ARPHA Preprints, doi: 10.3897/arphapreprints.e93504
Daily activities and population of water monitors (Varanus salvator (Laurenti, 1768)) in urban wetland, Bangkok, Thailand
Poramad Trivalairat‡, Sompod Srikosamatara§‡ National Research Council of Thailand, Bangkok, Thailand§ Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand
Corresponding author: Poramad Trivalairat ( poramad.tri@gmail.com ) © Poramad Trivalairat, Sompod Srikosamatara. This is an open access preprint distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Citation:
Trivalairat P, Srikosamatara S (2022) Daily activities and population of water monitors (Varanus salvator (Laurenti, 1768)) in urban wetland, Bangkok, Thailand. ARPHA Preprints. https://doi.org/10.3897/arphapreprints.e93504 |  |
Abstract
Water monitors (Varanus salvator) in Dusit Zoo range, Bangkok, Thailand, were observed from July to October 2015. A total of 90 individuals were captured, measured for SVL, sexed, and marked on the right axilla. More females (n = 70) were captured than males (n = 20), a sex ratio of 3.5:1. There was no significant difference in size between genders. Daily activities included foraging twice a day (mostly for fishes) in the morning (0600-0800 h) and afternoon (1500-1700 h), basking 5-7 hours after a morning meal, floating in the lake after noon, and randomly performing some sexual behaviors were displayed routinely among the study. In addition, this population frequently displayed a predating natural prey, especially fishes, in the morning, rather than opportunistic scavenging on human food and fish-leaving leftover which performed among daytime.
Keywords
Squamata, Varanidae, sex ratio, morphological character, ethology, diet, urban ecosystem