Blue tree monitor
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Blue tree monitor ( Varanus macraei ) |
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| Böhme & Jacobs , 2001 |
The blue tree monitor , blue spotted tree monitor or MacRae's monitor lizard ( Varanus macraei ) is a recently discovered monitor species that is very closely related to the emerald monitor and is therefore a member of the subgenus Euprepiosaurus . It is still little known, especially since its first description was only published in 2001.
features
The blue tree monitor is a large, slender monitor up to 110 centimeters long. The longest animal so far was a male and had a head body length of 36 centimeters and a tail length of 76 centimeters. The longest female had a head body length of 31.3 centimeters and a tail length of 59.9 centimeters. He has level, not keeled nuchal scales. It is unmistakable to other monitor lizards because of its partly blue color. It has three or four large, oblique supraocular scales. The dorsal basic color is blackish with blue spots. The top of the head is bluish and the muzzle region is whitish. The color of the abdomen is greyish with a bluish tone and brown horizontal stripes seen cranially , which do not meet in the middle. The long tail has 22 to 23 blue bands. The juvenile animals also have blue dorsal spots, but different from the adults without a black center. The belly has 12 to 14 ligaments, the tail is also banded. At the tip of the snout there are two dark ring drawings in young animals.
Occurrence
So far, the blue tree monitor is only known from the island of Batanta in the Raja Ampat archipelago off the northwest coast of the Vogelkop peninsula of New Guinea . Emerald monitors, on the other hand, are absent on the tropical island.
Way of life
Basically, the way of life of the blue tree monitor is comparable to that of the emerald monitor: it is a diurnal, highly specialized tree dweller. It is probably carnivorous, but nothing is known about its habitat and many other data.
A clutch in captivity contained 3 eggs. Two were 43 × 21 millimeters and weighed nine grams, another measured 45 × 20 millimeters and weighed ten grams. At temperatures of 28 to 30 ° C, the young hatched after 159 days.
history
The blue tree monitor was discovered in an import of live monitor lizards from Indonesia to Germany. The adult, female holotype is currently in the Zoological Research Institute and Museum Alexander Koenig in Bonn.
In July 2008, Cologne Zoo became the second zoo to breed these rare animals after Pilsen .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Cologne Zoo presents rare monitor lizards zoo offspring worldwide ( Memento of the original from October 6, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
literature
- Wolfgang Böhme & Hans J. Jacobs: Varanus macraei . In: Eric Pianka & Dennis King (Eds.): Varanoid Lizards of the World . Indiana University Press, published 2004; Pp. 212-214. ISBN 0-253-34366-6