BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

What is that? Is it some kind of cross praticed by breeders or does it originate from the wild like the classic merauke... and how are they different? And why are all BTS of evanescens subspecie named ''merauke'' while they are not specific to that location? Their distribution range cover all the south of papua new guinea and extend a little beyond the southeastern limit of Irian jaya, near the Merauke city. I would be grateful to the person who clear all that confusion.

Btw I am a new to this forum. I got 2 BTS a month ago. A big brown really docile and one less friendly with impressive color: a bisque colored back and pinkish side, clear stripe and a white face. They are like my babies <3

There are all ready topics on this topic

Welcome!

Look in the Advanced Discussion Forum. There is a thread labeled "Skinks from Indonesia" that you may find helpful.

I just want to say, I didn't start this

Yeah, but you know you wanted to!
Just kidding ML.:-)

I THINK T.g.evanescens were given the common name "merauke" because the first specimens were found around Merauke. If nothing else, we should learn that giving common names based on geographical locations is not a good idea unless we know that the animal in question is limited to that location only.

To put it very simply, there was at one point a very simple, definited Merauke BTS. They were commonly imported, and they all looked about the same.

Suddenly, there were new skinks being imported. They mostly match what we define as a Merauke, but they just look different. They're more colourful and the bands are thicker. But they still have speckly legs and one stripe on the back of the neck. Because no one knows why they look different (different locality?) we simply called them new-form Meraukes.

I think it's funny to call an animal "new" when the "old" form was only described in 2000. Up until then, keyensis was the only sub species of gigas. All the rest were T.g.gigas, and refered to as "New Guinea" bluetongue skinks. From what I can tell, I think most academics still refer to T.g.gigas as "northern New Guinea" bts, and T.g.evanescens as "southern New Guinea" bts. I'm not sure those common names are much better than "indo" or "Merauke", but they are at least slightly more acurate geographically.

I personally wish we could throw out the term "new merauke". They are not newer, they are simply a form that wasn't imported as frequently until later than the others. If we need terms to describe different looking animals of the same sub species I think the label should be descriptive. For instance, "wide banded merauke", or "colorful merauke". That way it would be more clear that we are not talking about a different sub species, but simply describing how this individual merauke looks. I think it would eliminate the confusion caused over and over by the term "new merauke".

Sounds like when kimberley northerns came on the scene,still a northern but oh so different to your typical classic northerns

Thank you everybody. I didn't expect such thorough answer and I am surprise of the interest it was given.I will have to show you my 2 merauke someday. Did one of you ever see a brown gray merauke? It is uncommon? I know it could only be an intergrade.

There are brown gray ones,so possably pure meurake

My Merauke is sometimes brown and gray...
It's not Classic though.

Thats a good new. Knowing that I can now pair him with my other blue tongue whose is definitely a full merauke. I was reticent to breed them as I didn't want to cross subspecie. I am aware the environmental factors triggering gigas species mating behaviours are nebulous but I am confident I will figure this out.

xxmonitorlizardxx wrote:My Merauke is sometimes brown and gray...
It's not Classic though.

Can you post a pic of your merauke Lizardmonitor?

There is a picture of him as my avatar. I can get some full body pictures up later.