lol,,,,,,aye maittie,,,,n/p

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Posted by herpetological on May 13, 2003 at 23:43:49:

In Reply to: lol,,,,,,aye maittie,,,,n/p posted by thomas davis on May 13, 2003 at 19:12:54:

:::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!

::
::You come across as a commercial collector that believes he has an entitlement to a few select spots. Having grown up in South Florida, you need to be aware of the fact that once the word is out on a spot, it becomes everyone's spot. Your pissing into the wind trying to get other commercial collectors to follow your idea of sustainable harvest.........80-100 anoles a night.........lol. Don't paint yourself as some swashbuckling buccaneer of a snake hunter who is beseiged by other less skilled pirates. Let's face it, the first cutthroat that sneaks in that pumphouse door or walks that canal bank, gets the prize. Been there........done that.
::

:Actually no. I do not feel I'm entitled to anything. I was born and raised here. I have seen the havoc brought about by both habitat destruction and over-collection. I temper my collecting with some common sense and respect for the species that I do collect. 80-100 anoles. Yeah, thats per hour. Also, 90% of those are introduced Sagrei. If I go into and area and find very few of one species and numbers of another I will collect only those that have a sustainable population. Trying to get others to go by MY idea of sustainable harvest....Show me your same spot that YOU have collected for 30 years and still can. Swashbuckling????
Gee a little threatend? Yes good analogy... on the pirate part. Same attitude that I hear all the time. I was here first, my spot , blah, blah, blah... Cut-throat? Yeah, nice term. Sounds like one of the guys that like to brag about the collecting along Browns Farm. Yes, they would get 100 plus green snakes a night. But, guess what? They forgot to leave the gravid females and the small ones. Try finding them like that again in that area. I couldn't care less who collects in areas I do. Many of those areas are public domain. All I point out is the fact that many of these people are only going to cut their own throats by not having some respect for the long term survival of the species. Don't like my views? Well how about this? I spoke with a trot- liner collecting softshells on one of the farms, to make a long conversation short his final statement was," Well when they go extinct my name will be in the books as the person who caused it." Nice view on life. Oh, I forgot you did say sneak in... Not supposed to be there? Amazing thing greed...it's always short term. No I don't expect you to understand but, when and were I can I will make sure it is. While all the short sighted greedy collectors are looking for other work, well me and the rest of us "Old Timers" will still be doing what we love. Besides I still have the option of moving the snake off the road or taking a few minutes to look at a frog then leave him there. All the while others are blasting down the same road competing with each other. Besides you missed the whole point. I wasn't mad about someone else being there. I was pissed about the fact that they destroyed it. At least I know better than to piss in the wind. LOL YEAH.. Feel threatened by this post? Well that just tells you who you are. Ray HBR

Follow Ups:

lol,,,,,,aye maittie,,,,n/p Steve G 05/14/03 (8)
- that's what I got out of the post too.... san_antonio_tx 05/14/03 (7)
  - that's what I got out of the post too....me to and mchambers 05/14/03 (6)
    - that's what I got out of the post too....me to and Steve G 05/14/03 (2)
      - that's what I got out of the post too....me to and herpetological 05/14/03 (1)
        
        okay..I can se your point/s and there is some... mchambers 05/15/03 (0)
    - that's what I got out of the post too....me to and herpetological 05/14/03 (2)
      - we got your point... san_antonio_tx 05/14/03 (1)
        
        we got your point... herpetological 05/14/03 (0)