Quote:
Originally Posted by Taceas
My ethics also extend to people who collect an area dry and then sell off their finds. There's just something inherently wrong with that picture.
|
There is some validity to this statement. There are some isolated localities that have a specific micro-climate specific to a species of snakes that could be harvested into extinction by commercial collectors. Good examples of this are some of the Mountain King Snakes and islander localities. I have found some of these micro-climate areas of California and Baja Mountain King Snakes and it could be possible to destroy a locality population due to the isolated areas of good habitat, but it would most likely take dynamite. Heavy collecting in these areas would have a serious impact on the population in any event. The San Francisco Garter Snakes is another good example. They only have one small area left near the airport to live. Appropriate measures have been taken to ensure their survival.
The above circumstances do not apply to Corn Snakes in Florida. I have been to Florida many times and it is more like a jungle than a micro-climate. I do not believe that any amount of commercial collecting of Corn Snakes in Florida, even if we enlisted the entire efforts of our armed forces, would cause any long term effect on the Corn Snakes survival. It is legal to collect Corn Snakes in Florida and it is legal to commercially collect Corn Snakes in Florida with the proper permits. The authorities have studied this issue and found that commercial collecting of Corn Snakes in Florida does not have a significant impact on wild populations. It is literally like trying to find a needle in a hay stack.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Taceas
Look at how well cornsnakes have evolved with their different colors to meet their different habitat needs. Pretty soon, everyone collecting all the "pretty" snakes are going to find the species has made itself ugly to avoid collection.
|
I believe this is a joke. It would take many life times of our armed forces commercially collecting Corn Snakes to cause this type of "evolution".
I don’t believe that most people who think it is unethical to collect a wild caught snake has actually field collected. It is extremely difficult to find one single snake while field collecting on foot. Field collectors can destroy habitat, which I have seen, but sometimes they are creating more habitat in some cases. Collecting snakes by road hunting is much more productive, but even then, there are many more dry nights than successful ones. If these snakes are living by the road, and cross them to “sun bath“ (thermo regulate), then they will soon be eliminated from the population in a very short time anyway.