occurs over a period of several days, but
the female always lays overnight. I keep
an eye on proceedings and make regular
checks with the aid of a torch. Once the
eggs have been laid, I dig them up and
transfer them to an incubator using the ‘no
substrate’ method. They are placed on a
grid in a tub over a small amount of water
(about 10mm) in the bottom. The tub has a
lid to maintain the high humidity required.
At 31.5 o C they take around 240 days to
hatch. I incubate everything from monitors
to Green Tree Pythons in this way.
Incidentally, there has never been any dig-
ging in the Perentie enclosure, which has
really surprised me. A friend in my area
who copied my enclosure design but has
2.
‘There has never been any
digging in the Perentie
enclosure, which is equipped
with a nest box .’
no nest box has experienced a lot of digging by his
group of Perenties. I have now also added a nest box to
the Lace Monitor enclosure, and it will be interesting to
see what the animals think of it. Previously in this enclo-
sure, eggs were simply deposited in burrows which the
females dug in the ground. This required continuous
observation, or otherwise the laying could be missed. A
stand out sign for imminent laying is the refusal of food
about 3-4 days prior to actual egg deposition.
1. Perenties mating.
2. Female Lace monitor bitten badly during
feeding; problems created by the interaction of
animals can be minimised with careful design.
3. Female Bell’s phase Lace Monitors laying
eggs.
Images courtesy Peter Krauss.
Unfortunately, because this year has been unusually
dry, the lush buffalo grass covering in the Lace Monitor
enclosure has completely died off. The Lace Monitor
enclosure has a number of well-established trees and a
collection of hollow logs. The trees are regularly used by
the lizards for climbing, and to rest in the shade. Like
the Perentie enclosure, the moat fills with water in the
wet season. In the Lace Monitor enclosure I have a
wooden plank that reaches across the water and allows
me to access the dry centre without getting my feet wet.
It is satisfying to provide a breeding environment for
local frogs, and usually every year there are thousands
of tadpoles and little frogs emerging from the moats.
Large outdoor enclosures are an interesting concept.
Overcrowding is a common issue, and obviously the
more animals you have in a confined space, the greater
the problems created by the interaction of individual
animals with each other, although this can be minimised
with careful design.
The behaviour of the monitors is quite complex and not
easily understood. Sometimes I stand there and watch
something unusual for which I have absolutely no
explanation. This is what makes it all so interesting.
3.