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North Wales Aesculapians |
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will 
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Joined: 27 Feb 2007 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 1830 |
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 Topic: North Wales AesculapiansPosted: 07 Mar 2013 at 12:25pm |
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Exactly. Far easier to proceed via the captive animals route, as has been done for wall lizards as you say, and perhaps non-native subspecies of grass snake.
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GemmaJF
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Joined: 25 Jan 2003 Location: Essex Status: Offline Points: 4359 |
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Posted: 07 Mar 2013 at 11:48am |
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I could only think Will that such an introduction attempt would come from a very misguided captive breeder, just like in the past with certain lizard colonies. I much easier route than trying to catch individuals established in the wild and re-releasing them. So I can't follow the NE logic at all. Nothing new there then.
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will
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Posted: 07 Mar 2013 at 10:01am |
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Rob wrote: Of course Will, there is a third option... - do you mean capturing them and releasing them somewhere else, Rob? now there is a thought - some lovely remote valley in the south of England with woodland, scrub and plenty of farms nearby for egg laying. Only joking, of course, as this would be a reprehensible act
 In all seriousness, people from NE who were against the London Zoo snakes always gave the possibility of someone catching Zoo snakes and releasing them into the countryside at large as a major reason for their eradication. Personally, I think it far more likely that a population in the countryside would be derived from unwanted captive animals rather than someone deliberately coming to Regents Park and catching enough snakes from there to found a colony, but there you go.
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GemmaJF
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Posted: 06 Mar 2013 at 11:04pm |
However many there are of us I doubt anyone will listen. The authorities do not listen when we warn of or complain about UK protected native species being wiped out. I doubt anyone will be listened to at all on this one. I guess most of us think is daft, completely unnecessary, crass, well I could go on all night and often do, but it won't make any difference at all. The only hope is the whole thing will be forgotten and fall off the agenda before anything is done.
Edited by GemmaJF - 06 Mar 2013 at 11:05pm |
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tim hamlett
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Posted: 06 Mar 2013 at 8:32pm |
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interesting and sad thread.
unfortunately though, being realistic i can't see many people getting particularly excited about a story that is essentially - some snakes have escaped from captivity and started breeding. they are harmless but the authorities want to catch them and place them back in captivity. lets hope will's right. i've always thought apathy was underrated! tim
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JaySteel
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Posted: 06 Mar 2013 at 7:01pm |
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I think we need to make people aware of the possible consequences of allowing this to happen. As we've touched on, this could be just the start with a long list of other species at risk of being in the firing line next. If people are aware that some of the more "cute & fluffy" creatures are also potential targets then they might get on board.
Who is it exactly that are making these decisions? I like to hear some names of the organisations and individuals behind this. How can several decades of previous governments have no problem with the existence of these two aesculapian snake populations and then this current bunch come along and decide on the country's behalf that the snakes have to go? I think we should be fighting to have some kind of hearing or public enquiry to ascertain as to whether this species is actually "invasive" and a genuine threat to our native wildlife or not. if there are no good reasons for their removal other than "they don't belong here" then they should be left alone. The more I read this thread the angrier I get about this situation. How can we be so powerless? Are there not enough of us that care to make any difference at all? Jason |
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Robert V
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Posted: 06 Mar 2013 at 4:43pm |
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Of course Will, there is a third option... |
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RobV
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will
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Posted: 06 Mar 2013 at 6:43am |
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Hi Jason. I am reasonably confident that apathy and lack of funding will combat the fundamentalist approach being adopted to the two populations of snakes. The problems in trying to mobilise public opinion in favour of keeping the snakes as they are in the wild include: 1) they are snakes! and 2) raising the profile means that every Tom Dick and Harry will come along and think theyre doing the animals a favour by catching them and putting them in a small aquarium tank in their home. At the end of the day, if the populations are definitely going to be captured, then maybe it will be time to aim for more publicity and perhaps involve the media - but only as a last resort...?
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JaySteel
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Posted: 05 Mar 2013 at 7:01pm |
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Is this fight over then? Is there nothing we can do do have any effect on the future of these snakes?
Jason
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will
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Posted: 05 Mar 2013 at 4:15pm |
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Caleb wrote: 'However, possession is an offence for a individual of any Annex IV(a)
species taken from the wild in any European country- the naturalised
Aesculapian snakes do fall into this category, and that's why Wolfgang
needed a licence for his scale clippings.'
Also you would need a special licence to be able to release any non-native into the wild (as in grey squirrels trapped in your loft which cannot then be released into your garden) - eg an Aescualpian snake taken in the hand to scale clip and ID; I gather that CCW were happy to licence this, but NE have not been so eager for the London population (though that seems rather academic, now...) |
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JaySteel wrote: