# taking snakes from the wild for taxidermy



## andrew_555 (Sep 18, 2006)

Pointed subject line i know, but just browsing the web and found this:

http://www.taxidermy.net/forums/ReptileArticles/06/064CDCB587.html
http://www.taxidermy.net/forums/ReptileArticles/06/061741ACBE.html

Apart from making me a little ill, these, along with a few other threads on the site implies that you can take snakes from the wild to conduct taxidermy on them in the US.

Interesting considering our incredibly strict laws.

Any thoughts?


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## Snake Catcher Victoria (Sep 18, 2006)

there are some sick puppies out there.i saw in the paper yesterday a stuffed mexican armadillo with a hat and a gun in a holster standing on its hind legs.
these yanks are just doing it to show off, there is no scientific merit in what they are doing and it is quite legal even encouraged,over there in some parts.
things like that couldnt happen here though,...although i heard that some herpers have got or are in the process of getting a permit to take 100 beardies from the wild...cant think why, maybe they have a good reason but to take 70 females and 30 males from the wild would surely have an effect on the local fauna,jmo


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## andrew_555 (Sep 18, 2006)

I am sure it would be incredibly difficult to get permission to take beardies from the wild. Is there any reason that this would be allowed for a private collection? I understand that zoos get permit for such things all the time, especially for conservation.

And as for the taxidermy, i am shocked that it goes on especially with wild specimens, mind you i have seen a fair few cane toad purses floating around in tourist shops... I understand that they are a pest, but still...


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## shamous1 (Sep 19, 2006)

This thread reminds me of the Cane Toads you see stuffed and holding little Jim Beam bottles in shops up north. A bit different I know as Cane Toads are pests.


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## andrew_555 (Sep 20, 2006)

yeah tell me about it shamous! bit weird when you're talking about snakes though hey. There is a snake infestation in Guam i think... Even so, i think they try to get them out rather than kill them and stuff them!


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## scotchbo (Sep 21, 2006)

That's sick see the guy asking for a snake's head to use for a couple of project's they have in mind, thats sick id like to meet him and use his head for a couple of projects as well lol


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## andrew_555 (Sep 22, 2006)

pmsl!

you're a funny one scotchbo... actually, i just read your message again and you might not be kidding!

even better


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## AntaresiaLady (Sep 25, 2006)

Tonight we found a just run over (it had happened within the twenty minutes we were in a store) Dugite. 
We stopped and picked it up, as I wanted to photograph it and had never seen a 'real life' Dugite close up (other than through glass), and it would have been just smooshed into the road by passing cars had we not picked it up. 

I had also intended to put it into a jar, like the ones at museums, but it reached a stage of rigor (and stench) before I got home. I did take some photos, as it was a lovely animal- and other than some of its entrails missing, and a small patch of scales gone where the car hit it, it was in reasonably good physical condition (besides being dead of course). 

It had awesome colouring, and we measured it to be 4 foot 6 inches long, snout to tail, and hubby thinks it was a male. It had a protrusion from the cloaca, a single protrusion, with no room for another if that makes sense. (He has no idea on sexing snakes- so don't judge him- he refers to everything as a 'he'- personally I think it may have been female- so we're at odds atm!)

Had I gotten home earlier, it would have made a good specimen for taxidermy, or if nothing else as a jarred specimen. Next time I'll try not to be so far away from home, and not be so busy- it was a lovely snake, and looked well healthy. It had eaten a mouse a few days ago. Won't tell ya how we know that...its pretty gross. 

Anyway, I just thought this was an appropriate sort of thread to post about our encounter, as we would have kept it in a jar had it not gone off so quickly.


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## jeramie85 (Sep 25, 2006)

are you going to post some pics AntaresiaLady?
or if you want you could pm to me as id be interested in seeing it 

just remember be closer to home so you can jar it :lol:


one of my uhhh family friends asked me to come to his house and remove the snakes he has been finding lately (only because i have snakes)
because he would like them relocated due to he doesnt like there brown colourings even more so due to him having kids 
so i let him know that im not going to try and found a snake catcher phone number for him to call that will relocate them 

well its either that or he would kill him which he doesnt really want to do


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## pythoness (Sep 25, 2006)

I don't see anything wrong with taxidermy itself, it's the killing bit i object to. They shouldn't be killing wild animals for taxidermy purposes, thats just wrong. but the art of taxidermy alone is fine, in fact i looked into having my old dog stuffed when she goes, (she's been with me 12 years) and the price is quite high, around $800-$1000 for a medium dog, but i don't think i could be without my old girl, and am still considering it as an option, for when she eventually goes. A little bit Adams family i know, but with the snakes, rats in the freezer and boxes of roaches it;s right on up there with all the other strangeness in my house


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## peterescue (Sep 25, 2006)

snakes and lizards are generally poor taxidermy subjects. The skin stretches and gives a false impression of the size and how they really look when alive. Most of the reptiles on display in museums are cast and painted. In Australia you cannot collect from the wild for taxidermy without a scientific permit and then you need a very good reason. You cannot collect dead snakes and preserve them ion most states of Australia and those specimens that people hold in NSW are required to be on license.


