Hammock Wakening. Varanus panoptes, Horn's Monitor, Gembira Loka Zoo, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
'I know you came early to avoid the heat, you Dumb Frog! But that's no reason to wake me up before the sand is hot from the bright sun the way I like it. You really did startle me out of my hammock! and I can't skuttle away very far because my cage is rather small. Lucky you to be able to travel the world. Are you perchance also going out to Komodo to visit my second cousins once removed, those Dragons?'
'Oh! you've already been there... In any case, all this talk has made me less grumpy. Be sure to say 'hi' to my friends, the Monitors of the mangroves on Lombok!'
'But before you go: can you tell my caretakers that I've worried about that sign above my cage calling me in Indonesian: Biawak Goldie. By that name they refer actually to Varanus gouldii, named after the ornithologist John Gould (1804-1881), Darwin's collaborator on Galapagos Finches - actually I wonder what they taste like. So the Bahasa has missed out the 'u'; moreover, 'Goldie' suggests a diminutive not a genitive. But look at me, do I look that small? Anyway, that discussion is moot. Chris van Kalken (see his comment below) has it right: he calls me Varanus panoptes, and probably 'horni'; my heritage, he says, is from New Guinea.
On your way now, Frog!'
PS See Chris van Kalken's comment below, which on good morphological grounds disagrees with the signage in the Zoo... But see for a discussion: www.smuggled.com/iczn1.htm
Incidentally, 'horni' is for Hans-Georg Horn (1935-2019), chemist and herpetologist.
Hammock Wakening. Varanus panoptes, Horn's Monitor, Gembira Loka Zoo, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
'I know you came early to avoid the heat, you Dumb Frog! But that's no reason to wake me up before the sand is hot from the bright sun the way I like it. You really did startle me out of my hammock! and I can't skuttle away very far because my cage is rather small. Lucky you to be able to travel the world. Are you perchance also going out to Komodo to visit my second cousins once removed, those Dragons?'
'Oh! you've already been there... In any case, all this talk has made me less grumpy. Be sure to say 'hi' to my friends, the Monitors of the mangroves on Lombok!'
'But before you go: can you tell my caretakers that I've worried about that sign above my cage calling me in Indonesian: Biawak Goldie. By that name they refer actually to Varanus gouldii, named after the ornithologist John Gould (1804-1881), Darwin's collaborator on Galapagos Finches - actually I wonder what they taste like. So the Bahasa has missed out the 'u'; moreover, 'Goldie' suggests a diminutive not a genitive. But look at me, do I look that small? Anyway, that discussion is moot. Chris van Kalken (see his comment below) has it right: he calls me Varanus panoptes, and probably 'horni'; my heritage, he says, is from New Guinea.
On your way now, Frog!'
PS See Chris van Kalken's comment below, which on good morphological grounds disagrees with the signage in the Zoo... But see for a discussion: www.smuggled.com/iczn1.htm
Incidentally, 'horni' is for Hans-Georg Horn (1935-2019), chemist and herpetologist.