Sad but true (food for thought)

[BH Varanus]

Ya know to be honest I respect every varanus breed to the fullest. I've owned several species as well. Unfortunately, I have come to the conclusion that the most discarded by the pet trade and academia is the V. Ornatus or otherwise incorrectly known as an 'ornate nile monitor.' It didn't bother me at first, but when I was doing research for my partho project coming up next year I realized that I literally had to go back to my old university and search through their data bases just to fine a whisper about ornates. Not to mention sift through nile monitor data and validate with provided photos and figure out if it was actually and ornate!. Thank god for BAIWAK to some degree!. .

Savannah's run the streets of monitor forums and I understand why and there's no point in arguing. They're are arguably one of the best species to start with and obtain. Ornate owners on the other hand are a select few and dwindling believe it or not. Its hard to find forums that even recognize that this monitor is climbing up the CITES ranking and is disappearing with the west African rain forest. Maybe then it will be cool to own an ornate and nile owners will look twice about what they actually have. In addition, the price will sky rocket.

I'm not saying they' re the best monitor, but today I went to war in a pet store about what they thought was a nile. I interrupted an conversation the employee was having with a 10 year old potential buyer! he actually told the kid that this stressed juvi ornate was a cb nile and that it would only grow to three feet! WTF!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh hhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

All I ask is that the ornate owners out there start flooding forums with good research data and husbandry tips( the correct husbandry!). We don't need to take over forums just establish a presence and give this species a fighting chance at proper care.