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RE:Lets try again

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Posted by: crocdoc2 at Sun Feb 12 04:43:23 2012  [ Report Abuse ] [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by crocdoc2 ]  
   

Thanks, Gregg. As I said to Mike, I was hesitant to start going into detail as I knew it would be lost on the only other lace monitor keeper on here, but I'm glad others are getting something out of it.

The stubbornness is bizarre, but you hit the nail on the head. It's all about information flow. He's only happy if the information is flowing in one direction - from him.

It's unfortunate when ego gets in the way of husbandry. When I first started keeping and breeding lace monitors I spoke to many keepers here about them and still have ongoing discussions with other breeders in which we exchange ideas (those that are open to it, of course). I also read a lot of the scientific literature about them and started spending more time out in the field watching them.

I tried having a few conversations with FR and they were all identical to this one. The conversation that sticks out in my mind the most was the one we had about termite mound nesting, around 10-11 years ago. I had just been to the university, where I had dropped in to photocopy the thesis of someone that had done their PhD on reproduction in wild lace monitors. I'd already known by then that they were termite mound nesters (it was, and is, common knowledge), but the thesis was full of incredibly useful information on the mounds themselves. Excitedly (and naively) I tried having a chat with FR about it on an old irc monitor chatroom, for he'd mentioned once he had problems with getting his lace monitors to nest properly. His response was bizarre (and hasn't changed, 11 years later). He thought the information was useless academic crap because no one had termite mounds in their monitor enclosures. He later told people that 1. I had told him there were only 8 instances of termite mound nests being found in the wild and 2. that I suggested to him that he put a termite mound in his enclosure.
Anyway, what's pretty much where we went our separate ways with lace monitors. I decided to use the information to build a nest box that would mimic the conditions, FR continued doing what he was doing and the rest, as they say, is... well, visible in the current exchange.

Speaking of termite mound nesting being general knowledge, you may be interested to know that the parents of the lace monitors at the Bronx Zoo were hatched from eggs removed from a termite mound in the early 80s. A member of the public had contacted the zoo here because he had watched a female lace monitor go through the whole process of digging a nest into a termite mound that was visible from his kitchen window. The zoo sent two keepers out there to collect the eggs and two of the hatched babies were kept for zoo stock. One of those keepers is a very good mate of mine, so I've known about lace monitors nesting in termite mounds for almost 30 years.


   

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>> Next Message:  RE:Lets try again - crocdoc2, Sun Feb 12 07:33:34 2012

<< Previous Message:  RE:Lets try again - Gregg_M_Madden, Thu Feb 9 18:08:26 2012