Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've read in some different places that BT's normally get alittle bigger than WT's. Is this true?

Varanus Albigularis (white-throated-monitor), is a complex of now 2 sub-species, formerly 3, and formerly considered a sub-species itself. V. Albigularis Microstictus is a true Blackthroat, rarely ever available in the pet trade, although the color and pattern of V. Albigularis solid here as a blackthroat used to be called Ionidesi (Ionides- famous snakeman), now considered Albigularis.
Albigs none the less are a large species of monitor that is semi-arboreal yet spends alot of time also pressed between and under rocks or in a burrow which they can dig like a highly skilled mining team. They are one of the strongest most powerful monitors at any size, are escape artists, and can rip their cages apart pretty easily if not made very very strongly. They are eating machines being compared to the argus and I think due to size have a bigger appetite. They grow from 5-7 ft in length, and up to 38lbs (around there). They lay large clutches of eggs, anywhere from 21-52 eggs. Something to think about also they are the best (or worst tail slappers period among monitors, depends if your on the recieving end I guess), very accurate tail whip!! Extremely powerful jaws and horriblely painful bite in which they usually dont let go for anywhere from a second to hours, they have evolved those extra muscles in the jaw and special design for crushing turtles, tortoise, giant land snails, and your hand if they get ahold of it. Oh did I mention about the powerful tail whip.
Depending on the geographical location of the WT it can be as small as 4-4.5ft full grown (cape bandeds on average).

This is a 3yr old banded WT from Frank Retes...

This is a WT at 5ft long and around 2.5 years old or so.

This is a female BT/WT/WT cross, this is about the size a BT can grow to or in the case of males a bit larger under the right conditions.

I believe this was aked a few weeks ago or less also...

yeah, i knew about the species differneces and about the BT's, but there is very little info about WT's out there and i have yet to find a place to purchase one. Also, Sobek is quite a beatiful monitor shvar. I also didnt know BT's get up to 7 ft long. I thought 5-6 was the biggest they got.

Hi,
Equatorial forms reach greater size/lengths (Tanzania, Southern Republic of Congo = Zaire, Zambia, Angola) than do either northern (Sudan, Ethiopian, Eritrean, Kenya, even [very rarely seen]Egyptian forms, OR southern (Malawi, Mozambique, Namibian, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Rep. S. Africa, Natal, Swaziland) forms, as food availability, climate and terrain are factors for this size differenciation.

cheers,
mbayless