Collecting wild animals...

Besides the other problems you have mentioned, most people do not check on the different species they are collecting. They see a neat looking snake or tortoise wit no consideration if it is a n endangered species. Just because an animal isn't on an endangered list doesn't mean it is plentiful. When I was a child the wildlife was so plentiful. Take for example three toed box turtles, not endangered, but so many people collect them for the pet trade, that I see few in their natural habitat and see them in petstores everywhere. Are they heading for that list?!! Yes, there are many now, but nothing like 20 yrs ago. Especially when shops can snap up 40 - 70 dollars a pc. for them. Ask yourself if you really need that herp before collecting. Do your homework if you decide to take it home.:(

Another aspect that really doesn't concern most posters probably is the folks who take hatchling seaturtles. Not illegilly, but to keep them until night when they are released under cover of darkness to raise the numbers that will make it for that first all important swim. There's also some that keep them until they are a certain size, then release them.
The studies said that it helps to raise the percentage that survive, and I wish I could find the studies online to post.
I wonder if similar things could be done with other species? We all have heard how such a high percentage of hatchlings survive.. but if a certain number of hatchlings are taken, raised past that first year's size, then released, how do they do?
I guess that by tagging them and rechecking to see how many of the returning nesting turtles are tagged it should show a increase or not.
I think keeping an animal for a few days, then releasing it exactly where it was caught(unless it was taken off a road! LOL) wouldn't hurt much, as long as quarentine procedures were followed if other herps are being kept.
In general, I'm more fond of taking pictures, not the animal.
Wolfy

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Originally Posted by wolfy-hound

I wonder if similar things could be done with other species?

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It is done with alligators every year.

When alligators were almost poached into extinction due to the skin trade, the numbers were relatively low in the wild.

However, today's legal alligator farms are only allowed to 'harvest' a small percentage of what they actually keep and grow. The rest are relocated to the wild. Since the practice has been in place, the number of alligators has increased dramatically......captive incubation for a better hatch rate, more animals surviving past the first year , and less pressure from poachers due to a captive source of skin and meat....it is no surprise that it had a positive effect.

But then again all you do is take away the 'size factor' by allowing them to grow up in captivity....they still have to establish themselves to survive....but I guess a 3' long alligator has less chance of predation than a 1' long alligator.

Interesting and excellent posts although my question was more posed in light of an "average" person (us for example) taking a wild native species rather than a large scale rehabilitation scenario.

I'm kinda with Daniel in that I don't know if I have a set oppinion. I would be a hipocrite if I said no one should be taking in wild animals they found...in fact I have in my possesion a hatchling eastern milk snake. I've had it about 2 weeks and when it was brought to me it was no more than a couple days old. I live in "town" and it was brought in from a farm. So I'm sort of in a prediciment. My first instinct after ID'ing the snake was to release it...however because of the surrounding environment I fell that its not such a good idea to let it go in this area. I am still leaning towards letting it go the animal is young enough that its survival could go both ways but I also know that every day it is kept changes what the animal knows to be natural or "life".

My other thoughts and oppinions are that the law should not be broken to the point where someone seeks out an animal because they want something to keep or they hope to somehow gain by collecting and redistributing. I feel strongly about conservation and seeing a native species in the wild is a real privelege and not something that should be a rare occurance (depending on the environment).

I as many others started into the fascination by spending countless days in the woods searching out and "catching" animals that interested me. Now that I'm older part of that has changed. I would only photograph or observe for a moment what I find and not remove any animal from its habitat.

This is a great thread, because the more that you think about it, the more factors are involved with keeping a native herp/animal, and the bigger then the decision is whether or not to keep a native species. At this point in life (most likely from here on out), I myself would not keep native, wild species due to the fact that there are many animals/herps out there as pets already that are in need of rehoming or rescuing, or could be bought by a breeder etc. Being a responsible pet mommy, I would want to make sure that I could provide any animal under my care with the best home/life possible, and I would not be sure that I could do that with a native species. Sometimes things that are naturally wild don't thrive in captivity, although I am not sure if this is true for herps (I know that BP can be wild caught and kept as pets as far as any others IDK), but I would be afraid that in trying to keep it and doing the best that I could for it, I would be shortening its life in the long run. With that said though, if I ran across a herp/animal in need (sick, wounded, etc.) I would try to help it out the best way that I could, but most likely, depending on the animal, I would probably bring it to the people that could do the best for it and do much more for it than I could (a wildlife rehabilitation center of some sort).

But at the same time, and like many of us on here, I cannot say either that I have not ever kept a native species as a pet. I was one that would catch little lake turtles, and catfish, sunfish, minnows, etc. and we would house them in a 55 gal aquarium that my mom used to keep when I was little. But as a kid, you don't think about the other factors involved, you just think about what it is that you have caught/found. Most kids want to keep some sort of wild animal at one point in time or another, whether it be turtles, frogs, birds, baby rabbits, etc.

So my thought on this is that only under certain circumstances should a wild native species be kept in captivity. These animals, in my opinion, should not be kept as a pet just for the sake of having it. Each life is precious, and the lives of wild animals should be enjoyed just as they are, in the wild.

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Originally Posted by Sunny1

So my thought on this is that only under certain circumstances should a wild native species be kept in captivity. These animals, in my opinion, should not be kept as a pet just for the sake of having it. Each life is precious, and the lives of wild animals should be enjoyed just as they are, in the wild.

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I couldn't have said that better myself, and thank you. I know we've accepted wild animals into our home before... But it was only to ensure their own survival upon release. Now that I'm a bit older and not the 'outdoorsy' kid I once was bringing home anything I could find and begging to be allowed to keep it I've come to understand this one.

There tends to be a proper place for everything... These are called 'wild' animals for a reason, and in the wild is typically where they will thrive the best.

I still worry about our baby squirrel though!

People meddle with nature already too much. Wild herps belong where they are; out in the wild. If it is a hopeless case (like, say, someone is bulldozing a pond to build a strip mall) I see no problems with taking the herps in that would have otherwise been destroyed. And I am all for captive breeding programs to save endangered herps.
I wish that as a kid, I had been taught to appreciate and respect wild herps in heir natural habitats. I felt the need to bring some home and keep them. Some lived and even thrived; others languished.