Poor, Unclassified Blue Tegus....

[Tammy]

I know we don't really have a big population on lizard people around here, but I figured I'd throw this out there anyway, because I'm curious.

Does ANYONE know what the deal is with that? Is there anyone working on it?
I did find one article touching on the subject...


In speaking with some other respected breeders in the tegu pet trade, some opinions are that the Blue Tegu looks like a form of T.merianae, perhaps from tropical Brazil. There is speculation that perhaps the 'blue tegu' was brought from Brazil to Colombia and exported from there. This would explain why the original shipment came from Colombia, but why not just ship the blue tegu from Brazil? The answer is that Brazil does not allow exporting tupinambis (CITES) so the only way to export these 'blue tegus' were to ship them to Colombia and call them T.teguixin.

Why is there not a lot of interest from the pet trade to look into this or even get involved in this bit of research? Because they would be forced to admit some dealers in Colombia were illegally importing/exporting tegus."
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v642/fruitbatjellybean/teguheads-comparisons.gif


You can read the full article here:
http://thetegu.com/contentid-24.html


Now Im just wondering, was there only one shipment into this country ever? Have all blue tegus in the united states today originated from this one shipment?
Is there anyone out there obsrving them in the wild? I am intrigued with this mystical, elusive creature.

[PadraigC]

i guess Im one of the few lizard people here...but, I was always under the impression they were columbian but, only from further a south in colombia(kiddnapping kounrty) expanding into the peruvian border

[Tammy]

I was always under the impression they were columbian but, only from further a south in colombia


The scale counts are different.

I guess the golds are colombians (Tupinambis Teguixin) though, just a different color morph, not to be confused with the yellow (T. duseni) just for fun!

[stlmetalhead]

Black and golds are just another color morph of a columbian, however their is a true "yellow" tegu but it is illegal to import. Blues in my opinion are more closly related to reds and argentines, to the reds simply because you can crossbreed them and to the argentines because they have the same number of loreal scales, also their body structure and behavior mimicks an argentines.

[KundaliniRising]

Black and golds are just another color morph of a columbian, however their is a true "yellow" tegu but it is illegal to import. Blues in my opinion are more closly related to reds and argentines, to the reds simply because you can crossbreed them and to the argentines because they have the same number of loreal scales, also their body structure and behavior mimicks an argentines.

A friend of mine was able to breed a Blue Tegu to a Columbian Black and White. He got eggs and everything, the eggs went bad during incubation. So, that doesn't really say much. He also did the same thing with Columbian x Red. Again the eggs went bad. In my opinion, Tegus are a really cool lizard that will remain enigmatic until further research is done. I'm waiting for an arboreal Tegu to be found! Now THAT would be awesome!!!