Monitor Lizards in Zoos

[RatioTile]

I’ve seen a great diversity of monitor lizards in zoos and the pet trade, but there’s still a lot more species to go. There’s a museum in New Mexico with every rattlesnake species, and St. Augustine Alligator Farm claims to have every crocodilian, but has any institution come close to having all or most varanids? What collection has the most species?

 

[Great Argus]

This thread is probably of interest: Monitor-lizards in captivity

 

[snowleopard]

I’ve seen a great diversity of monitor lizards in zoos and the pet trade, but there’s still a lot more species to go. There’s a museum in New Mexico with every rattlesnake species, and St. Augustine Alligator Farm claims to have every crocodilian, but has any institution come close to having all or most varanids? What collection has the most species?

I visited St. Augustine Alligator Farm in 2012 and at that time the establishment had every single crocodilian species known to humans...but since then of course there are new species that have been classified.

I visited the American International Rattlesnake Museum in 2015 and it is a great little 'zoo' but the establishment only had 23 out of the 36 or so rattlesnake species. The claim to have every single type of rattlesnake seems to be greatly exaggerated.

As far as monitor lizards go, I visited Reptile Zoo in Fountain Valley (near Los Angeles) in 2017 and I saw the following species there: Asian Water Monitor (several labeled as “Sulphur-coloured” specimens), Savannah Monitor, Gould’s Monitor, Crocodile Monitor, Black Tree Monitor, Green Tree Monitor, Nile Monitor, Dumeril’s Monitor, Solomon Island Spiny Monitor, Mangrove Monitor and Red Ackie Monitor. That all adds up to 11 monitor species, although the exhibits were underwhelming to say the least.