White/black throated monitors

[Chair]

I was wondering if there is much of a difference between white and black throated monitors? Is there a reason that a person (you) would get one over the other? Is there any difference in husbandry needs between the two?


Thanks for your time, chair

[SHvar]

Because they can innerbreed. The V Albigularis is a complex of several similar subspecies, seems to cover it more closely in relation to many other complexes. The BT is a large monitor coming in most cases from Tanzania, it ranges under good conditions in captivity from 5-7 +ft and 25-53 lbs (seems obese to me), has black blue gray yellow brown and white on its body with large white or yellow spots in 5 rows from the shoulders to the hips. The WT is from most of South Africa at a lower altitude, they grow in captivity from 4-6+ft (one I saw 6ft 10 inches) and 15-35lbs, they range from white brown red orange black gray with either much smaller spots in their pattern to bands from shoulder to hips. They both can innerbreed there is also whats called a BT by the experts (V.A.Microstictus) which is also from Tanzania and nearby areas but is consistantly darker with larger scales and usually a smaller animal. It comes down to personal preference, and which blows your skirt up more. Seek captive bred animals and youll spend more but be happy in the end with your choice. Beware of all those fakes selling CB animals, if you want to know which are for real ask around and ask the claimer for proof of egg shells, pics of adults copulating, laying eggs, eggs incubating, eggs hatching, etc etc. Only the real CBB animals have proof , all of this proof. The others get offended that you question it and some threaten you when you question their claims.

[mbayless]

Yes, there are those people who consider V. albigularis to be many 'races' of a stock V. albigularis complex. I consider them all to be geographic variance of the same stock = 1 species with variation throughout its vast range (Egypt to Cape Horn, South Africa, excluding only west and north Africa countries). Only the Nile monitor, V. niloticus has a greater range - in every country of Africa except 2-3 in extreme N.W. Africa (see my paper Journal of Biogeography, 2002, 29:1643-1701: Monitor Lizards: a pan African check-list of their zoogeography.).

The most common seen V. albigularis are from Dodomo and adjacent area in Tanzania, and from Harare, Zimbabwe, with a very few exported from Pretoria, Rep. South Africa and Lorenco Marquis, Mozambique. All V. albigularis get large, with reports of 7 feet and more being reported from Malawi (V.a. albigularis) through equatorial Africa (V.a. ionidesi, aka Ionides black throat monitor and V.a. angolensis, Angolan black throat monitor which are the same animal) to Sudan and Blue Nile River (V.a. microstictus).

ALL V. albigularis have the same scale- crystal-chandelier-shape when looked at under low microscope magnification, identical skull shape/structure, hemipenes structure/morphology, with a variation in diet, as would be expected throughout a vast range as discussed above.

For this reason, in light of differeing meteorologic/climate conditions, animals in the south 'tend' to not attain as large a size as equatorial animals, or even N.E. animals....I had a 6'2" female V.a. microstictus for many years, who as anyone familiar with varanids knows, males tend to get larger (not always at first however - females tend to grow faster than males in first year) than females over-all, so you see 7 foot males or more is not impossible; what lessens this possibility is the tremendous amount of 'wild-game bushmeat' that is done in Africa to feed much of its starving hand-to-mouth peoples, and consequently animals do not attain such great lengths anymore = they're eaten long before they reach such majestic sizes....only in very rare and in captivity do we even see an inkling of what a huge V. albigularis can become. How does one live with a 7 foot albigularis with a virtually bottomless pit, feeding wise? This and other questions such as where do you house it, how do you clean up after it are serious questions one must make BEFORE they get the animal, and how to live with it for years before such large sizes are attained are things people have to understand BEFORE they venture this enlightening and sometimes difficult entanglement between person and leguaan (what they're called in Africa)?

Cheers,
markbayless

[Chair]

Thank you very much for your replies. They are very informative. I do intend on getting a CB in a couple of years. I will build a large, very large enclosure for the animal before I even get it, I intend on gettin a baby, but I would like to be prepared. So you can bet that in a year or so I will be on here asking for ways that I can improve my enclosure.

Thanks again for the info, chair