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Posted by Barry on January 27, 2001 at 00:59:41:
In Reply to: Dont get me wrong................ posted by SteveS on January 26, 2001 at 23:44:16:
Steve,
I understand your emphasis on conservation efforts, but they should only be included on a level playing field with breeding. Conservation is just the first step in a bigger picture, and breeding can't happen without some conservation. There are breeders out there producing animals that even zoo's probably aren't breeding as much as they'd like or at all. I always thought of "breeding" the same as "conserving". Trying to get people to put breeding on the back burner for year to learn conservation is excluding alot of knowledgeable people and kind of a pipe dream don't you think? Yes, we would all like to see them in the wild, but we better prepare to know how to breed animals in those areas that are going away even with conservation efforts. Kind of a Noah's Arc vision. As for most breeders focusing on one or two animals as you mentioned, I don't know that to be totally true. Most breeders probably got quite a few different types. If that is true that some breeders focus on one or two animals, then zoos would do good by gaining their knowledge. That is if the zoos maybe have alot of animals to deal with as you mentioned. Like the saying goes, maybe the zoo's have "Too many irons in the fire". Display animals that are captive hatched when possible and work on those animals that are still difficult to breed would make the most sense to me. Make it easy on yourselves and economic. I recently went to the SD Zoo and noticed alot of snakes that were obviously wild caughts. Just out of curiosity, why doesn't the zoo buy a captive born blood python from a private breeder for less than the zoo probably pays for a wild caught specimen? Also, by buying from credentialed, reputable breeders, the zoo isn't depleting(sp.) the population of natural born animals. By the zoo buying wild caught animals, aren't they really not conserving if they can buy captive born animals and leave the wild ones there? Hypothetically speaking, what would a zoo do if indo's area that contains Boelens pythons is wiped out and all you've got is one wild caught male thats not been put to good use by breeding and maintaining the zoos population? Your right, most breeders are for conservation and in this market probably aren't in it for the money anymore. Steve, by all means we need conservationists like yourself, but if your the president, there needs to be a full focus on herps since your now the man in charge and personal views on herps should be diplomatic don't you think? It's kind of a tough political issue with any president since you being a "zoo guy" is going to stress conservation and a breeder is going to stress "breeding". I'm sure you'll agree that giving the members a very well-rounded view of herps in this day and age is the best policy don't you think? Thanks for your time.
Barry
