Quote:
|
I strongly believe that a captive breeding program should be instigated for the Green Tree Pythons here in Australia. David Wilson has over 100 tagged in his limited study area, so to say that if you took a dozen or so pairs from the bush for breeding purposes would jepodise their populations is just plan idiotic.
|
I couldn't agree more bigguy. I'd also be very suprised if the actual population wasn't well and truly beyond the 100 known and tagged animals. If they're tagging and tracking the animals, it should be easy to find ones which are breeding and take a small percentage of several clutches. As we all know, the majority of hatchlings die anyway and the limiting factor for the population is available habitat and food, so there wouldn't be any negative impact.
As for there only being 4-6 captive Australian green pythons... I'd be suprised. I'm sure someone has gone up and stolen a few, and I also know a couple of people who swear black and blue that theirs are Australian (I've personally seen more than that with owners claiming they are genuine Aussie). Yes, of course someone could be lying, but their stories sounded pretty convincing to me. And yes, I've also seen Chondros which were supposedly Aussie, which even a novice like me could spot as otherwise.... then of course there are the ones with black spots, blue markings etc
Icky!
Continually breeding animals for release is a terrible idea in virtually all situations. It sounds good if you don't know too much about population ecology, but is usually damaging or at best, of no benefit. If populations have declined or disappeared it is for a reason. The only appropriate way to rectify the problem is to fix the problem, not stick more animals into the habitat. It is extremely rare for it to be appropriate to release endangered animals into the wild in areas they previously occured, and if this is to happen it should be done as a once off release, not a continued process. Unfortunately, on the surface, releasing animals into the wild seems like a good thing, so most people think it's a good thing, and because of the way politics works, it often happens.
