Haha, definitely! When the so-called conservation department of the government simultaneously demands some people freeze the offpring of an endangered species to kill them (????#&@^@&) and watches as others get huge grants to take them from the wild and fail to breed them, the bigger the audience the better!
I wonder how many turtles have been washed out to sea in the recent flooding on the NSW North Coast and mid north coast. I wouldn't mind betting that the endangered populations that used to be there before the floods are probably now critically endangered if not possibly wiped out or functionally extinct.
Hi mate, great comment and yes you are correct. We however have one major ace up our sleeve.. Myself and Marc Dorse have unlocked this species' secrets, (separately without collaboration with one another prior 2021) and have been captive breeding them for almost a decade now at ZERO cost to the Australian Government and Aussie taxpayers... Now... while Marc is the first documented breeder of the species in captivity, his hatch/survival rates are substantially less than mine and I have given him some pointers as to what he's been doing wrong and what he needs to change so that this coming season will yield him far better results, 2021/22 will be a huge season for purvisi in QLD. Now when a policy is introduced that renders our combined proven efforts/activities "illegal" yet allows for a reptile park to A. remove animals from the wild for the purpose of captive breeding and B, secure government AND taxpayer funding to the tune of $970,000 (so far) to do so for ZERO result.... it leaves a bitter taste in the mouths of ALL involved when a couple of "nobody hobbyists" in QLD are doing it already... Hiding behind a zoo title and being backed by crowd funding and government grants doesn't mean a damn thing in the REAL world. I'm not a 9-5 employee, My turtles are in my home, there's hatchlings in tanks on my office desk, there's incubators beside my bed, there's a mattress with a pillow and blanket on the floor beside my main breeding tanks... You only get out what you put in, you can't just buy results.
There's a lot of bureaucratic nonsense, gobblygook and doubletalk but at the end of the day facts are still facts. I can produce purvisi hatchies every season for the next 50 straight years for $0.00.... and if I refuse to destroy them, who's going to hang me for it?? Andrew Mullens from QPWS told Marc and I just this week that it would never happen.
The road is long and the hill is steep but we will prevail... of this I am certain.
Here is my thoughts on a media story for the message to get out there. "There is growing concern at just how much wildlife including rare and unique turtles have been washed out to sea in the recent catastrophic 1 in a 100 year flooding event on the NSW north and mid north coasts. Of particular concern would be turtle species that are found only in single rivers that have been absolutely inundated. It is entirely possible if not probable that several previously endangered species including the Manning River Turtle (Flaviemys purvisi) are probably now critically endangered if not wiped out or been rendered functionally extinct in the wild as a result of this disaster. Thank goodness that a captively held (private and public) and bred (by private keepers only) population exists because it is highly likely about to become a rescue and recovery population. Private wildlife keepers have argued for years with the bureaucracy at NSW NPWS that they should support and consider the activities of private keepers as a valuable resource with the potential to mitigate extinction risk with rescue and recovery populations in the event of these types of disasters. Private wildlife keepers have repeatedly suggested the current situation was always going to happen with at existentially at risk species. A single weather event like we have just had or fire disaster similar to the 2019-2020 fires and one or more entire species could be potentially wiped out. Why the conservationist elements in Government and government wildlife and regulatory authorities can't or probably more to the point choose not to see the benefits of privately held and bred wildlife as a backstop in the event of natural disasters is a serious issue that should be investigated. Clearly there is some biased if not bigoted short sightedness with ignoring some of benefits that private wildlife keepers can provide for conservation efforts of the wildlife they keep. If ever there was an argument for the contribution private wildlife keeping and breeding of endangered wildlife can have as a potential source for rescue and recovery populations then surely here it is"
I think the media should eat this up. What do you think Kev, maybe its time to go to the media and start telling your story, our story. Most journalists don't actually know how to write let alone do something original, you generally have to give the copy to them on a silver platter so I thought I would get the ball rolling with this little opinion piece. You are welcome to use it however you want including binning it or chopping it up etc. I just wanted to offer some support for a fight worth fighting, don't give up.
Mark Hawker
[automerge]1616765290[/automerge]
Haha, definitely! When the so-called conservation department of the government simultaneously demands some people freeze the offpring of an endangered species to kill them (????#&@^@&) and watches as others get huge grants to take them from the wild and fail to breed them, the bigger the audience the better!
I don't want to hijack Kev's thread, but I want to build on your comments about the ludicrous situation of quasi government authorities and grants. Probably about ten or so years ago, I came across a guy who was breeding Tymapanocryptis centralis, the Centralian Earless dragon. I had kept and bred these myself for probably 8 - 10 years or so before that. My population had crashed and died out and I wanted to replace them so I ended up with 10 or 12 of these little guys from him.
Any way long story short, this guy was actually a resident of the ACT and highly placed in the executive of the local herpetological Association. He was actually approached by the wildlife regulatory authority in the ACT to gauge his interest in participating in a Government sanctioned breeding program for the critically endangered Tympanocryptis pinguicolla, (recently reclassified as Tympanocryptis lineata). He mentioned his potential involvement in this program to me at the time and the fact that the authorities had approached him because of his experience with breeding 2 species of earless dragons. Wow I thought, how good is this. Finally a far sighted wildlife regulator that actually sees the benefit in involving private keepers and breeders in rescue and recovery breeding programs. I was genuinely excited, not the least of which was because of the potential for the species to come into the private wildlife keeping fraternity. I have always had a strong interest in Earless dragons and was keen to see this species being bred in captivity.
Anyway, nothing came of the approach and I heard nothing further about this program until 5 or 6 years ago when I saw a media article (ABC TV news story) trumpeting the success of one of the universities in the ACT (Canberra University I think) with their captive breeding program that they had been working on for several years. What really irked me was that they had just been awarded $380,000 in government grants to continue their "trailblazing efforts as the first to breed the species in captivity". This new grant was over and above a previous grant to get the program up and running. I was told the university convinced the ACT government to use them and keep private individuals out of the whole process.
I have no doubt that had any of a number of committed private keepers including myself been given the same opportunities to access the species through collect from the wild permits we would have bred the bloody things for nothing, NO cost what so ever to the government. Yet, somehow or another the efforts of the people at the university were lauded as ground breaking and worthy of TV coverage. What a croc of s... At the time of this groundbreaking success at the university I had already bred 5 of the 9 or 10 known species at the time.
Why does this stuff happen. As I say I would have bred them for nothing. No need for a grant, yet nearly half a million dollars get's thrown at a university to do exactly what I have been doing for years. Like I say the huha over this whole process just thoroughly p...ed me off, because there was never any opportunity for private individuals to make a contribution because of the crappy attitudes of the authorities and the universities peddling their own agenda, their so called expertise and the need to fund that so called expertise.
This type of crap has got to stop. Sure, fund the universities, but don't restrict the opportunity for others particularly private individuals to make a contribution to the field of herpetology in order to justify the funding process to those universities.
Mark Hawker
