I see alot of posts 'how do I find information' on this species or that, and so on...alot of people merely look on the web and if it is not there, give up. Others seek further resources, such as reading an actual book, magazine, academic/zoo journal, and still others seek out fellow vara-keepers - from the forums like this one, Varanus.nl, and Ssnakes.com, from local herp societies, and from regional herp societies. All of these 'tricks' work and sometimes very well.
I use all of the afore-mentioned in my quests for vara-information, and have been very lucky to correspond with some very genuine and fine people, like Sam Sweet, Dragoon, Jody Pieper, Ratzu, Cybersalvator's John A., to mention a few, but many others too.
As a for-instance: Some months ago, I was working on an article on the roughneck monitor (Varanus rudicollis), and had compiled every bit of information about them from every literary source known. I had corresponded with many many zoologists, botanists, ecologists, herpetoculturalists and so on about V. rudicollis. But it was a private breeding from Dragoon that really got the cogs of the wheel 'put together' that made the picture of how V. rudicollis lives with more clarity - Thanks Dragoon.
I am doing the same with V. prasinus complex, and a few other lesser known species. The information i am recieving and finding is amazing to me, and that is not easily done as I've read/reviewed 90% of ALL Varanus literature ever written (~7,500 sources), now delving into the literature of the 'Dark Ages' era, where there are references to them, and darn entertaining ones at that i.e. the Chinese Admiral Zheng He traversed much of the World known to his time, and described enormous giant dragons, yellow in color with firey eyes (= sulphur water monitors? T hypomelanistic V. salvators from Thailand?) - its all fun, and encourage everyone here, who is inclined to, who still are open minded to keep seeking information about your varanid, and try to learn something new about them everyday....I do.
cheers,
mbayless
