three were sold; we later found out that the ‘female’ was
in fact a smaller male and the ‘pre-mating behaviour’ we
observed was actually one male exercising his domination
over the other. Nevertheless, we like a challenge so we
recommenced our search for a compatible pair.
We subsequently purchased two pairs of proven breeders
of an unknown age. We
sold one male and housed
the remaining trio together
in the same enclosure we
had kept the previous
Mangrove Monitors. This
proved to be a mistake as
the male killed the
‘foreign’ female within a
few weeks. Then the
second female escaped by scratching a hole through the
wall of the enclosure (also the wall of our reptile room)
and made her way outside into our backyard. The larger
male was caught attempting to escape through the same
hole, but it was too big to do so. It was mid-July and we
live in the hills east of Melbourne so it was very cold
outside. About a week later our dog Mera (who is half
dingo) alerted us to something interesting in the garden
and, lo and behold, there was the female curled up under
some leaves. We slowly warmed her up, but she had
developed a respiratory infection. Antibiotics were
administered and she seemed to recover temporarily,
however she died about three months later. We were
devastated, and left with a lone male.
So, once again we started our hunt for a female. Next we
purchased a ‘guaranteed’ sub-adult female from
Queensland that was a beautiful monitor with distinct
yellow spots and about 60cm total length. However, its
time as a female was short lived, because as soon as we
removed it from its travel container, it tried to bite and
‘As soon as we removed the ‘guaranteed’
female from its travel container, it tried to bite
and popped its hemipenes.’
popped its hemipenes. Definitely a male - both in attitude
and reproductive anatomy. We returned the monitor to the
seller, and about a month later saw an advertisement
online for a beautiful ‘blue’ sexed sub-adult female, again
from Queensland. By this time we were getting better at
sexing these monitors, and were pleased to confirm on
arrival that she was in fact a female, about 70cm long. We
were concerned about putting her with our much larger
male (remembering it had already killed a female) so we
decided to sell him and look for a sub-adult specimen. We
contacted the seller of the yellow male that we had
returned and promptly repurchased him. Finally, after five
years, there were signs of promise, as we now had a
young sub-adult pair of Mangrove Monitors.