Croc thrown from car in wildlife bust

[Pythoninfinite]

George and Jamie, I knew it was only a matter of time before the Hoppo bogey got raised.
The data does not support any claim at all that private keepers have threatened populations, save for those immediately abutting major urban areas.
A significant paper on the matter was published in 2005, which later had it's key recommendations adopted by the NSW Government, most notably being the creation of fake rocks to be used in their known areas.

.... And yes, when the "clean up Australia" people started their wholesale campaign of removing busted cars and the like from the bush I cried.
All the best

Just to make it clear - I'm a relative newcomer to NSW reptile collecting history & politics, having only been here since 2005. My comment about Hops was more about suggesting that desirable species with specialised microhabitat requirements, such as exfoliated sandstone or loose bark on trees, are more easily found and collected when targeted by collectors who know where to look, with the prospect of both localised habitat destruction and reduction in local populations of that species. This has certainly happened in WA where wholesale LEGAL collecting (still permitted btw) has seen significant granite habitat damage and localised population reduction in the so-called "Wheatbelt Stimson's Python". This is arguably one of the most attractive Stimmies, and therefore there is a good market for animals taken by legal collectors. As George suggests, the Hops have a niche market and are very desirable overseas, so it makes them a worthwhile target. My guess is that H. bungaroides is in a better place than the Wheatbelt Stimson's however, because the Stimmies live in widely separated but isolated communities in granites on farmland, whereas the Broadies live in extensive and often rough bushland.

Jamie

I doubt that they would be collected to the point of extinction, but on the outcrops that have been stripped of animals and the exfoliated granites damaged irreparably, we may never see these animals in those places again because suitable habitat probably takes hundreds of thousands of years to develop.