Element in Darwin(Oz) a few hours after finding an Ackie that was over three feet long. FR

?

Hey frank,

do you have any pics of one of these 3 foot ackies? I would love to see one of these collossals. Have you ever seen any of these "giant" ackies in US collections, or is it typically a certain locality in oz that gets larger than others?
-----

I have lots of pics of all sorts of things, including undiscribed monitors, many many different kinds of ackies. Types that get very large, but of even more interest, types that are very small. I know of one kind of ackie thats the size of storrs and lives in the same exact places as regular ackies, but is way smaller and totally different color.

When I first came to these forums, I tried to show the many authors and researchers some of this, but as I learned later, they are a rather weird bunch and more or less wanted to fight(because they know everything and are never wrong). So as they say in Oz, stuffum. Actually, I am also torn by the reality of the subject, to make them known to man is only going to do them harm. As absolutely no good would come from it. So for the time being, let them enjoy being wild and unknown.

This individual was found in the jaws of a little kitty. I am not kidding, a small white cat hauled it out of the bushes and onto the road. The area was totally flat and was nothing but tall grass(after wet) for as far as you could see.

When I first went to Oz, I had no special interest in monitors, I was a python guy. I met a fellow and he showed me pics of giant ackies that native peoples were holding. They looked to be over 3 1/2 feet. The area was around Mt. Isa.(most common type in captivity) Well I went out there and not far from Mt. Isa, is a town of Cloncurry, just outside of there I found my first 3 foot ackie. Cloncurry is the original local for the german ackies. I took a horrible pic of that one, but did not catch it.

About captivity, I raised a Mt. Isa to 27 inches in one year. If I would have kept that one, It may have exceeded three feet. I raised many to 30 inches, of both types. Of interest to me, in captivity Red Ackies(W.A.) are by far the largest. They also have giant eggs. But in nature, they were not the largest. I never found one over 30 inches. I probably found over 1500 ackies of many types, so it was a far sample. Also of interest, It did not take long to find an ackie over three feet, my third ackie ever was that.

More about captivity, in captivity, we employ paradigms, for instance, food. We set up feeding programs and stay with it, My guess is in nature, they shift prey types as they grow. As they get larger, they consume larger prey. In captivity, if we give them a large food item and they throw it up, we say, its too big. That is in error, it means conditions are not suitable to digest large prey. In nature, the conditions are what they are designed to use, its perfect. Better yet, it contains perfect choices. Enjoy the pic. FR

thanks for the info frank, that sure is the biggest ackie I've ever seen. Very impressive.

bob
-----

vvvvv

That is one beautiful, huge ackie. Thanks for sharing the picture and for the interesting information. It must have been wonderful to see so many of these monitors in their natural habitat. It makes perfect sense when you talk about how we feed our captives versus the monitor's choice of prey items in the wild. I always appreciate your posts.

Pam

Only the female grabbed the male who was 1 year and 17 days older and tried to kill him. Luckily shes so well behaved and let him go when I grabbed her and said "put him down", he wouldnt eat anything for about 3 weeks after that. They let you know that they dont and wont get along when you introduce them or they may wait a bit.
I like the way FR described it to me, if raised away from other monitors, a monitor wont know how to talk to other monitors, therefore most probably wont get along with or play nice with others.

The female used to live in a groupf of five. I saw her in a reptile shop over here (UK). She had been housed with others but the person had decided to split them and sell them (god knows why!). So I decided to buy her. Then I bought the babies from other shops and put then intogether to get them used to ach other and they've been fine. So, unless she's just a moody git she might have forgotten her other friends and is enjoying life on her own! Oh well, I'll wait a few more onths until the baies are her size then hopefully there will be more success!

Try with some time between intros. Since they dont have a written language or standard language they learn to "talk" to each other as in groups they live with, not necessarily all of the same species, after all they dont see V. Acanthurus or komodensis or whatever they see another monitor. Getting along is a totally different story, try to intro them but stay nearby, intervene if one is getting hurt, but they have to work out a system a "language" between them. If they lived as a group and were separated then reintro-ed they may not speak the same language now, its about social behavior and a hierarchy that they decide on. Also if they dont get along after a few tries or so I wouldnt continue to stress them out, because like putting you in a prison cell with someone you dont know or know anymore you might not ever get along but you might get along great.

Thanks for your help I'll keep you posted to what happens!