Reptiles as social creatures

[coura]

Another example of very social lizards are some smaller menbers of the plated lizard family like small Cordylus and Pseudocordylus. You can find literaly dozens of them sharing a single rocky slope. And they tend to be numerous in whatever they are found. Its rare to see single individuals

 

[Death Pony]

My day gecko is not social what-so-ever. He killed both of the females in his 55 g terrarium, and now he's perfectly happy with the whole tank to himself.

I've seen some pretty social iguanas in Mexico. The colonized a whole ruins complex by our resort, it was so cool! They don't like interacting with people though, especially the dominate male!

 

[Louie]

Well something I've noticed over the years from keeping the different Terrapene carolina subspecies is that new additions to the group almost always seem to be more relaxed when other turtles are present. This of course only works with the females seeing how the males are quite territorial with each other.

Sometimes I'll have trouble getting a new individual to eat, but when another turtle is present and eating at a distance they seem to come out of their shell (no pun intended) and feed. This is somewhat odd because Terrapene carolina are not a social species. In the wild they may not come in contact with another turtle of the same species of years even decades.

Two of my female Terrapene carolina carolina have been together for 20+ years now and actually appear to enjoy each others company. I usually have to feed all my box turtles separate (they view each other as competition during feeding time) but these two don't mind eating off the same plate right next to each other. Both these turtles were in their late teens when I got them and had probably never seen anther box turtle before. I guess because they were housed together so long that they've learned to except the fact that they are always going to be in the vicinity of each other. Plus, they get food, water and shelter so there really isn't anything to compete over.


The ladies having chat with each other.

As you can see they're pretty chill with each other even with food present.

Great looking turtles . PA as a whole has great herps like box turtles and my favorite herps salamanders

 

[Vicious_Fish]

Great looking turtles . PA as a whole has great herps like box turtles and my favorite herps salamanders

Thanks. It's a pretty decent state for herps but I am always disappointed by the amount of lizard species we have.

 

[davo]

Does looking after young and nurturing count? Cause that's all I got with snakes- and only a select few species...

 

[channarox]

i think it really depends on the many species out there.
some are sociable,some are chance sociable.

 

[kayybeebayybee]

of course, I have two female juvi crested's unrelated.. they lay together and eat together.. (if I get a video cam ill try and get a vid of this.)

If the reptile has the ability to have a personaility I think they can be sociable.. not even with just each other my pythons seems to act smarter then most dogs I know.. For interaction with reptiles and humans..

i agree and also think they can be social creatures i have 2 young water dragons living together and they do everything together swim together eat together they run around together they even sun bathe together and the older one (by one week) is protective of the smaller one and often watches me closely when i examine and handle her and when i put her back he runs quickly to her to check on her so i belive that in some cases they can be very social.