Aussie Pythons & Snakes Forum

Help Support Aussie Pythons & Snakes Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Status
Not open for further replies.

salebrosus

Very Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 14, 2004
Messages
3,545
Reaction score
0
Location
Western Sydney
Driving through a back road near my place, i noticed a dead monitor on the road. The road is only about 80km max and red dirt with lots of rocks. Well someone hit this poor little guy ut on closer inspection we were debating the species, gould's or panoptes. The three books i have here don't help. One book says its a Panoptes, the other says Goulds with the third book saying Panoptes aren't even found here. I'm about an hour and a bit inland from Hervey Bay so i will leave it to the monitor experts to argue over. We've done enough arguing at my place.

Simone.
 
Last edited:
I think its panoptes but im not t 100% sure. Panoptes are found in most of the top half of Australia but they were once thought they were gouldi across much of their range so many older books have a very limited range for them. You are definitely within v.panoptes range anyway.

The teeth look the same as what mine have :lol:
 
LOL, well we thought Panoptes when we first found it. Wasn't till we got the books that we weren't sure.

Simone.
 
Yes it is a Varanus Penoptes Penoptes Yellow-Spotted Monitor, they have spots all over their back, and l have seen them in North Queensland around places like Mission Beach and Townsville.
Hope this answers everyone question, and its sad to find them killed on the roads, l would prefer to see them moving around in the wild.
 
Have you got shot of the end of its tail? According to 'A complete guide to reptiles of Australia' the end of the tail on a gould's is patternless and orange to yellow, where the end of a panoptes tail is pale with dark narrow bands.
 
l don't have any photo's of the Varanus Penoptes Penoptes at all, l saw them way back in the mid 90's, when l was on a holiday in the area.
The Varanus Penoptes Rubidus which is only found in Western Australia, has a plane yellow tail tip also, just like the Varanus Gouldii Gouldii and Varanus Gouldii Flavirufus.
The Varanus Penoptes Penoptes has a plane tail.
 
i didnt think panoptes was from around hervey bay area,correct me if im wrong though,gouldi can be dark like that along the qld coast.also its back spots are aranged in rows,does look panoptes though but yeah,im leaning towards gouldi
 
In your area they are typically quite confusing. They are officially gouldii based on pattern but they are built like brick ****houses and look much like panoptes in size. Varanus panouldii ?????
 
Poor thing..

Was leaning towards Panoptes based on the spots and those claws! But as for range and seeing some other pics of Gouldii, Im with Fuscus.

Guess it doesn't really matter what it is now...
 
In your area they are typically quite confusing. They are officially gouldii based on pattern but they are built like brick ****houses and look much like panoptes in size. Varanus panouldii ?????

I'm with you on that one Dan, def a panouldii ;)
 
In your area they are typically quite confusing. They are officially gouldii based on pattern but they are built like brick ****houses and look much like panoptes in size. Varanus panouldii ?????

Thanks Danny,
I don't feel like such a dumb **** now. This thing was not as slender as a gouldii, all of my books say panoptes are found here except the book on Australian monitors.

Will try and post pics of the tail, but the only shot i caught was when we lifted it up by the tail to take a pic of the underbelly, one of his hemipenes fell out.

Thanks for everyone's opinions.

Simone.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Latest posts

Back
Top