Adder + Nikon 40mm Macro

Hello again all,

At Gemma and Chris’ invitation I thought I’d outline once more the point that I think Keith (please correct me Keith if I have this wrong) and I are making, in terms of captive ‘native’ reptiles/amphibians.

Personally, like I said before; I have no objection whatsoever to people ‘keeping’ herps in vivariums / terrariums provided of course they are well cared for.

By the age of 16, in 1976, long before the WCA 1981, the only UK native herps that I hadn’t ‘kept’ in cages, were the Smooth Snake, Sand Lizard, Natterjack Toad and the Crested Newt. Mainly because they were out of my area, except the Crested Newt, but at that time I was not particularly interested in newts. And kids from my school used to come round to view my menagerie and I was sometimes invited by the school to show them in class.

I had managed to obtain two pairs of Green Lizards from a dealer in Enfield. And the value of keeping reptiles by amateur herpetologists was brought home to me then, when, because of the difficulties in gaining a regular supply of crickets etc, I tried to supplement the GL’s diet with earthworms. Not only that; but with lack of info available on the subject at that time, I was keeping the GL’s on a substrate of sand and clumps of soft ‘pot grown’ grass. Put earthworms together with sand and you soon have a sticky writhing mass, but which were still taken by eager GL’s. Only when their gut became “impacted” and which led to loss of movement of their rear legs did I seek veterinarian assistance. Fortunately, the vet prescribed some miracle fluid cure which managed to clear the blockages and normality returned once I’d started chopping the worms into a shallow dish.

The point being, that, keeping reptiles has a value which brings an understanding of the subject; inc, the care, needs, parasites, cures, temperatures, diet, breeding cycles, vitamin supplements, temperament etc. And personally, I found the Adder to be a much more solid temperament, than snakes such as Taiwan Beauty snake, Red Tailed rat snake, Northern water snake and Mangrove snake, all of which were much more likely to strike for no apparent reason.

BUT: The point of RAUK as I understand it is to promote the successful conservation of the UK native herps in the wild???

Personalities aside, whether or not they are “reputable” and whether or not “it is the keepers prerogative to do what he chooses with the neos”; unless the keeping of those species are linked to a captive breeding programme which sees the release of the neos back into the wild (in well chosen locations), then the “keeping” cannot be considered as consistent with the aims of this web site.

If for instance, the likely demand for captive Adders (at a very rough guess) is one hundred a year for “keepers”, then the captive bred (CB) stock / programme should seek to meet that demand with say an additional 10-15% for unexpected losses and “natural wastage”.

Anything in excess of that figure should see the surplus neos being carefully recorded and released back into the wild.

Therefore; I suggest if the captive bred (CB) stock / programme cannot meet with the basic demand, then the answer is simple, the captive stock should not be held at all, if it is only pets for pets sake. This merely encourages ‘chancers’ to try to make up the numbers with wild caught (WC) animals and earn a few bob on the side.

And; as pet keeping is pet keeping and not conservation, the topic should be geared toward reptile keepers sites and not RAUK.

And Jason – re: your comments to Keith. Science has not established what triggers the herps to abandon an autochthonous existence and migrate to far off regions so it shouldn’t be for keepers to determine if any animal would “like to move”. You are seeing it strictly from a “human perspective”. If animals never wished to “wander”, then most of the Earth would not have become populated, as the herps simply would never have moved from their home ranges.