Boa constrictor?

[Dicco]

Russian Star Tortoises Southy, a guy in WA was selling em, got caught too, they're an Endangered species.

 

[Retic]

Star Tortoise are a medium sized land tortoise, completely harmless but could devastate the lettuce industry.

those star tortises, not sure of their actual name

 

[JandC_Reptiles]

Zoos are a lot more cautious with animals than your average reptile keeper, and a lot of the animals are in breeding programs to ensure their survival and zoos in general are educational and help the public to learn about the importance of wildlife and nature.

No doubt, but my point was that escapes are an accident & can happen to anyone including zoo's. Plenty of animals have escaped zoo's over the years. Some found & returned, many not. I can re-call a lion that escaped a circus at St Marys NSW many years ago & was running around the shopping centre car park untill the police were called (circus staff un-aware they even had an escapee untill informed by police)

 

[peterjohnson64]

I would just love a fijian green iguana. Maybe I will have to open up a theme park. Get myself a 2,000sqm showroom, convert to reptile, employ 15 people from here, call it "Johnson's Reptile Park", open to the public. Then I can have a green iguana (and probably even a crocodile), all for a mere $2.5 million. anyone wanna invest?

But I still go back to the birds. There aren;t massive wild populations of peach face parrots. they probably couldn't overrun our local birds. Maybe there are some reptiles that are the same, such as Green Iguanas.

And another thing, something must eat Cane Toads in Mexico or wherever it is they come from? Surely they would be better to introduce here and run riot than those poisonous cretons.

 

[southy]

thats what you get when you keep something you shouldn't.....agree again with boa, chameleon may survive in the tropics but no where in nsw, vic, wa,sa i think, but corns breed readily and i think could cause a problem

 

[Dicco]

I agree that some species are going to become a problem regardless of whether they are legal or illegal. I think Cornsnakes and Red ears are in that category. Please someone tell me how ANY chameleon species or land tortoise or numerous other lizards are ever going to cause any problem ?

Those animals do have a very little chance of becoming pest, but there is still a small chance, as said before some Desert Tortoises fill the same neiche(am I spelling that word right??) as Shingle, being slow dosen't mean they can't become pests, If they escaped in the right place(yes, they can escape, people keep tortises in outdoor pens in some places and it this got damaged when and the owners were away for a long enough they could establish themselves, build up in numbers and out compete shingles, and in the right areas like The tropics of the rain forests of the east coasts Chameleons could get a foot hold if they escape, being as big and varied as it is Australia could hold host to countless different species form overseas.

 

[Dicco]

Zoos are a lot more cautious with animals than your average reptile keeper, and a lot of the animals are in breeding programs to ensure their survival and zoos in general are educational and help the public to learn about the importance of wildlife and nature.

No doubt, but my point was that escapes are an accident & can happen to anyone including zoo's. Plenty of animals have escaped zoo's over the years. Some found & returned, many not. I can re-call a lion that escaped a circus at St Marys NSW many years ago & was running around the shopping centre car park untill the police were called (circus staff un-aware they even had an escapee untill informed by police)

Yes, your right, even zoo's aren't perfect.
On the topic of circuses though, IMO those things shouldn't even exsist, rampaging elephants are on good reason why.

 

[olivehydra]

I think if they were to become legal, some species would still exist on the black market. I dont know much about fish, but I was offered pirahna (sp?) some time ago which I believe are illegal here. Queensland and NT would probably require very strict conditions so that the Florida experience isnt repeated there. All I want is a little bitty retic here in Sydney :wink:
Humans transmit viral and bacterial exotics all the time. I remember having to sign and catelogue cane toads numbers at uni (Canberra) so as escapees were not "permitted", they are definetly down as far as Canberra :wink:

 

[Dicco]

With Cane Toads, the animals in their natural habitat have learnt to leave them alone, with some being able to handle their toxins. Cane Toads also have competition over there, like other toads ect, in Australia they are the only toads and our animals don't know to leave them alone.
But, animals are adjusting to them, keelback snakes can safely eat smaller toads, but big ones can kill them, Saw Shelled Turtles strip the flesh leaving the poison glands to safely consume toads, crows flip them on their backs and disembowel them. My uncle has also told me he's seen the resident Brushtail possum hunting toads around his pool and dismembering them, possums have been known to eat birds and eggs so it's possible.

 

[Retic]

I'm sorry but that sounds a bit like clutching at straws Can you imagine the chances of an adult pair of desert tortoises escaping, staying together for several years until they decide to breed then have the young hang around until mature enough to breed and then outcompete Shinglebacks ?
Of course it is theoretically possible for it to happen but the chances are incredibly small.
Amazingly though if I wanted to open a Llama farm it would be no problem, imagine if they escaped.
What has to be remembered here is that they have to escape in sufficient numbers to allow a viable breeding population to be established, this rarely happens by accident.

Those animals do have a very little chance of becoming pest, but there is still a small chance, as said before some Desert Tortoises fill the same neiche(am I spelling that word right??) as Shingle, being slow dosen't mean they can't become pests, If they escaped in the right place(yes, they can escape, people keep tortises in outdoor pens in some places and it this got damaged when and the owners were away for a long enough they could establish themselves, build up in numbers and out compete shingles, and in the right areas like The tropics of the rain forests of the east coasts Chameleons could get a foot hold if they escape, being as big and varied as it is Australia could hold host to countless different species form overseas.

 

[Dicco]

Yes, the chance of Desert Tortoises is extremely slim, but still possible . Ha, don't get me started on exotic fuzzy laws, all the government cares about is votes and revenue. Revenue is also another problem with controlling of legal exotics, it was bad enough to keep natives not all that long ago, if there's no money in it, they won't bother, they don't even check they don't even inspect the petshops with herps up here, it would hurt their pockets too much :roll:

And even if they certain species were allowed, the ones that could not be kept would still be there illegally.

 

[Retic]

This is why we will never get a sensible system of cat control, simply because far too many voters keep cats and no Government or potential Government would commit political suicide by banning cats, it will never happen so I am obliged to impliment by own methods of cat control.

 

[Dicco]

This is why we will never get a sensible system of cat control, simply because far too many voters keep cats and no Government or potential Government would commit political suicide by banning cats, it will never happen so I am obliged to impliment by own methods of cat control.

Yeah, it's left up to us to try and controll them us much as we possibly can while people let fluffy roam the bush taking souvineers.

 

[olivehydra]

What do folks think about white lipped pythons? I believe they are only found in the TI? At the end of the day its all about lines on a map.

 

[Dicco]

They're only found in the Torres Strait Islands, so I don't class them as indigenous to Aust.

 

[Retic]

But aren't the Torres Straits Islands part of Australia, strictly speaking ?

 

[peterjohnson64]

Dorian, I have no idea what a White Lipped Python is and I also have no idea where TI is. My herp interest is pretty much focussed on natives clearly. (Now I will here that TI is somewhere near Dandenong)

 

[Dicco]

But aren't the Torres Straits Islands part of Australia, strictly speaking ?

They're much more similar to New Guinea, but yes, they are part of Australia

 

[Retic]

As part of Australia the White Lipped Python must then be an indigenous species.

 

[Dicco]

Yeah, it's indigenous, but I meant to the mainland, but yes, they are a Native Python.