Guapo, Blackthroat Monitor.

Yvonne G

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I wonder how he got himself into that position. It certainly doesn't look very comfortable. What kinds of things does he eat? I don't know much about lizards, but isn't the monitor the one that has poison saliva?
 

Pearly

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I wonder how he got himself into that position. It certainly doesn't look very comfortable. What kinds of things does he eat? I don't know much about lizards, but isn't the monitor the one that has poison saliva?
I think it's the Commodo Dragons that have something in the saliva either bacteria or some toxin that causes festering wounds. Maybe Monitors do too. I'm just discovering the fascinating world of reptiles and love all those cool and interesting threads you guys put out. Great learning!
 

Merrick

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Only varanus komondines (komodo dragon) has a venom gland. Alsi their saliva is home to a hoist of deadly bacteria
 

MPRC

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What a bum! I miss having big lizards, but they usually looked at me as a treat instead of a 'food god' like the tortoises do.
 

Tom

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Only varanus komondines (komodo dragon) has a venom gland. Alsi their saliva is home to a hoist of deadly bacteria
This is very debatable. The speculation is that this grad student just wanted to make a name for himself and this found "venom" gland is really just a salivary gland like every other monitor species has, including the closely related water monitor...
 

Merrick

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This is very debatable. The speculation is that this grad student just wanted to make a name for himself and this found "venom" gland is really just a salivary gland like every other monitor species has, including the closely related water monitor...
I did not know that it was debated but I did know other monitors have salivary glands. I will have to look deeper into it
thank you
 

Randi

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It was my understanding that Komodo Dragons have an incredibly potent bacteria in their mouth. They bite their prey, and stalk it while they wait for it to die of infection. Venom?! What? I'm going to have to google this.

Nice looking monitor. I like how it's lazily positioned in the last picture.
 

Pokeymeg

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Cool looking guy! :) I know nothing about lizards...how long is his life expectancy in captivity?
 

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