Goannas in the making

Hello, all.

I was in Sipadan and some other islands near Semporna recently - that was my first time in Sipadan, and believe it or not, I think it was enough. I was there 2 half days, one full day and 2 full nights. The first thing I did was trying to find the nests of the megapodes. Found three. I was joined later by friends and we hit the trails (in no time we finished the whole island - it is too small to be famous). And we found this:





Two goannas (Varanus salvator), mating (of course the maximum number must be two). As you can see, the male is the one on top looking to the left, the female is looking to the right. Both of them, I think, felt disturbed by us pointing cameras and passing obscene comments and laughed from the top of our lungs (Somehow, we thought fasting and watching mating goannas can go together, and it is scientific and educational - you may disagree, I won't mind). Male goannas have two hemipenis - literally means, they have two penises! They are located to the left and to the right of the cloaca and can be easily be seen if the tail-base is given some firm pressure (but large male goannas almost always "show" their genitals, fully erected when threatened - an ability no human being can ever perform no matter how much one would ever wanted to do it!). When mating, a male can choose to use either one. In this picture, the male is using his left penis. The sperm sacs of female goannas are also located at the same position, and they, too, have two sacs. That's as equal as the world can be. We decided to leave them alone - hey, this is Sipadan and it is the paradise. Everybody is entitled to do whatever he wants to do.

The male goanna in the picture was about 3 meters long from snout to tip of tail and may be about 8-9 kgs. The female was a little smaller. I caught one of that size in Pulau Tiga in 2000.

I personally saw many more goannas and I disturbed another one who was basking. Well, he started it first, hissing at me when I was passing. So I responded my throwing pieces of coconut skins (I did it three times, all three landed on him giving audible thuds). He lashed his tail to the coconut skins. Then I left him, still angry (didn't check his hemipenis, nevertheless). Hope I helped with his body temperature.

But Sipadan can be nasty. Tiny creatures, may be mites have crawled up my legs and started making nasty bites in areas where my underpants grip my skin. Like this:





Almost al of us had it. As I said, once is enough. No more Sipadan for me, thank you. I never saw the mites or whatever that did the crime on me. They must have been really-really tiny and loved underpants.

I have some other things to write about the trip, but let me keep them for later.

Hamid.