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Here she is carrying the egg in a odd manner. Thanks for the information and discussion. FR

I'm still intrigued by this photo (genuinely). You mention a "series" but this is the only picture I see here. I have no idea where the rest of this "series" is located so I can only gauge what I see on this one photo.

I recall a certain individual, and his disciples, rambling on about how you should never be able to see an egg out in the open, afterall they are supposed to be laid inside a nest not out in the open. If you can see an egg, according to these individuals, then the nesting is bad, the monitor is unhealthy, the substrate is bad, the substrate is too shallow, and so on. Maybe those claims are true, but then one must wonder about this photo. I wonder which of the above problems we are seeing in this photo.

Of course, perhaps in the series there is something more telling about this situation. However, according to that same individual, one can judge based upon only the photo (evidence) provided. One cannot know the context of a photo and must judge the context based upon the photo(s) provided. So whatever else is present is irrelevant at this point (I, for one, would really like more context before I interpret this event).

If we assume this individual is correct about the nesting and use his criteria for judging context, then this picture shows bad nesting.

I wonder what factor(s) played a role in the moving of this egg out in the open. Perhaps posting the series here would be helpful. Until then, I am confused.

Of course, I am sure I am just ignorant or my covert, malevolent agenda is clouding my ability to understand.

Regardless, it is an interesting picture no matter what is occurring here.

Would you be so kind as to provide the series here or a link to it and perhaps some of the context as you understood it.

Thanks
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^x^ Bloodbat ^x^
Monitors, monitors everywhere
and all the food they ate.
Monitors, monitors everywhere,
their parents loved to mate.

Please understand, to judge something, is to judge the end result. Even doing that can be misleading.

We have a site, varanus.net, It belongs to Jeff Hoffman and I, This is where the series is posted, and no, I am going to do it here. The reason is, the html codes are different. So posting multiple pics on our site, is not how its done here. So I cannot copy and paste. I posted about fifteen pics there, out of over a hundred I took of that event.

The series starts with the female half out of a hole. But thats not where the event started. She entered a log, and burrowed into leaf litter, she then laid aprox, 3 eggs, then for some reason was interrupted and dug out, she surfaced. This is where the photos started. I saw she was tougue flicking and nosing something with lots of interest, she then pawed at it, and nosed it. Then she flipped it up and I could now see, it was a dead old ant covered mouse. She then flicked it out of that area. She then re-entered the nesting area and laid an egg, came out and arranged the egg with her nose, then she repeated that, only this time, she did not back into the hole all the way and laid the next egg in the open. Then she pushed, carried and tucked that egg into the nesting chamber. She then covered and hid the nest. she then took a bath, she rubbed, scratched, flipped on her sides and cleaned herself with intent. Then ate the old mouse. I then fed her a mouse and in the next few hours she laid two infertile eggs around the cage.

So, the outcome is a perfect nesting, all fertile eggs in a nesting chamber, covered and hidden in the ground. The begining was also very normal, the middle was indeed odd, you know throwing out the dead mouse and laying a fertile egg outside.

For you to compare that, to a clutch of eggs laying on the surface or in a divit in the ground is not being very knowledgeable of monitor nesting.

I also did not say this lacie nesting was normal. You know, kinda the reason I was excited and took all the pics, it was not normal. You do not see monitors throwing dead mice out of the nesting area and carrying eggs around too darn often. On the other hand, the end result was normal, thanks to the abilities of that female.

I imagine when you have had 50 or 100 nestings, you will develop and sense of what normal is. You will also develop a sense of what good signs are and what delerious signs are. And of course, seeing the eggs on the surface is not a good sign. It tends to lead to a very reduced hatchrate, which cannot be considered good.

There are two main criteria to judge a nesting(reproductive event) by. One is hatching percentage and the other is the amount of stress on the female. These two combined are what is judged. A low hatchrate and or high stress, cannot be considered good. Low stress and high hatchrate, cannot be considered bad.

My concern with you is, one, you did not go the our site and look first(research) and two, you did not ask the result before you go on and on, about this and that. Also, that you think its your job to find something I said that counterdicts something I have said, in the past. I will tell you, I constantly change my beliefs of what monitors do, the reason I do is, the monitors constantly show me more and more of their abilities. I thank god, that I change from year to year. So, I hope you do find something. On the otherhand, wouldn't your time and brain power, be better suited dwelling on your own stuff. FR

that is pretty fascinating
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robyn@proexotics.com

Pro Exotics Reptiles