Climate

The distribution of monitors extends over several distinct climatic zones. Because of the diversity of distribution it is beneficial for a keeper to know from which climatic area the animals he/she keeps has been taken from. Knowing only the scientific or common name is not enough, because in some instances a single species can occur over various climate zones and include many hundreds of thousands of kilometres (e.g. V. gouldii, V. niloticus). Animals from the extremes of their range may have different demands from the environment and climate. Therefore selected climate data from different locations are shown. It is essential to imitate those data in the enclosure as close as possible, because this is very important particularly for the propagation.
The hours of sunshine in the equatorial region is approximately 12 hours per day over the whole year, these areas include the Indonesian islands, New Guinea and the tropical north of Australia. Further to the south the daylight period changes with the seasons. At 20° south latitude the hours of daylight during the summer (December - February) is 13.5 hours, and during the winter (June - August) the sun shines for only 11 hours. At 35° southern latitude (Sydney) the daylight length is between 9.5 hours and 14.5 hours. Getting the right photoperiod is important and it can be seen that animals from different areas may have different photoperiods. It is therefore beneficial to know where your animals come from in order to offer them optimal photoperiod and climatic conditions.

climate

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