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RE: Mark O'Shea Q&A - 18 month Backlog!
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by Snake17 on February 14, 2005
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P.S.: I understand that there won`t be any more OBA series but you were saying something about a different tv series that might be taking place. Could you tell us anything else about that? Thank you.
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Mark O'Shea Q&A - 18 month Backlog!
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by CJROY on February 14, 2005
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hi mark (guruji),
first of all thanks very much for helping me with my career. i am really greatful to u. thanks once again.
at the same time i am very desapointed by seeing that there will be no more ÓBA in the future.
so r u comming up with any kind of new programmes on reptiles?????
and i hav got some photographs to share with u, if u dont mind wil u give me ur address where i can post them.
waiting for u reply.
regards
chirag
E-mail:herpetofauna_snakes@hotmail.com
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RE: Mark O'Shea Q&A - 18 month Backlog!
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by Mark_OShea on February 15, 2005
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Dear Alex
I am very surprised, and also disappointed, that your mother brought your a Uromastyx back from Matmata. Just because road side vendors are selling animals does not make it okay to buy them. Quite the opposite. I have seen road side ventors selling CITES Appendix I species, the most protected in the world which require an export permit from the country of origin and an import permit from your own country. Uromastyx lizards are not so endangered but they are on Appendix II which controls, limits and monitors trade in these species. Below I am quoting the Appendix II classification which affects Uromastyx
"Appendix II includes species not considered to be under the same threat as those in Appendix I, but which may become so if trade is not regulated. International trade in these species is monitored through a licensing system to ensure that trade can be sustained without detriment to wild populations. Trade in wild, captive bred and artificially propagated specimens is allowed, subject to permit. Approximately 29,000 different species are included in Appendix II, including polar bears, Asiatic cobras, orchids, cacti and carnivorous plants. "
There are four issues here Alex, one of ethics and three of legality.
1. It is very wrong to buy livestock or parts of livestock from people offering to sell them to tourists in foreign countries. The seller says it is okay and legal but it is most certainly not legal and you hand over money and end up either getting away with it or getting arrested. The seller then catches more animals and sells them to more gullible tourists. It is easier than working for a living and many animals either die before being sold, are killed because they did not sell or are kept for long periods in unsanitary condition. By buying you are creating and reinforcing a damaging and illegal business.
2. To export a CITES App.II specimen from Mauritania without an export permit is also illegal but Mauritania has a very poor record for administering CITES regulations. So bad that US Fish and Wildlife are not accepting any CITES species or their derivitives from Mauritania, even with paperwork, let alone with no legal documentation. Mauritania and Somalia have been black-listed in this regard. Protected animals are coming in from neighbouring countries and being trafficked out of these countries with unacceptable documentation.
See http://www.le.fws.gov/PBMauritaniaSomalia.htm
3. Importing a CITES App.II specimen into Romania, which is a signatory of CITES, is illegal without an import permit from the Romanian wildlife authorities. The animal would be confiscated and the person concerned could be fined.
4. I am assuming your mother flew to Mauritania, it is a long drive otherwise, so flying back with a lizard without transporting it in a correct and fitting manner, in a hold with regulated temperature control and safe and secure packaging, is again breaking the law, this time IATA regulations.
Flying livestock around the world is an expensive business, especially for one lizard, and this is what prompts smuggling but uncontrolled small-scale smuggling can do a tremendous amount of damage to the wild populations.
When we were in the Matmata hills one of my drivers was keen to eat every Uromastyx we captured but I prevented him from doing this for the duration that he was working for us. My films are about conservation and care for the wild, I definitely do not wish to encourage the taking of wild animals for commercial reasons so most of my captures go straight back into the wild as soon as we have finished filming them. We only retain specimens required for venom research or similar research projects, usually in the country of origin. I have met with many fantastic and wonderful reptiles and amphibians during the making of my 36 films and I have never brought back any specimens from the films for either myself or our Safari Park Reptile House collection. Temptation must be resisted. Don’t think I would not have liked to keep that beautiful king cobra in the W.Ghats but I got a much better feeling letting her go once she had starred in my film.
Real reptile lovers do not steal animals from the wild, they respect the wild and buy captive bred stock instead.
Turning to a more pleasant matter. The excellent book Asian Pitvipers is published by the German publisher GeitjeBooks of Berlin <order@geitje-books-berlin.de> <www.geitje-books-berlin.de>
And finally, at this moment in time we have no plans to make any more films about reptiles. I am busing myself with writing and lecturing. We are discussing projects for TV but nothing is in the pipeline, certainly nothing international at present, so you may have to make do with the re-runs of OBA.
I am sorry to take such as stern viewpoint above but I have seen what is happening to wild populations of reptiles as well as other animals and it is sickening. I have seen the reptile skin and meat factories of Thailand, the skinned and stuffed endangered species confiscated by the authorities in Peru, the street markets of Iquitos and Belem, endangered CITES I baby red-foot and yellow-foot tortoises for sale to tourists in Buenos Aires, river turtles waiting to be beheaded for the pot in Bangkok, upturned sea turtles awaiting the same fate in Papua New Guinea, monkeys and parrots in cages so small they cannot turn around, emaciated jaguars riddled with worms, the terrible toll that man exerts on the other species on the planet, and I have come to understand that taking endangered animals out of the wild for no good reason is no different to skinning them or stuffing them or eating dried bits of them to make you more virile, it is still removal from the wild.
