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i will release the babys
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by slayer33 on September 19, 2005
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thanks to the kind words of some I will feed the baby copper heads and release them i will keep my cb bread one and keep relesasing the new borns
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RE: i will release the babys
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by rickyduckworth on September 19, 2005
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everything we do upsets the balance of nature, EVERYTHING....so wouldn't it be wise to keep nature and private collections seperate unless you have taken all the precautions to make sure that it's ok to release part of your private collection into the wild?
or at least make sure you aren't introducing more than just the snakes (diseases, bacteria, etc)........
i know i've reused my cages between one snake and another as my collection changes, and even though i quarantine everything for 30 days, you still never know......
not to mention that there's a big chance those babies will never be adults, but only food for something else....sure, that's the cycle of life, but we interfere by everything we do......why draw the line there....
only being objective.....your heart is in the right place.......i remember mentioning releasing a snake back into the wild that was a LTC and everyone jumped on me with the above points......
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RE: i will release the babys
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by Cro on September 19, 2005
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It would still be better to release the young back into the area their mother was captured. It would be where they would be if they were born in the wild. And in that habitat, they will be able to pick up on scent trails left by other snakes, which will lead them to winter dinning sites, just as if they had been born in that area naturally.
Sure, some of them will be eaten by predators. And there is a slight chance you might introduce some disease from your private collection into the wild population, but that is a slim possibility.
Chances are, some of the young will survive, and replace the ones you took from the area, just as they would have done if the gravid female had been left in place.
If the young are sold at a reptile show, there is a 100% chance that there will be none in the wild to replace those you captured. The only reason someone would keep all the babys from a captive born snake is greed. The person is seeing $ signs, and thinking about how much money they can make.
So I will go with the possibility that has the greatest chance in helping the wild population, and release the young, despite there being odds agains them. Hopefully, some will survive. The odds are just what nature had in store for them if they had been born in the wild.
Back when I worked at Atlanta Zoo, we breed hundreds of Morletts Crocodiles, and after we raised them to 2 or 3 feet in length, they were shipped back to their native countrys, and released. I am sure that some wound up as belts, or shoes, or dinner, but I have to believe that a fair number of them did survive and are responsible for the population of Morletts Crocks now in those countrys that is way better now than when we started the project. When we started, they were critically endangered animals. Now, they are making a comeback and some areas have set up protection for them, thanks in part of the work at AZP.
JohnZ
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RE: i will release the babys
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by Cro on September 19, 2005
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As far as Ricky`s comments about releasing a Long Term Captive back into the wild, well, that is a whole different thing from releasing new born young.
I have a timber rattlesnake that I have kept for over 25 years in captivity, and would worry about its survival chances if it were released back into the wild. Not so much that it could not find food, but that it could not find an suitable area to hibernate.
If I knew exactly where it was originally captured, I would have no problem releasing it in that precise spot. If it were released there, I am sure it would use its memory of scent clues to find its ancesteral hibernation den. But since it was captured by someone else, I do not know precicely where it was found, and thus would not release it.
If however I knew where I had captured a gravid female copperhead or rattlesnake, I would have no problem releasing its young back into that very spot. That is because the young snakes would be able to cue into the scent trails that would lead them to their ancesteral denning sites.
Kind of like Salmon returning to their spawning site, from thousands of miles accross the ocean.
If the young are released where their gravid mother was captured, they will have a very good chance of survival.
JohnZ
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RE: i will release the babys
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by captiveherps on September 20, 2005
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In many places its against the law to release captive animals back into the wild, even native ones.
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RE: i will release the babys
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by Cro on September 20, 2005
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As James said, in many areas it is illegal to release animals back into the wild. This rule is mostly designed to keep animals that become accustomed to being fed by people from being let loose. Good examples would be raccoons, coyotee, opossum, fox, etc. Mostly higher animals that have lost there fear of humans and might become a problem if they approached humans seeking food. I do not think that this would apply to new born baby snakes, as they would have had no chance to associate humans with food, and would not come begging for food into peoples backyards. So, law or not, I still think it is better to return some or most of the young back into the wild, where the gravid female was captured. If a possum cop tickets me for that, well, I will fight it in court, as I still think I am doing the right thing, and think that I have scientific evidence to proove that what I am doing is beneficial in restoring the wild population.
Best Regards JohnZ
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