Morphological characteristics and behavior of green water dragon (Physignathus cocincinus Cuvier, 1829) in captivity

Abstract

This study assessed the morphological characteristics and behavior of the Green Water Dragon (Physignathus cocincinus Cuvier, 1829) in captivity at the Vietnam National University of Forestry. Morphological characteristics were observed on 2 groups of subjects: Adult individuals with 100 individuals, including 50 males and 50 females and 50 hatchlings. An observation of behavior was conducted with a group of eight individuals in two experimental cages. Each cage measured 2 meters in length, 2 meters in width and 3 meters in height. The results showed that in captivity the typical characteristics of morphology of the species are similar to the previous descriptions. We documented that there is a difference in mass and size between males and females. The average weight of males is 570.91 ± 85.61 g/individual and that is significantly heavier than females’ (288.04 ± 36.8 g/individual). The average body length of males (232.53 ± 17.68 mm) is much longer than that of females (164.60 ± 11.08 mm). The study further recorded behaviors of P. cocincinus in captivity, such as eating, moving, resting, basking in the sun, bathing and soaking in water, digging holes to lay eggs, mating and changing skin color.