Monitor

This lady was just standing there with a leash in the water. We ultimately found out what she was walking.

that's something you don't see everyday. hopefully she doesn't get arrested for disturbing the peace, that's terrible publicity for herp lovers like me. It's always mixed feelings when i see something like this. So much good or so much bad can happen all at once...

that would be a gould's monitor of some type, varanus gouldii as it were. I'm not totally sure how the taxonomy breaks down from there - gouldii, flavirufus, and gouldii horni are all kind of messed up right now, they might all be seperate species but i have yet to see any real work done on it. I guess it's the rose by any other name syndrom.

nice photos,

Erik.

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Originally Posted by Sushigaijin

that's something you don't see everyday. hopefully she doesn't get arrested for disturbing the peace, that's terrible publicity for herp lovers like me. It's always mixed feelings when i see something like this. So much good or so much bad can happen all at once...

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Please explain further. You've got me interested.


Glad you like the pictures.

glad to ramble on a little, not all that tired yet.

Reptiles are a tricky thing to do PR with - when people expect to see them, it almost always goes well. These two guys are our resident big, nasty reptile people. They get all the animal control calls with dangerous reptiles, and do all of the confiscations/give-ups of crocodilians and large constrictors in chicago.
http://www.sushigaijin.com/images/photos/bobndan.jpg

Great guys...here they are, bob on the left and dan on the right, photo taken about 5 seconds before that dwarf caiman gets a solid grip onto bob's hand. not a bite-and-release kind of bite, an honest to goodness bulldog grip. (no pictures of that because i was prying the jaws off instead of snapping away) In any case, the 40 onlookers gasped but walked away with an overall positive experience, because they expected to see reptiles, and were not surprised when bob's tale of dangerous caiman took a serious turn.

now cut to someone walking around the park with a boa constrictor around his neck...quite a surprise to any other people around, not expecting to see a snake. Some ophidiophobe flips out, or faints, or the alderman's wife is walking by and doesn't like snakes...It's all the same, and it's all bad PR. not unlike pit bull attacks; I like pit bulls, but it can't be good PR when they eat a baby. People get arrested in chicago every year for disturbing the peace because they have exotic pets in public. I wish it wasnt true, but those of us with exotic pets really have to step up the responsibility level if we are going to be allowed to keep them in the future, we are already losing rights every congressional session.

Erik.

Thanks for explaining Sushigaijin. I understand what you mean about good and bad PR on exotic animals.

There was a huge family around the lady curious about the monitor. A little kid asked if it bites and she said yes. They all were still pretty close to it even after that.

It's a beautiful creature though. I wish I took more shots.

Great images(both of you)but I somewhat agree with Erik about the good and bad aspects of walking a monitor for the wow factor. I used to take my retic and other giant pythons to the park at times for a little stretch so to speak... But I always found a vacant field to let my 50-150+ lb pythons stretch out... My retic was 20 feet give or take a few inches and that's not a fish story. My indian python was 16 feet and I had many a "too big now" bermese 10-16 feet long. I only let 1 snake come in contact with people outside and she was handled daily from hatching and never once even tried to bit anyone(well a few times during feedings)

Erik is right about the "look at me" walking the monitor at the park. Had that WILD REPTILE (they are all wild even captive raised) latched onto a kids hand a picture of the flesh removal would make the 6pm news . Headline.. " giant monitor lizard attacks child" and the ban begins!!!

Having owned everything from snakes small- giant, monitors, geckos, 9 pitbulls and a mastiff all at one time, a few jungle cats and other exotics... There is a fine line between getting positive exposure and total disaster :wink: