Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ive seen some very large niles and black throats and like how bulky and strong they appear and was curious about whether there is another species of monitor besides the croc, that had body mass and bulk once full grown with proper husbandry of course.

I've seem a picture af a 130 pound salvator. That's quite a bit more than an avarage wild komodo.

I could have sworn most adult komodos are significantly larger than 130lbs....correct me if i'm wrong...

I believe the largest varanid ever found was a water monitor, however komodos are larger more consistently. Croc monitors have been know to grow longer than komodos, however, the difference in mass is unproportionate; croc's tails comprise 2/3 of their total length.

I bet Mark would be able to give you specific recordings and accounts, or John A-he's salvator guy to talk to...

hope this helps..

bob
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komodos get 200 lbs. The giant Males can weigh up to 300.
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0.1 "Tremper" looking Albino Leopard gecko (Lex)
0.0.1 normal ball python (felix)
1.1 Feral cats that we adopted (Fuzzy, and Bear)

-funny typos-
"There are six genes which determine the amount of melanism present in a person's skink"-about human skin color

please give me more typos

According to Auffenbergs study in 1981, where he measured 30 dragons, the biggest only weighed 45 Kg, and was about 2.5 meters total length. 200-300 pounders are severly overweight.

130lbs. is a obese water. Most waters do not make it over the 100lb. mark.

So again to say the komodo is dwarfed by them is silly.

Since you want to look at books and averages, go find a book that has many different salvators and sizes, you tell me how many you find are giants.

Then go do the same with komodos and let me know what ya find.

I am sure you'll see the komodo is heavier by far.

Even if you don't look at averages and you just go by the biggest known. Wieght wise that is a komodo.

Yes, I agree a 130 pound salvator is overweigth too, of course. I didn't state that 'komodos are dwarfed', I just said that this particular salvator was much bigger than an avarage komodo, because the salvator was not mentioned in the initial post. It was just to include the salvator as a candidate for the second largest.

is it that often we find animals in the wild overweight? I would think that even in times of greater abundance of food, ie. wet season, that animals would be gorging themselves to make up for the months that they were starving from lack of available food. I would not think that wild komodos would ever become obese. In captivity, yes, for zoos have the tendency of "beefing" their animals up to make them appear more impressive. For example, take Samantha, the world's largest retic that once resided at the bronx zoo. That snake was 26.5' in length, but the girth was not proportionate with its length(thicker than a telephone pole)- the burm which is there now, is another prime example of a morbidly obese snake. One of the benefits of having a reptile collection at a zoo is the abundance of hoofstock offspring, which could be fed out amongst the zoo's larger carnivores. What do you think they really do with all of the pig babies and goat babies that are born there? Anyways, getting back to my opinion, wild animals are usually skinny and "underweight" as compared to those in captivity. I would also have to agree with jody, that a 100 lb salvator is going to be a pretty fat lizard. Even a 50lb salvator is a fat lizard. Just my opinion.....
bob
The ODatriad

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Hi Bob, Actually I find lots of fat wild reptiles. This gila is very heavy and its pre-feeding season.

I have several pics of wild fat monitors. IT happens. FR

n/p

I'm not saying that it doesn't happen, I would assume that it just isn't an all too common thing...I could be wrong, it's only my opinion, for I have never been to asia, africa, or oz to view wild varanids in the wild, however I have observed several species here in the northeast upon emergence from their winter sleep-garter/ribbon snakes, Italian ruin lizards(lacertids), and others. These animals appeared significantly skinnier (in general), when compared to the specimens I see come july or august, however none of them appear to be fat, or obese.

Gee Frank, you sure seem to be the best heloderm tracker I've ever seen. I have a couple of friends down in the southwest there who have grown up catching and observing herps in AZ,NV,and NM, and none of them have ever gotten a glimpse of a wild gila. What's the trick? I may be heading down that way this summer, and would love to be able to see one in the wild. Is it true that they are crepuscular? From most of your pics I wouldn't think so, since your pics are in broad daylight... you lucky guy you.........

take care,

bob
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Hi again Bob, that are many things to consider when veiwing wild reptiles. Without the knowledge of what the animal is doing, its difficult to make judgements.

For instance, when I worked at the ASDM. They did some work with gilas. They insisted that captive gilas are too fat so they did not feed them. They did hatch one baby in 35 years. hahahahahahahaha.

That statement was meant to be odd. First, you need to compare apples to apples. That is, wild breeding gilas to captive breeding gilas. If you actually did that, you would find they would be very similiar. This is a breeding pair of gilas, I actually watched them breed. The dark one is the female.

A couple weeks ago, I photographed a skinny gravid gila. That indeed is rare. In fact, whether its Mountain kings, gophersnakes, Ridgenosed rattlesnakes or whatever, I find the breeders are normally fat.

In my experience, to find a skinny gravid wild reptile is rare, finding fat healthy gravid reptiles is common.

Your example of seeing skinny reptiles is without direction, you have no idea what those are going to do. I would bet, if any of them produced, they surely would fatten up first.

You may consider that not all reptiles breed every year. With these gilas, they seem to breed three and a half out of five years. That is actually dependant on support, and for the last 8 years we have been in serious drought.

About crepuscular or nocturnal, I am not a fan of those terms. I see too many exceptions. They are active when conditions are suitable. In most species, they are active in the day. But active may not mean out. Reptiles coming out, actually is not part of their normal life. I constantly see diurnal lizards active at night, including monitors. Its about conditions and need. FR

I was watching a like 2 hour long special on the discovery channel a couple weekds ago and it said that the 7 foot old males can weigh up to 300 lbs.
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0.1 "Tremper" looking Albino Leopard gecko (Lex)
0.0.1 tiger crested gecko (peachs)
1.1 Feral cats that we adopted (Fuzzy, and Bear)

Largest hm depends on how you look at them.

Longest on record or heaviest? Longest is held by water monitor but they are no place near the wieght of a komodo. There is also really long croc monitors that can contend but again the weight is by far short.

So in average overall length and wieght size goes to Komodo.

The second-largest monitor verifiably reported was a 10' 3" V. salvator, shot in Sri Lanka in the 1800s. A close second in length is a 10' 0" croc monitor at a zoo in Brownsville, Texas. There are several unverified reports of wild croc monitors over 4 meters (13')in length; it is quite likely, what with all of the 8-9' long male croc monitors now in captivity and still growing, that the overall length record will soon be held by that species. Komodos and water monitors are much heavier than croc monitors, and it is not likely that anything will beat the Komodos in weight.

The San Diego zoo has a huge Komodo. I think it is 9 plus feet and 250lbs. thanks Russ