Good news, new W.A species addition's approved

[Snowman]

I find it quite bizarre that I and a few others spent 10 years being told by (then) CALM that allowing private individuals to keep reptiles would have huge negative consequences for wild populations, and yet they have allowed unfettered collecting of species now commonly bred to still be taken from the wild after 10 years. I guess it's like the eastern states and pokies - once governments get on the revenue drip they have difficulty weaning themselves off it - and WA has other enormous imposts on keepers as well, including the new quarantine "inspection" fee. Bizarre indeed...

Jamie

Yes very bizarre. Also the limitations on captive breeding and restrictions on clutches sold makes it hard to promote breeding.

 

[Bushman]

Yes very bizarre. Also the limitations on captive breeding and restrictions on clutches sold makes it hard to promote breeding.

What limitations and restrictions are imposed?

 

[PilbaraPythons]

If I get the go ahead , I will certainly give it a good crack

what so your going to catch these species?

 

[Snowman]

What limitations and restrictions are imposed?

Keepers can only sell one clutch per year. If you breed two clutches then you are stuck with one of them till the following year
Keepers have to pay a dealer ($50) to transfer any animal to another keeper. Regional keepers have no access to dealers often so cant move any animals bred.

 

[DaReptileBoy]

Good Luck!

If I get the go ahead , I will certainly give it a good crack

 

[PilbaraPythons]

Thanks, for 2 of the species I am going to need it lol

Good Luck!

 

[Snowman]

Thanks, for 2 of the species I am going to need it lol

Other than RSP which one will be hard to find? NWCP or Boiga?

 

[Pythoninfinite]

Do they still persist with that absolutely stupid, counterproductive and nonsensical "Farmer's Licence" Snowy? It was the the most unbelievably stupid impost on the potential to increase captive breeding. Mawson, Wyre and a couple of others cooked up some very weird stuff in WA. I believe Mawson is now delivering his expertise (NOT) at the Perth Zoo...

Jamie

 

[Snowman]

Do they still persist with that absolutely stupid, counterproductive and nonsensical "Farmer's Licence" Snowy? It was the the most unbelievably stupid impost on the potential to increase captive breeding. Mawson, Wyre and a couple of others cooked up some very weird stuff in WA. I believe Mawson is now delivering his expertise (NOT) at the Perth Zoo...

Jamie

Yeah can't say mawson will be missed at dec.
The farmers license didn't take off and has been dropped. I feel captive breeding would be more efficient if they allowed keeper to keeper transfers and had no restrictions on clutches sold. Last I heard they were talking about increasing the number of clutches that can be sold, rather than just abolishing the stupid rule.
I think they under estimated how quickly the hobby would grow here. All returns and licenses are kept in hard copy files rather than being logged electronically. Can you imagine the room that must take up!
The quarterly returns got too much and were changed to annual returns. Still no carbon copies so we have to make duplicates as we need all records on hand in hard copy form.
The WAHS expo was very successful and raised a lot of money for the society. I think their last bank balance was $19k. It was a good indicator of how much more the hobby can or will grow.

 

[adderboy]

That's the thing, isn't it? They dropped the farmer's licence, but they are still restricting breeding of species by imposing clutch sale limits. I can only interpret this as a form of financial addiction by the Dept to the royalty earned on wild take. Limit breeding so that there is still a demand for wild stock. It is also the only explanation I can think of as to why they still permit wild take of SWCPs and Stimson's. The original reason for permitting wild take was to establish a viable breeding population in captivity and that was achieved years ago with these two species, despite the ridiculous limitations put on breeders.

It's taken a very long time for things to change and I guess we'll keep trying...

S

 

[Snowman]

The east coast are about to get a whole lot more variation in their pygmy pythons!!!

Well this statement is no longer true... At least for another five years...

- - - Updated - - -

That's the thing, isn't it? They dropped the farmer's licence, but they are still restricting breeding of species by imposing clutch sale limits. I can only interpret this as a form of financial addiction by the Dept to the royalty earned on wild take. Limit breeding so that there is still a demand for wild stock. It is also the only explanation I can think of as to why they still permit wild take of SWCPs and Stimson's. The original reason for permitting wild take was to establish a viable breeding population in captivity and that was achieved years ago with these two species, despite the ridiculous limitations put on breeders.

It's taken a very long time for things to change and I guess we'll keep trying...

S

Yep and wild caught imbricata and stimi's that are nice are still selling fast as there isn't enough captive stock. The takers are being way more selective now. And it seems that a lot of the breeders are not selective at all with animals that they pair. Some of the imbricata that Niall and Marcus are getting on takers license are far more colourful than anything I have seen in the hobby to date. I guess with a closed gene pool I would like as many variations as possible in the hobby over here. And I would like to see more captive breeding of the more interesting specimens.
It's clear in the very early days that some of the animals taken were very average looking as far as pattern and colour are concerned. No doubt the market then was suited to it. As people just wanted an animal, with little regard to the appearance of it. I still see first time buyers with this mind set. 'A snake is a snake....' Or maybe the dull drab stimi's are preferred by some people. I guess my point is, while I support the reduction of wild caught stimi's and imbricata I think the idea of forms not represented is worth considering. Perhaps a higher royalty or bag limits each year?

I guess in the end, if they don't address the captive breeding then there is always going to be a demand.

One taker told my friend he paid DPaW $15k in taking royalties recently... That's some decent money for such a small period too.

 

[Tristan]

Tristan,
Based on care requirements alone, Rough-scaled Pythons are a Category 3 animal. However, the level of difficulty in caring for an animal is not the sole criterion used in determining its category.

The criteria for Cat 5 from the 2002 Regs: “Category 5 pet herpetofauna is fauna that the Minister considers
(a) is dangerous;
(b) is threatened or endangered in the wild;
(c) has highly specialised feeding or housing requirements; or
(d) is very difficult to keep in captivity.”

The RSP has not been evaluated in term of its conversation status. It has, however been put on the WA List of Declared Fauna as “Priority One: Poorly-known species (on threatened lands)”. This list relates to legislation in the 1950 Act, as follows...
WILDLIFE CONSERVATION ACT 1950 - SECT 14

1. The Minister may, from time to time by notice published in the Government Gazette , declare that any fauna specified in the notice is for the purposes of this Act fauna which is likely to become extinct, or is rare, or otherwise in need of special protection and while such declaration is in operation

From the department... Such specially protected wildlife (fauna and flora) is considered to be "threatened".

I would suggest that the ‘threatened’ tag is the justification for putting it into Category 5. Whether that is the rationale behind doing so is highly questionable.

Blue

yeah cheers Blue, i have read and aware of how they classify the animals, but as you said its highly questionable, ok so the RSP is endangered, it will only take a couple of seasons to get enough breeding pairs in the keepers community producing enough offspring to stock the keepers with out the need for any more wild catches, and vola in a matter of a few years the endangered species becomes one that's got a healthy population again, sure its a bit more complicated than how i've dumb ed it down but essentially that's it lol.

i am glad new species have been approved and big kudos to those involved in making this happen.

 

[PilbaraPythons]

Jamie , I can't really see any licensed takers knocking over termite mounds looking for Pygmys considering how easy they are to find anyway by spot lighting. In winter it may tempt some people but I would be surprised if they are licenced takers. Being that they are cat 4 reptiles, offered for sale cheaply, the export ban and the fact that there are still not huge numbers of cat 4 licensed keepers, the market will be quite limited and the demand should be very quickly filled in the short term.