Field Collectors@##%$%-my story...

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Posted by catsngeckos on May 13, 2003 at 21:45:52:

In Reply to: Field Collectors@##%$% posted by herpetological on May 12, 2003 at 22:15:13:

:This is not meant for everyone but I have to vent!!!!I just back in from a great trip collecting and photographing in the S.E. U.S. I headed out to do some well overdue collecting here in S. Florida. I stopped to check a building which has been the habitat for numerous yellow rats for years. This place is private property and I have specific permission to collect specimens when needed. I found that some collectors had been there. OBVIOUSLY!! All of the ceiling insulation was torn out. Nearly every wall was destroyed. Door and window frames removed. Doors laying on the ground. Yes, it was collectors.(Faint smell of gas and 20-30 skins in a pile!) I don't care who collects here even though I have a right to kick them out. As per
:property owners. WHY??? So they could get a few extra snakes! Now they will not utilize this habitat again! And the owners will not be happy. You know who you are! Probably the same bunch that is roadrunning or should I say over crowding the prarrie near Okeechobee. Seems someone leaked the word out about road running in this area. Was a nice place when a few locals and researchers were going there. Now on any given night there are 8-10 cars on this road. Being disrespectful, speeding and killing. Yes, killing. They are in such a hurry to overun each other that I have seen them actually kill snakes. In addition many of them must be new to this since I followed one and picked up snakes they missed. Again WHY?? About 90% of them are from out of county. The same county even. Greed taking over guys? Not talented enough to find areas near you. Guess what? I collect in you home town area and do great!! After the mole kings? Good luck your just chasing them off the roads. (Or running them over)These practices are not in the interests of you or the animals. Ever heard of renewable resources? Wildlife management? Here i'll give you a good example.. do the math! Anoles can be collected at night. Sometimes as much as 150 per hour in good areas. So they hit these areas every night for 6 months. Collecting everything. Suddenly very few anoles!! It will take 2-3 years for them to get back up to optimum population density. If you collected only 80-100 of those specimens available... leave small ones, broken tailed ones, 80% of the females, 20% of the males and collect that spot once every 1-2 months... Guess what? It will be productive every time. Same goes for habitat destruction and overcollecting! Yeah it's great now but, come back...!!!??? So our biggest enemy is? Let's not allow collectors to get a bad name. Use your head and the respect that you SHOULD be brought up with.I'm sure I need to say more but we'll leave it at that. I will post a collecting report later but right
:now @#*&#@!!! Thanks, everyone else, hope you are doing well in the field! Ray Goushaw Herpetological Breeding Research
:But this kind of senseless destruction will keep EVERYONE out!

Sounds like what happened here, only in my case, it wasn't field collectors, it was drunk hunters and uncaring people. The river down by my old house used to be a great place to fish for trout, birdwatch, and catch frogs and garter snakes of all sorts of species. Went down there a few weeks ago and it was a disaster area. The plants are all dead, the river is this blood red color-I saw lots of dead frogs, duck carcasses, and NO snakes or living animals. You can't even see the bottom of the river anymore, it is so polluted. Someone dumped beer cans, bags of garbage, oil cans, even an old gas tank in the water. Another careless person destroyed the walkway that went from shore to mid-river. It was literally ripped from the shore-bolts and all, and then the other side was shredded apart at the hinges-like someone tied a truck to it and pulled.

I reported it to the authorities-and they *say* they are going to do something, but with Washington's budget crisis right now, they can't even care about the endangered porpoises that got killed by navy sonar last week let alone one little spot on a large river. :(

So depressing seeing my childhood 'fun area' and wonderful wildlife habitat destroyed by uncaring jerks.

-cat

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