I can not speak for all W.A Dealers, collectors etc out there, but I can offer some insight into our own situation that reflects why we charge what we do.
To collect say one
woma python for example, it may take many, many nights of hunting (we spend an average nightly time looking for reptiles of 8 hours) without a guarantee of success.
As petrol is so expensive, our fuel bills are absolutely enormous.
As time goes in a business point of view, there has to be an hourly rate factored in as every hour spent searching is one lost hour working for somebody else for a living.
Then we have huge power bills because not only do we have to run multiple air conditioners continuously, we also have to have adequate heating (average power bill $1200 every two months).
Then we have ( and again ) large amounts of time treating subjects for parasites and then the regular chores like cleaning, feeding etc. on top of this we have to pay collection fees on each individual reptile. Then there is the enormous amount of paper work (and again large amounts of time). We have to record all details about each specimen e.g. date of capture, G P S coordinates, property address, property owner, weight, length, sex, and condition. These newly captured reptiles then are held under quarantine for close to a month and then transferred to another licence and similar paper work details apply.
In a given three year period and without counting labour, we have forked out about $110,000 in direct reptile related expenses. We have not yet broken even, but expect to do so eventually as the captive breeding program eventually replaces the expensive tasks of wild collecting.
As for the question of why a wild caught reptile might command a higher price tag compared to a captive bred specimen, Many people (in some cases myself included ) actually prefer a wild caught over a captive bred specimen and this is just one reason why we do not sell most wild caught specimens any cheaper.
All of the licensed collectors in W.A that I know really do struggle to make ends meet.
I am at least lucky in the sense that I can always participate in my given trade which I am regularly forced to do so.
Occasionally we read threads on various forums on the huge profits reptile collectors must be making over here but how far from the truth that really is.
This is not a whinge, as we fully knew what we were getting into and genuinely do love our life style.
Cheers Dave
