Survival of the ratsnakes inside the hobby.

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Posted by Pedersen, S�e on April 15, 2000 at 06:45:39:

Hi everyone.
I liked the previous entry of Adam Song touching a sensitive future for our hobby.
What will happen? Looking in the crystal ball I think that most people can see where it is heading......More and more countries will protect their wildlife (but not the enviroment)and imported wild caught ratsnakes will decrease to a very low amount if any at all. Still many ratsnakes will be end up on the edge of extinction, and there might be a time where the only way to save them is to reintroduce them to nature.
This is still long term considerations, but there is something very close and scaring.
Getting fewer and fewer imported wild caughts, we must start preparing a conservation work on the species we have.I sold most of my ratsnake collection about 10 years ago, and kept only a few of my favorites. Some of the species has decreased rapidly inside the hobby and a few are almost exstinct. I haven`t seen any scalaris for sale in Europe for several years and the numbers of Elaphe situla is sinking rapidly. It seems that there is dying more situlas than there are bred. Are there any quatuorlineata, sauromates, muenteri breeding any more? And that is just the European ratsnakes. If we don`t do something, MANY WILL DISAPPEAR from our hands and we will not get any new ones. There are many things to consider. Espicially the common breeding projects. Most people keeps only a pair or two of a surtain species and their offspring is sold as very close relatives. When this is done in generations problems often comes to the surface, and it can be to late. Mixing animals from unknown locations can also give problems even they look the same. It is very important to keep the locations, subspecies clean. Then there is this fascination of color forms and albinos. Ok keep them if you want, but keep them away from the natural forms. These animals with albino gens (or crossings) that doesn`t have the right color and is useless to you. Don`t sell them as normal snakes......PLEASE. They are a great danger to the conservation work.
I have an idea that has worked with the conservation of killifish in Europe. They got together and a few skilled breeders voluntered to maintain a surtain species for a period of time (5 years). It worked and many species survived that would had disapeared not only in the hobby but also in the wild.
This could work for us too. A few breeders with the interest of keeping and breeding a surtain species and keeping enough unrelated animals to insure that there will be no inbreeding. At least I hope that there will be more people conserned and trying to keep more than just a pair or two of your snakes. Lending or leasing males for breeding could also be a way, but this is a touchy issue, and I can understand the problems this will give.
What I would like is a homepage with all the ratsnakes and a list of people working seriously with the species so that anyone interested could seek informations and co-breeders to the different natural ratsnakes. Maybe even a list of species bred and offered for sale.
I haven`t got the skills to produce such a site, but what do You think of the idea???????
What are we? Moneymakers or do we care of the nature that has given us so maney pleasent hours. Maybe in time we can give something back, but for the moment, we might consider, what we do, and why we are keeping these lovely animals.
The pic is of one of the species allready extinct from the hobby
Best wishes
S�e

Reptilia-Denmark

Follow Ups:

Re: Survival of the ratsnakes inside the hobby. JDM 04/17/00 (0)
The question of keeping ratsnakes long-term in captivity...... Terry Cox 04/15/00 (1)
- Sorry! Forgot to mention....... Terry 04/16/00 (0)
Ups wrong URL Here is the pic. Pedersen,S�e 04/15/00 (0)

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: Hi everyone. : I liked the previous entry of Adam Song touching a sensitive future for our hobby. : What will happen? Looking in the crystal ball I think that most people can see where it is heading......More and more countries will protect their wildlife (but not the enviroment)and imported wild caught ratsnakes will decrease to a very low amount if any at all. Still many ratsnakes will be end up on the edge of extinction, and there might be a time where the only way to save them is to reintroduce them to nature. : This is still long term considerations, but there is something very close and scaring. : Getting fewer and fewer imported wild caughts, we must start preparing a conservation work on the species we have.I sold most of my ratsnake collection about 10 years ago, and kept only a few of my favorites. Some of the species has decreased rapidly inside the hobby and a few are almost exstinct. I haven`t seen any scalaris for sale in Europe for several years and the numbers of Elaphe situla is sinking rapidly. It seems that there is dying more situlas than there are bred. Are there any quatuorlineata, sauromates, muenteri breeding any more? And that is just the European ratsnakes. If we don`t do something, MANY WILL DISAPPEAR from our hands and we will not get any new ones. There are many things to consider. Espicially the common breeding projects. Most people keeps only a pair or two of a surtain species and their offspring is sold as very close relatives. When this is done in generations problems often comes to the surface, and it can be to late. Mixing animals from unknown locations can also give problems even they look the same. It is very important to keep the locations, subspecies clean. Then there is this fascination of color forms and albinos. Ok keep them if you want, but keep them away from the natural forms. These animals with albino gens (or crossings) that doesn`t have the right color and is useless to you. Don`t sell them as normal snakes......PLEASE. They are a great danger to the conservation work. : I have an idea that has worked with the conservation of killifish in Europe. They got together and a few skilled breeders voluntered to maintain a surtain species for a period of time (5 years). It worked and many species survived that would had disapeared not only in the hobby but also in the wild. : This could work for us too. A few breeders with the interest of keeping and breeding a surtain species and keeping enough unrelated animals to insure that there will be no inbreeding. At least I hope that there will be more people conserned and trying to keep more than just a pair or two of your snakes. Lending or leasing males for breeding could also be a way, but this is a touchy issue, and I can understand the problems this will give. : What I would like is a homepage with all the ratsnakes and a list of people working seriously with the species so that anyone interested could seek informations and co-breeders to the different natural ratsnakes. Maybe even a list of species bred and offered for sale. : I haven`t got the skills to produce such a site, but what do You think of the idea??????? : What are we? Moneymakers or do we care of the nature that has given us so maney pleasent hours. Maybe in time we can give something back, but for the moment, we might consider, what we do, and why we are keeping these lovely animals. : The pic is of one of the species allready extinct from the hobby : Best wishes : S�e

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