Varanus finschi

[Cockatoo]

I will shortly be moving from the US to New Britain in the Bismarck Archipelago to assist a good friend of mine who has recently expanded his scuba diving company to the Rabaul area on northern New Britain.

As reptiles is another big passion I hope to collect a few of those during my time, I really hope to find some V. finschi as I have never seen this species in the flesh before, hardly even a picture to be honest.

Anyone which are aware of any recent pappers treating V. finshi in any deepth, and also where to look for these. My friend mention monitors being found in the coconut plantations but I assume these are V. indicus and that V. finschi is found inland on New Britain.

Anyone which happens to have the original description of Varanus finschi?


Böhme,W., H. G. HORN & T. ZIEGLER 1994. Zur Taxonomie der Pazifikwarane (Varanus-indicus-Komplex): Revalidierung von Varanus doreanus (A. B. MEYER, 1874) mit Beschreibung einer neuen Unterart. Salamandra 30 (2): 119-142.

thanks in advance

[Matt28]

Unfortunately I don't have that article (would be interested if anyone does...) but suggest you also check out Varanoid Lizards of the World by Pianka, King & King. It has a section on finschi in there.

[indicus]

Hi,
I have this article as a hard paper copy. During saturday or sunday I will make a pdf from it and I can send it to you. What is your email?

[gev]

Hello Petra,

Can you send me a copy please?

Sincerely,
Arnaud

[Cockatoo]

Hello,

My e-mail is [e-mail]

really appreciate your help.

[Cockatoo]

I would once again thanks those that helped me and get the articles I was after. Aim sure they will prove valubale during my time here in PNG.

The aiport in Jakarta was a big hazzle, ended up being stuck on Java for several days. But I have arrived in PNG at last, at the moment based in Alotau in the Milne Bay Province were I will spend some weeks before I head north to New Britain.

Alotau is a awesome place, a small dozing town located just about as far east as you can get on mainland New Guinea. It will probably take weeks to get used to the relaxed livestyle of the Papuans, grew up in LA and this place is just the opposite.

Despite having been in PNG for less than a week I have already seen several monitors, going with car from Port Moresby to Alotau I saw a large V.doreanus scrambling across the road just a few metres in front of the car, stopped and got out but it had already vanished in the undergrowth, close to 80cm was the opinion of my old friend which has been residing in PNG for well over 20 years and have amazing knowledge about the flora and fauna of this place.

One of the best things with this place, no air pollution problems. Aim based 10min from Pacific Ocean and some 20min away of the best scuba diving sites in the world large, there is abundant of wildlife inside the town itself have already seen several Green Tree Monitors (V. prasinus) in the forest fragments just behind my house complex, they are hard to get close to but easy to get good views of.  There is apparently large tracts of fores remaning just 40min inland and I hope to start exploring these within a few days.

Can already tick the first monitors on the list, there should be at least 5 Varanus sp. here in the Alotau region. With several additional on archipelagos reachable within 2-3 hours from Alotau.

1. Blue-tailed Monitor Varanus doreanus
2. Green Tree Monitor Varanus prasinus

Papua New Guinea will be my home for at least the next year or so (hopfully for much longer), and aim loving it already!

[odatriad]

Excellent update, keep us posted on any developments. Are you keeping notes on where these species are found, e.g., habitat type, ground/trees, time of day, etc.? Being that few herp people have traveled to PNG, much less studied the local varanids, recording information like that can be valuable. Also, have you been taking any photographs?

Keep up the good work and dedication!

[Cockatoo]

Now when I have left mainland PNG for New Britain I thought it was about time for another update; my stay in Alotau proved to be considerbly longer than I had fírst expected when I arrived here in PNG in March 09. I ended up spending nearly a month over in Alotau at the very eastern end of mainland New Guinea, which showed to be increadibly rewarding in several aspects. And even if I will return to Alota even now and then I will surely miss this place, Papuans are among the most friendly people on earth and I made many new friends during my short stay here.

