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Black Timber Rattlesnake Market
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by sceniccityreptiles on February 1, 2006
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Historically “black” timbers have been found in the United States north of Latitude 36.4n and east of longitude 97.8w. However, the morph and entire species has been expatriated from much of this traditional range. If am not up to speed on all state laws, but I think KY, WV, VA, PA were the only states left where black phase timbers could be collected. KY passed new legislation last year. The bill I read would have outlawed keeping and collecting them. I heard that that bill was revised and allowed for the keeping of native species, but I am uncertain if that is true. WV has legislation on the table that will outlaw collecting there and PA has a revision on the table that will place a hefty fee on collecting and allow collectors to take one adult male per year. That will leave only VA where they can be legally collected and the true blacks occur only in the northern part of the state and are very difficult to locate. I am foreseeing a price spike in the next couple years on black timbers. The ones already in captivity and their offspring will soon be the only supply. I feel that the timber rattlesnake is probably the second most widely kept venomous reptile, with the copperhead probably being first. With a very limited supply and a healthy demand, we could see prices of these animals finally start to rival the boa and ball market. I have friends in the business that breed balls and boas, and each year I have to tolerate their scoffing at the money they make verses what I make on rattlesnakes, but perhaps these changes will even things up a little. Timbers should only produce every other year for optimum results, so I am adding a second female this week in hopes of alternating them and producing about 10 little ones each year. Of course snake economics had never been an exact science, but this reasoning seems sound to me. Any other opinions on the matter?
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RE: Black Timber Rattlesnake Market
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by DubVeeJames on February 1, 2006
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The law on the table in WV deals more with exotics. All native reptiles are already considered wildlife here, which means you can't buy, sell, or trade them. I talked to a DNR officer last week and he wasn't exactly sure of what you can and can't do, but from what he said I think you can catch and keep them in WV, but you can't buy, sell or trade them.
James
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RE: Black Timber Rattlesnake Market
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by MattHarris on February 2, 2006
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When the day arrives, that I see a het for super-salmon-rust striped black timber for sale, is the day I get rid of every snake I own. These snakes are a valuable part of our ecosystems, and were respected enough to be displayed on early US flags. The last thing we need is for them to become some commodity like the garbage pet trade species, that ball pythons and designer boas have become. The flip side is that if they are bred in captivity, and their price is kept low($50-75), there is little financial incentive for scumbag poachers to waste their time collecting them.
Hope I didn't offend anyone, but that's my opinion.
MCH
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RE: Black Timber Rattlesnake Market
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by JHarrison on February 2, 2006
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You can collect at this time 4 wild caught Crotalus horridus in KY. But you can not sell wild caught specimens. With a permit you can breed and sell the offspring of these animals.
I have to agree with Matt Harris's post .
Jim Harrison
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RE: Black Timber Rattlesnake Market
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by sceniccityreptiles on February 2, 2006
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Actually, I was speaking only about “normal” black timber rattlesnakes and how changing laws may affect the price structure of these animals. However, since you took it in this direction. How does color morphs for the pet trade affect the ecosystem? There was an amelanistic cane (or timber) collected in Alabama couple years ago. I heard that snake was up for sale for $10k. Of course, I am not going to invest 10 weeks of my salary on one snake, but if it breeds out and het babies become available, I will surely add them to my Het EDB and cotton mouths. I enjoy the natural beauty of all my pit vipers and there is nothing I like more then collecting natural color phases and pattern designs and reproducing them in captivity, but morphs are also beautiful and I enjoy seeing what can be facilitated from naturally occurring recessive genes and select breeding. Take the amelanistic cottonmouth for example. The original male was collected in the area where all three sub-sp intergrade. He was actually a very ugly animal, but they took him and his recessive genes, breed him out using very pretty natural FL females and produced a line of strikingly beautiful animals. I didn’t get into keeping and breeding snakes for the money, if I did, I would have surely went with boas and balls. I am in it because I love south eastern pit vipers more then anyone in the world, however, I wrote the check last night to feed my 100 snake collection for one week and believe me, if the market will allow me to turn more profit from my off spring, either thru diminished supply of natural animals or by increased demand for color morphs, I am in favor of it.
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