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[Rastass]

Taking from the wild does not necessarily affect wild populations. A piece of native ground has a capacity to support a certain number of animals. Normally, the surviving animals will breed and have a number of offspring, most of which will not survive. By removing an animal from an area your are possibly creating an avenue for one other animal to take its place. In effect, you have increased to number of animals by 1. One strong example of this is male eastern water dragons.

Its funny, when we rescue venemous snakes we are taught and tell our "customers" that by removing the snake another will merely takes it place. And yet, when we remove herps to keep them this seems to be a different story.

Aborigines have been removing native herps for years. Not for pets but to eat. They dont seem to have decimated any populations.

Another example of taking from the wild is the prawn fisherman of the Spencer Gulf in SA. They take huge numbers of prawns from the Spencer Gulf and yet their populations are being maintained.

As for re-releasing. When I did my Sydney Wildlife course we were told of a frog that was released back into a population in Tully. It didn't originally come from Tully. It carried a disease and wiped out a huge number of local frogs. If were are not certain as to the origin of a rescued herp we are not allowed to release it back into the wild. And certainly not if it has come into contact with captive herps. Go OPMV.