I had a lot of free time and did basically spend hours out in the "bush" looking for all sorts of animals, even took up birdwatching again (something I havent done since the early 1980s), but with a P. raggiana display site less than a 30min walk from the apartment who wouldent hey?

Due to high hunting pressure in the surroundings of Alotau in the past (tourism is taking over more and more, both positive and negatives sides of that) much wildlife has been depleated in the last 20 years and "large mammals" (in PNG we are speaking about kangaroos, bandicoots and cuscuses; not deers, big cats and such) for ex. are close to gone, though I had my fair share of encounteres with aggresive cuscus during my early morning walks (even ended up in paying a short visit to the local hospital once), I guess they didnt like being bothered by some jerk looking for small lizards in their sleeping trees. Birdlife was somewhat more abundant around Alotau lucklily and I have to admit that alot of time which could have been spent looking for reptiles and amphibians was spent birdwatching instead.

Most habitat around Alotau consisted of wet-savannah, and which grew suprisingly fast after each time it rained. Otherweise there is pretty much secondary forest covering the hills sourroinding Alotau; I miss admit that I dont know which monitor sp. to expect in different habitats but based on my observations several seemed to inhabit a variety of habitats. As I have mentioned earlier I had a "family group" (dont know how else to put it) of emerald tree monitors in patches of forest just next to my apartment, wary litttle things I only managed to catch one of these despite many attempts, after a short examination it was released again (my first close encounter with a wild monitor); of course I never even came close to catch one again, they became more wary than ever though I enjoyed some nice views of them while resting in the remaning trees or scrambling around the house-complex.

I never found any V. indicus inside or around Alotau, despite spending much time looking for them down by the water where I managed to locate some decent-looking mangrove forest. Though during my various trips westwards along the northern coast I had plenty of encounters with this species, which proved to be more common around smaller communities, I did found some large mangrove forests remaning along the northern coastline of the Milne Bay Province and in these it was easy to encounter this species once you spent adequete time in these.

Founding additional species of monitor proved considerbly harder than I had thought; seing a few captive (3 species) in Alotau but these didnt count of course. My second week in Aloutau was spent in the hill forests surroundings the city (approx. 25min walk from the centre of town) and I did spend some 2-3 hours in the field each day looking through about a dozen different localities, high humidity and the relatively high amount of rain did limit my time somewhat unfortunely. I did found plenty of herps however and some of the highlights includes M. amethistina, Typhlops sp. (2 different species), Candoia sp. (to many changes in this genus lately to keep on track which species), Pseudonaja sp. and the frog S. dentata.

The first monitor sp. I found here was a V. doreanus which was seen sitting on top of a small limestone cliff sunning (?) itself, not a large individual and would estimate 30-40cm, though despite my first view of this species was rather poor I returned to this general area multiple times afterwards and managed some great views of this species eventually, even seeing a large one which I estimated to be roughly 70cm. The habitat in this area seemed optimal for V. doreanus and I will surely return on a later occasion to try and document these better. That the individuals seemed to vary much in size as well is defenitely promising.

I had my hopes high to try and find V. finschi here in south-east PNG, according to Kraus (pers. comm) it should be found in the Milne Bay Province, but further inland and in somewhat different habitat, though without any reaible sites to look for it I soon gave up my hopes trying to find it, time was also against me as it probably would take a several hour long trip to even get to the suitable habitat. I choosed to spend my time closer to Alotau and try my luck for other species of monitor there, rather spending hours in vain for something I had a slim chance to find.

With Emerald Tree Monitor, Mangrove Monitor and Blue-tailed Monitor checked off the list I had seen 3 out of 5 monitor species found in the MB Province. In my third week I wanted to make a shot for one of my absolute monitor sp, the Peach-throated monitor V. jobiensis. I had seen a captive during my second week in Alotau and it confirmed that they indeed could be found within reach from Alotau.

More to come...............

[odatriad]

Thanks for the update! We look forward to hearing more about your excursions. Cheers!

Robert

[Cockatoo]

So, now when I arrived on New Britain I have been keeping an eye open for V. finschi. These guys are common around where I live and in most places within an hour reach from where aim. Plain V. indicus or V. finschi?