Social Structure in Savannas?!?

[Gorelith]

I decided to give Savy a treat today, he just loves tunafish. I opened the can and drained the water as if I was going to make a sandwich for myself and then started spoonfeeding him. He quickly grew tired of the spoon so I put nearly a full can in his food dish. After eating a fair amount (roughly half the can) he stopped. The whole time he was eating I was about 12 inches away from his face. He started rubbing his nose on the carpet, looking at me all the while swaying his neck back and forth almost as if to say, "o.k., your turn". I then copied exactly what he did, pretending to eat some tuna, swallowing it with little jaw snaps as all sav's do. And then rubbed my chin on the carpet watching him from the corner of my eye. He went from watching me right back to eating. I realize he may have been simply wiping tunajuice from his mouth, but is it possible that savanna monitors have a social feeding structure similar to that of crocs and their close relative the komodo, and is it possible that this may be what i've been apart of. I know they're very intelligent and have hopefully intrigued others to study the savanna's from a somewhat natural point of view. What amazing animals!

[Dom]

lol Gorlelith .. so u ate dinner with a savanah then wipped your mouth on the carpet!


I have tried feeding 3 savanahs at the same time in order to see what would happen .. I saw no order or anything like that .. simply no matter who is the strongest, if one has food and the others are hungry, they will all bite the same piece of food or each others faces trying to eat..


Very interesting though .. I think the fact that u are not a monitor (LOL) it might change the results lol

Take care
Gorelith!

Dom

[V.aw]

The head swaying and rubbing is just the savannah working his food down. They take huge mouthfuls of food, and work it down from their throat. Funny obersvation though. I would never have done that with any of my savs in fear of losing my nose or something. :)

[markb]

In the wild, V. exanthematicus is seldom found in colonies, except during mating time....they can be found in regions of close proximity, but not social groups....but I too have seen them do this. Probably just innate feeding behavior, as ALL varanids do this, more or less same behavior in same varanid style.