Nephrurus
Very Well-Known Member
Hey all,
I've been reading up a bit on Broad-Headed Snakes Hoplocephalus bungaroides and am wondering where the progeny of the animals raped from the wild back in 1997 have gone. Here's a bit of the abstract of one paper i read (easy to copy and paste!).
"H. bungaroides was stable over 1992-1996, but declined dramatically in 1997, coincident with evidence of illegal collecting, possibly stimulated by a government amnesty that allowed pet owners to obtain permits for illegally held reptiles. Survivorship analyses revealed that 85% of adult females disappeared from the population in 1997. There was no such effect on male survivorship, suggesting that snake collectors selectively removed adult females..."
from: Webb, Jonathan K.; Brook, Barry W.; Shine, Richard. (2002a) Collectors endanger Australia's most threatened snake, the broad-headed snake Hoplocephalus bungaroides. Oryx. 36(2). 170-181.
So, getting past the whole horror of having the majority of the breeding females of an endangered species disappear from one of the last extant southern populations, you'd hope there was some serious captive breeding happening!
With so many snakes removed (the population was around 600 individuals), there should be alot of 2nd and 3rd generation captives getting about by now. Shine writes that broad-heads proved simple to breed (can quite find that paper right now! sorry).
Where are they then? What price do they go for? Is there a massive black market population?
Comments?
-Henry
I've been reading up a bit on Broad-Headed Snakes Hoplocephalus bungaroides and am wondering where the progeny of the animals raped from the wild back in 1997 have gone. Here's a bit of the abstract of one paper i read (easy to copy and paste!).
"H. bungaroides was stable over 1992-1996, but declined dramatically in 1997, coincident with evidence of illegal collecting, possibly stimulated by a government amnesty that allowed pet owners to obtain permits for illegally held reptiles. Survivorship analyses revealed that 85% of adult females disappeared from the population in 1997. There was no such effect on male survivorship, suggesting that snake collectors selectively removed adult females..."
from: Webb, Jonathan K.; Brook, Barry W.; Shine, Richard. (2002a) Collectors endanger Australia's most threatened snake, the broad-headed snake Hoplocephalus bungaroides. Oryx. 36(2). 170-181.
So, getting past the whole horror of having the majority of the breeding females of an endangered species disappear from one of the last extant southern populations, you'd hope there was some serious captive breeding happening!
With so many snakes removed (the population was around 600 individuals), there should be alot of 2nd and 3rd generation captives getting about by now. Shine writes that broad-heads proved simple to breed (can quite find that paper right now! sorry).
Where are they then? What price do they go for? Is there a massive black market population?
Comments?
-Henry