Yes, animals do have to come out of the wild, for venom research, skin toxin research, legitimate captive breeding programmes etc etc but if everyone who wanted one simply took it, there would soon be none left.
I hope you will take my comments on board and give that Uromastyx the total attention it now deserves.
Mark
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RE: Mark O'Shea Q&A - 18 month Backlog!
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by Mark_OShea on February 15, 2005
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Dear Chirag
I am pleased you found my comments helpful and I wish you the best in your chosen herp career. I hear from lots of people from India, Romania, Bulgaria, Cen. & S.America, Africa etc, all asking how to get into herps. You people all come from countries with far more snakes, lizards and amphibians than I do (we have 3, 3 and about 10 respectively) and I managed it. Education and Experience are the keys, very time.
Moving on, no more OBAs, no, and nothing else planned I'm afraid. There seems to be a move in television where dumbing down is the name of the game, dumbing down and sensationalisation. I distrust both. The animals are sensational without terms like "deadly", "amazing", "incredible" that executives seem to thrive upon (and which admittedly gets more viewers) but these words make me uncomfortable and I try to avoid their usage. In a competitive world with more and more channels, TV feels the need to pander more and more to the lowest common denominator, viewers who want to be entertained not educated, absorb but not think, which is shame because I think we live to learn. I believe one of my best films was Green Blood, with Chris Austin, looking at why small skinks in PNG had developed such alien blood pigment. I went into the film with one theory and came out with a totally different idea, and there was only one snake in the whole show, at the beginning, a rear-fanged brown treesnake. The film made you think and thinking is good.
Anyway, I am coming up with some interesting film ideas but they have to be discussed with TV companies before anything happens so it will be a while before you see anything new. In the meantime I am busy writing, my 4th book out later in 2005, and lecturing around the UK.
The photos. Well actually I do not put my postal address out in the public domain. Where I used to live I occasionally received some 'unusual gifts' so if you want to send some photographs please send them to the Safari Park address.
Mark O'Shea, c/o Matt Swatman, Reptile House, West Midland Safari Park, Bewdley, Worcestershire, DY12 1LF, U.K.
Regards
Mark
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RE: Mark O'Shea Q&A - 18 month Backlog!
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by Snake17 on February 15, 2005
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Point taken Mark. My mom bought me the Uro from Tunisia not Matmata, I forgot. She bought it from a pet shop and she had no ideea it is illegal. Thanks again. Best regards, Alex S.
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Mark O'Shea Q&A - 18 month Backlog!
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by CJROY on February 15, 2005
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thanks mark for replying again. i just opened ur mail.
its very nice. thanks.
and by the way, the photos, i will be sending them in the address u hav mentioned.
and ur 4th book, thats great,on which contry?????
when u r publishing??? and whats its name???
pls reply
regards
chirag
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RE: Mark O'Shea Q&A - 18 month Backlog!
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by Mark_OShea on February 15, 2005
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In truth Alex, many people do not realise they are breaking the law buying and bringing back wildlife to their home countries but I am sure you can understand the problems this could create if everyone who went on holiday brought back a live animal. I am sure your mother bought the Uromastyx with the best intentions and unaware of the legalities. I am also sure she would not do it again so if this email correspondance makes a few people aware of the situation it will have been worthwhile.
Best wishes
Mark
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RE: Mark O'Shea Q&A - 18 month Backlog!
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by Mark_OShea on February 15, 2005
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Hi Chirag
My 4th book is entitled Venomous Snakes of the World (a well worn but descriptive title) and it will cover around 150 species with photographs of some very rare species from all around the world, especially species with which I have personal experience (which is many). It will include many personal insights and experiences with venomous snakes too. A large, coffee-table size book of 160 pages, it will be published by New Holland in the UK and it looks like Princeton University Press in the US. It will be available worldwide from October 2005.
I am now working on two more titles.
Hope that answers your query.
Regards
Mark
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Mark O'Shea Q&A - 18 month Backlog!
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by CJROY on February 17, 2005
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hi mark,
sorry for disturbing u so often. hope u dont mind. i recieved ur letter. thanks. but what to do i hav got a whole room of question, but relax this is my last set of question for this month, pls reply
1.in many episods i hav seen ,u visit the areas local markets. (like in the episord mystri snake(ser4))
u also find some endangered snakes too. what u actually do with them?? u buy them and relise them or report to the the local wild life authority.
2. are u working now for national geographic, because i saw u over there teaching those children how to deal with desert creatures???
3.what about ur website when u r going to modify it.
pls reply
regards
chirag
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Mark O'Shea Q&A - 18 month Backlog!
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by CJROY on February 17, 2005
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and one more thing mark. u teamed up with minto chowdhury in ur flim pythons grip. do u have his address. if yes, will u be kind enough to give.
thanx again
chirag
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