Your thoughts on wild caught snake breeding programs

[lochie]

Okay, so before I start this Thread I'd like to point out that I have never caught and kept a snake from the wild and all my snakes were bought from a breeder and are registered on my licence.

I often ponder the thought of how I would react to stumbling upon some amazing genetics of a reptile while out camping or hunting etc.
For example I'm out pig hunting in FNQ and come across and amazingly opaque lavender amethystine.

Or stumbling across a green tree python that had a high yellow colouration as a grown adult.

Something really interesting a type of colour mutation.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who hasn't had the day dream of stumbling across an amazingly beautiful wild animal.

However what would you do?

Would you catch it keep it and breed it in secret and see how it went?

Would you catch it and take it too a zoo?

Would you catch it and drive to a known breeders house and wave it in his face until he paid you?

Would you take a single picture as proof and leave it?

Or would you simple stare at it for a long time and eventually let it go on it's way.


Personally, I have no idea what I'd do.

 

[Chris1]

I'd take a thousand photos and stare at it till it got sick of me and went away,.....then i'd stare at my photos,...lol

Id feel awful taking something out its beautiful natural environment and shoving it in a box.
(yes, i do keep captive bred snakes, but they have never experienced nature)

 

[borntobnude]

If you think about it , that's how it all started .
It was obviously stopped because we as humans don't really know when to stop so some smarter person said that's enough -- apart from a few special people or maybe if it was really spectacular or special and needed protecting ( yes I am sure you could fit much into that group)

 

[Brownbird]

Well, I'll be honest. If I saw some amazing variation in the wild, I couldn't resist taking it. Crucify me if you want......

 

[Jessie_James]

If it was something outstanding I would protect it by removing it from the wild because its a moving baked dinner to others. Then to ensure its beauty would be forever captured I would breed from it and give away its off spring so everyone could marvel in its beauty. After I knew I had given enough away I would set it free so it could serve its propose as someone else's dinner. :/

 

[longqi]

It would depend on the variation
Albinos rarely survive because it is a genetic fault so I would possibly take an albino
In saying that I relocated a near albino retic in Bali
It was very light in colour and pattern although it didnt have pink eyes but was healthy and obviously coping ok

Other colours are just naturally occurring
Best black/white jungle I have ever seen looked like a chess board
Hopefully still cruising around where I found it

 

[NickGeee]

I guess if it was a male I would quickly mate it with a female and put it back.

 

[richoman_3]

photo and leave it.
like they should be

 

[baker]

Leave it, just because it looks pretty is not an excuse to remove it from the wild.
Cheers Cameron

 

[GeckoJosh]

If you want to go out and hunt for oddities etc then apply for a catching license and do it the right way

 

[ronhalling]

I am with the herd on this 1, an old m8 of mine always uses the canon "take nothing but memories and photo's and leave nothing but footprints" it's a pretty good canon to live by when out Herping or camping. Those who have a permit to take a few interesting species from the wild for breeding purposes are the only 1's that should take anything from the wild just coz they can regardless of it's beauty or difference'. Those who would say if it was a male they might quickly mate it with their female then let it go should think about the quarantine issues, after 6 months of quarantine before letting it near their female would the male then cope back in the wild again, then you have to think about what if you are letting it go back into the wild with a disease from your collection that up to that point was not noticed. .................................Ron

 

[AVATAR]

It would depend on the variation
Albinos rarely survive because it is a genetic fault so I would possibly take an albino
In saying that I relocated a near albino retic in Bali
It was very light in colour and pattern although it didnt have pink eyes but was healthy and obviously coping ok

Other colours are just naturally occurring
Best black/white jungle I have ever seen looked like a chess board
Hopefully still cruising around where I found it

Genetics doesn't really work along the lines of fault/correct. There simply is variation, and external selection pressures. There need to be at least some external sources for keeping new genetic profiles coming into the captive bred lines, or there will be a repetition of the horror of kennel club breeding specifications for reptiles as well. Tricky situation in this respect, because how can you hope to keep a lid on the behaviour of the masses. I think it's probably better to keep the current restrictions for a small group of individuals to be able to catch wild individuals for breeding programs.

 

[thomasssss]

Genetics doesn't really work along the lines of fault/correct. There simply is variation, and external selection pressures. There need to be at least some external sources for keeping new genetic profiles coming into the captive bred lines, or there will be a repetition of the horror of kennel club breeding specifications for reptiles as well. Tricky situation in this respect, because how can you hope to keep a lid on the behaviour of the masses. I think it's probably better to keep the current restrictions for a small group of individuals to be able to catch wild individuals for breeding programs.

i think you will find that genetics in reptiles is a whole different ball game to that of dogs

 

[breannew]

Take tons of photos, share will all of us of course. Then let the beautiful creature carry on with its day

 

[Brownbird]

I would think there's many a proud albino darwin owner who would agree that on occasion keeping wild caught animals is acceptable.......

 

[Red-Ink]

Take some pics, walk away... post it up (make the arm chair herpers jealous)

 

[longqi]

like this you mean red??

 

[wokka]

What good is one non representative snake in a wild population of say 100,000? The "freak" trait would be lost in the wild as it is diluted by the normal population. Why not line breed the trait to diversify available animals? I am of course assuming that the necessary collection permits are available to allow legal capture.

 

[GeckoJosh]

I would think there's many a proud albino darwin owner who would agree that on occasion keeping wild caught animals is acceptable.......

The difference is that the original Albino Darwins were collected legally

 

[AVATAR]

i think you will find that genetics in reptiles is a whole different ball game to that of dogs

I think you'll find that genetics works in fundamentally the same way across most species.