Kingsnake.com Daniel Bennet Captive care for monitors March 3, 2007 PHFaust: On behalf of Jeff Barringer and all of us at kingsnake.com, I'm very pleased to welcome Daniel Bennett to our Ninth Annual Chat Week. PHFaust: Daniel Bennett is a conservation biologist with a special interest in monitor lizards. His research interests are focused mainly on developing non-destructive and non-intrusive survey methods for neglected taxa such as reptiles, amphibians and bats in countries that include Turkmenistan, India, Madagascar and the Philippines. His recent work has concentrated on the frugivorous monitor lizards of the Philippines. Daniel is also well known for his work with MAMPAM Conservation (www.mampam.com). He lives with his daughter in the town he was born in and eats enormous quantities of chocolate. PHFaust: Thank you so much for joining us, Daniel, and welcome! loconorc: Dan, whats your opinion on your book? ProExotics highly reccomends it. And does the info in there also apply to ackies? mampam: Mmm. It's asking for trouble aking me my opinion of my own book loconorc: By the way, I was the guy who made a forum post about ya. mampam: I think it deserves to sell much better than it does loconorc: It looks great but does the care info also apply to most other monitors? mampam: Yes I think it does. loconorc: I know not tree monitors or anything, just ackies and stuff. Whats your fave monitor BTW? loconorc: I think I like kimberly rocks the best. so elegant looking mampam: I think it applies to any monitor that likes to dig mampam: I love those long-tailed monitors loconorc: long tailed? like tree monitors? mampam: My favourite used to be Varanus olivaceus, but now I am not so sure loconorc: ok thanks :-) mampam: like gleopalma and pilbarensis and glauerti loconorc: Great job on the AP special by the way! I loved it. mampam: rudicollis is also a big favourite of mine, but I love them all. mampam: thanks Albigularis_nr: Have you done any work with abigularis in the past? I seemingly can't recall if you have. If so have you did anything to research their natural diet? mampam: No, but I have been spending some time in northern Tanzania for the last few years and always hoped I would come across them Albigularis_nr: On the other hand, what are your thoughts on the best captive diets for, V. exanthematicus? mampam: I would like to do a comparative study to the one I did on exanthematicus in ghana mampam: But albigularis doesn't live round Arusha and Serengeti, contrary to published reports so the answer is; no I haven't. mampam: As for the diet I think a mixture of rodents and insects seems to work fine but different things appear to work for different people. The primamry problem people have with savannah monitor feeding is that the animals get obese sssssss_nr: The longer I keep albigularis for the less I feed rodents. mampam: In the wild exanthematicus doesn't eat rodents, or does so very very rarely. Albigularis_nr: When I used to keep exanthematicus, I had animals become 3+ feet within the first year of life, without ever seeing to many rodents. mampam: But as time goes on I am less and less convinced that the diet in the wild need have much relevance to the diet in captivity for that sort of monitor at least mampam: I think that sort of growth has a lot to do with the temperature gradient Albigularis_nr: Thank you Mr. Bennett. mampam: pleasure danceswsavs_nr: I'm getting growth rates of 1/4 inch per day for about a month now- is there anything I should worry about with savs growing so fast? danceswsavs_nr: How can i get some brachytrupes to breed? mampam: No I don't think so danceswsavs_nr: My savs always come to me and push down on me with their chins. Have you seen this chinning behaviour before? mampam: I think if the animals have the choce of how fast their metabolisms go it can't be a problem. mampam: I think there are a lot of scent glands in the chin and maybe it is some sort of marking behaviour - monitor lizards are always marking things. danceswsavs_nr: ooh...lol danceswsavs_nr: how long did Rusty live? (Harmons's sav, in your latest Savannah Monitor book) and how did he die? mampam: Brachytrupes: it would be a really interesting animal to breed mampam: I don't know why it doesn't appear in west african shipments. mampam: maybe you would have to order them, they are extrememly common mampam: I'm not sure about rusty, I think he died not long after our book was published. mampam: I haven't heard from dale for a long time. danceswsavs_nr: Are there any available photos of