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## Nagraj (Sep 25, 2006)

AntaresiaLady said:


> ... we would have kept it in a jar had it not gone off so quickly.





Just so you know, it's actually illegal to interfere with wildlife without a permit even when it's dead.


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## herptrader (Sep 25, 2006)

Nagraj said:


> Just so you know, it's actually illegal to interfere with wildlife without a permit even when it's dead.



I was going to make a similar point. In Victoria there is a special class of licence/permit that allows you collect dead specimens.

The laws vary across the different states. It used to be in WA (still could be despite their new laws) that it was illegal to photograph a snake but legal to kill it.

Taxidermy in an form does not appeal to me. It is bad feng shui in any case :lol:


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## AntaresiaLady (Sep 25, 2006)

How ridiculous is that law. 

The snake is gone now, so no more people who think the only good snake is a dead one can squish it into the road.

Peterescue,Nagraj and Herptrader - Thanks for letting me know though- I'm going to pursue that.


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## andrew_555 (Sep 25, 2006)

pretty crazy law, i agree, but in terms of the "cant take dead snakes from the wild" i think that particular law is reasonable. It saves the "it was dead when i found it" argument...


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## Serpant_Lady (Sep 25, 2006)

also its the whole ecosystem thing. If everyone who found a dead snake on the road/in the bush took it home, the ecosystem becomes unbalanced as the lower scavangers lose out on that food and they die off so their predators... you get the picture. 
I know it seems silly that its only one but it is too difficult to police so it is banned all together except for those with a permit (Eg in Nz there is a limit for collecting pipis off the beach. it about 50 per person I think)


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## Nagraj (Sep 26, 2006)

As stated, there's lots of reasons why it's a good law. Another one of which is that it helps prevent the killing of wild animals for the exotic animal product black market.


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## Jackrabbit (Sep 26, 2006)

Nagraj said:


> Just so you know, it's actually illegal to interfere with wildlife without a permit even when it's dead.



Presumably that is to stop people from claiming "it was dead when I got it" to authorities.


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## AntaresiaLady (Sep 26, 2006)

well it was being smooshed into the road by the cars zooming past doing 80kms an hour over it. 
People were swerving to drive over it-only good snake is a dead one and all that. I didn't think that there would be a great deal of it left for 'lower' predators and scavengers to eat if the cars continued to drive over it, except maybe a few ants and flies. Thats the only reason I decided to take it off the road - because it would have been smooshed into a thin paste across the road within about ten minutes if I'd left it. If it had been dead in the bush- I would most certainly have left it there- because of the ecosystem aspect. But it was on a tarred road, in a high traffic area. 

I thought it deserved better. I would never kill a snake just to take it home- and if it was alive there would be no way I would have picked it up- it was a Dugite!! My other half ended up taking it and putting it back in the area we found it, but off the road in the bush, as he didn't want to risk placing it here and introducing a disease or mites or whatever into the populations here. Can't be too careful! And Nagraj- over here, its open season on ANY snake that you 'think' is venomous and is 'threatening' the wellbeing and safety of yourself, your family or your animals- seems a bit ridiculous really. If a 'wild snake' is in your yard, and you kill it, are you allowed to keep it then? I'm curious to find that out- as it seems ridiculous that you couldn't keep the body if it was killed in the wild, that you'd be allowed if you chopped it up with a shovel for example! (Mind you, shovel wounds are pretty yuck- I certainly wouldn't want to explain that to my 9 year old- she'd just be horrified I'd killed a snake ven or not!!) Not that I would kill a snake- I have the number of some very fine snake removers-I'd call them before I even considered killing a snake. 

And now that I know that it is illegal, I wouldn't pick up a dead snake off the road again. 
I just thought it would be a good way to teach my daughter about snakes- its not often you get to see a ven in the flesh, and to be able to examine it without fear of a bite. And to get some pictures of a lovely animal that I wouldn't otherwise get to see without the aid of glass.

Oh well, lesson learnt.


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## andrew_555 (Sep 26, 2006)

yeah and the other couple of ideas that other people said. Has anyone heard of the rattle snake rodeo that they have in one of the southern states of the US? I saw a doco where they collected hundreds from the wild to eat/rangle/skin them... Actually here it is:

http://rattlesnakerodeo.com/

http://rattlesnakerodeo.com/images/2006/2006Rodeo2ndBatch/web/pages/P1040174_jpg.htm


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## andrew_555 (Sep 26, 2006)

and AntaresiaLady,

Sorry if it sounded like i was having a go... I would have done exactly the same thing


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## AntaresiaLady (Sep 26, 2006)

Not at all Andrew- I never thought that at all!


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## Nagraj (Sep 26, 2006)

Regardless of the law it is actually a good idea to move roadkill away from the road if possible. This prevents other animals (raptors in particular) becoming secondary victims to cars.


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## krylon (Sep 30, 2006)

would you stuff your kid if it died??

seems kind of odd to want to keep the body of a dead anything


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