LIVE sex organs of boscs? (the drawings of preserved tissues don't look much at all like the photos I've taken of mine) mampam: No, yours are the best I have seen mampam: I seem to recall that Rob Faust wanted to put pics in his excellent book on Nile monitors but the publishers objected. danceswsavs_nr: Finally: please comment on the intelligence of savs & training! (and thank you very much!) mampam: I think that is a relatively unexplored subject but monitors are smart, no question about that. danceswsavs_nr: oh- if you want the hi res photos, they're yours. mampam: And if exanthematicus can be trained it makes me wonder how a less sedentary species would respond mampam: Yes I would very much thank you! ig_daddy: If you raised a Komodo Dragon hatchling in captivity, with a diet of only fresh meat, would it NOT develop the bacteria in their saliva? mampam: No I don't think it would, certainly not the Proteus type that cause the massive infections. ig_daddy: Too bad they are restricted. . . mampam: but I think any sort of bacterial clutures that that have to be acquired ig_daddy: Thanks for the answer. mampam: I can't agree that it is a shame they are restricted. I don't think it would be in the best interests of the lizards or society if anybody could keep Komodo dragons ig_daddy: I beleive they could be raised like the alligator "Bubba" by the guy from coldblooded creatures. evertech11: Which monitor do you recommend as a good first varanid? How common is it for an untamed Savannah Monitor to void its cloacal contents?, I've heard plenty about them doing this that it seems common. mampam: Yes I'm sure they could be, the curatator at Houston zoo did amazing things with theirs mampam: Very common for monitors to void the cloacal contents mampam: Although I've never been able to get young Nile monitors to do it, which has been a great nuisance evertech11: is it expected with healthy juviniles? mampam: I'd say any CAPTIVE BRED monitor is good to start with mampam: Well it's not an indication of health as much more a sign of stress, most people would do something similar if grabbed by a giant...... quietstorm: Whats going on with the Little Book of Monitors 2 is it going to be released or did it get shut down mampam: I am working on it, It is very very delayed quietstorm: so its still a go. mampam: partly because of my PhD but also because I want to have something useful to say about the monitors between Sulawesi and the west tip of New Guinea. mampam: oh very much so, I hope so! It's my life's work more or less!! quietstorm: good good thank you mampam: also the taxonomy is in massive flux, there are stuill a lot of new species. Now it's sounding like excuses isn't it? I'd better shut up! quietstorm: I m excited about it loconorc: Do you agree with ackies being the best begginer monitor? Or any other dwarf monitors? loconorc: Also, how did the grays monitor poop taste? :p mampam: Any dwarf monitor that is CAPTIVE BRED loconorc: Well all Aussie monitors are CB right? mampam: ah that loconorc: Because of the exporting law. I'm not interested in asian or african monitors only aussie dwarfs. mampam: There are a lot of good monitor breeders worldwide. loconorc: I know where I'm getting mine :-) Pro Exotics!!! ^_^ mampam: who produce excellent animals so you would hope that all the youngsters available were captive bred but you would want to be sure! mampam: The butaan eats a fruits rather similar to the Brazil nut fruit. mampam: they excrete the nuts intact mampam: And when washed they can be broken open and eaten with impunity, and yes they are very delicious. evertech11: I've heard alot of number being thrown around, how big do Savannah monitors really get? (STL) mampam: I've never seen a wild one much bigger than 100cm, which is 36 inches more or less, but in captivity there are some in excess of 48 inches. evertech11: so 4 feet is a stretch? mampam: Although the biggest I have seen is about 42 inches. I presume they don't get very big in the wild because they don't need to evertech11: so i can forget the accounts of 6 foot savs mampam: And a diet of millipedes can't help. mampam: I think that is probably the result of confusion with albigularis which gets much bigger. mampam: at least I have never seen a six foot exanthematicus daniel1983: Of the dwarf/pygmy montior lizards that you have kept or studied, which has been your favorite to work with and why? mampam: I have never kept any of them robfaust: Daniel, do you usaully see niloticus hatching in Ghana around October? mampam: and the only work I have done with them was in the Great Victoria Desert mampam: I like tristis a lot mampam: but the one I would have loved to see and would love to work with s undoubtably eremius mampam: I don't work with dwarf monitors (Odatrians) because I don't consider them to be of conservation concern but that's the only reason, I would love to learn about eremius! PHLdyPayne: What does mampam stand for? Also, any good tips on taming monitors down so they don't eat your fingers? mampam: Mampam is an Ashanti word for Nile monitors mampam: the word for savannah monitors was unpronounceable and when I started to work in ghana my friends called me mampam. mampam: when we needed a short name that we could still get the domain .com for it was perfect PHLdyPayne: cool. definitely a catchy name :) mampam: I think if you are going to tame monitors it is best done when they are young mampam: with gentle handling and there are some monitors that it is foolish to try to tame like salvadorii, not that they couldn't be tamed but that it would be foolish to trust them! microbrewbrian: as far as the Varanus olivaceus go, how are conservation issues progressing since your research began and bringing light to them? PHLdyPayne: thanks for the info mampam: That's a complicated question, I'd like to say that the conservation issues are now at the forefront and the species is safe but....deforestation in the Philipines still occurs at a massive rate. It isn't to do with edcation it's largely economics. jburokas: Two ?s for you Mr. Bennett: 1) how devastating is wild catching and "farming" of Bosc's in Ghana, Togo,etc where they are taken from to the native populations? mampam: It's got the highest population growth rate in Asia, there's a lot of poverty, people where I work are very aware of how special the lizard is and we have more or less persuaded people never to take dogs into the forest. microbrewbrian: thanks for the answear, session and the dedication mampam: That has had a very benficial effect but we know that the species is almost extinct on another island to the south and there are a lot of places where they occurred during Auffenbergs study that they could not occur in now. microbrewbrian: Has more of the community realized how speciala they are? mampam: I hope on Polilo we can keep a viable population. mampam: Yes now everybody knows. mampam: When I fisrt went there people would say things like, Oh butaan, don't you have them in England? microbrewbrian: WOW mampam: When they realise how special it is they become proud of it but that doesn't really stop tree cutting. Even the massive land slides that kill thousands of people in 90 minutes don't stop that so it isn't that people don't know what damage they are causing. It's really because they have no alternartive. mampam: We are working hard to get people to consider using other building materials and designating areas of forest that can be used for timber extraction and others that should be left alone. nd2g2bd_nr: So is up to the local politicians or those from the developed world to actually change things? mampam: The level of local cooperation is wonderful but at the root is a very serious economic problem. mampam: ha. I wouldn't trust politicians to change anything anywhere. It's up to people, not politicians, it's up to the developed world to provide the right environment top make things better. mampam: But obviously that is massively complicated and has little to do with monitor lizards... microbrewbrian: thanks again for the dedication and inspiration PHFaust: RobFaust - Nice name son... mampam: thank you! robfaust: Do you see niloticus hatching in West Africa mainly in October? mampam: Um let me think. No earlier than that. They hatch in the rains March/April/May by October they are fairly big. mampam: Thats in Ghana mampam: I'd expect it to differ a lot, but in general I'd expect them to hatch early in the rainy season. Thhey need a watery habitat and lots of invertebrates so it would be detrimental to be born late in the season. October is fairly dry in Ghana and it stays dry til march so whenever the rains start that's when I would expect the young Nile monitors. PHFaust: that was the final question! On behalf of Kingsnake.com, Jeff B, and myself, I want to take a moment to thank Daniel Bennett for being part of our chat week. Daniel, thanks for taking the time out to chat with us on Monitors. mampam: nice to see you Rob! mampam: It's a pleasure, many thanks for the invitation |
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