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a phase im going through
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by Peter84Jenkins on January 22, 2009
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I am wondering how many can sympathize with me. I am 25 years old and have been keeping herps for quite a while (or so it feels for my life is only a blip compared to others). I am finding that keeping herps is not as fulfilling as it was a few years back. I am finding that I get more happiness taking my camera in the filed and bringing pictures back in lieu of snakes. It’s not that I don’t enjoy it I am just finding other avenues of enjoying herps. Is there anyone who can sympathize? I am considering a major downsize in my collection in order to meet these new feelings. It’s weird and kind of worries me. I never thought I would see the day that I’d rather NOT keep herps!
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RE: a phase im going through
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by Cro on January 22, 2009
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Daniel, I think I know how you feel, as I have at times kept large collections of reptiles, and have at times let the collection dwindle down to two or three special animals.
You have produced some great animals, and I know firsthand how difficult it has been for you to sell the young you produced. Part of that was due to competition, and part of that was due to this lousey economy we have been in for the last few years.
Unfortunatly, I can not see things getting better for several years.
Perhaps it would be good for you to take a break and concentrate on photography for a while. Rent a table at the upcoming South Carolina Spring Repticon Show in March, and see if you can sell some of the extra animals. Then keep the few that are favorites, and give yourself a bit of time to enjoy other things.
Eventually, I can see you coming back to a larger collection of reptiles again, but perhaps now is not the time.
Best Regards
John Z
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RE: a phase im going through
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by Rob_Carmichael on January 23, 2009
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Listen to John, I've been there done that. Even though I oversee a very large collection of herps, at home, I've widdled my collection down to just a small handful of animals that I enjoy working with - breeding is simply for fun and I would rather showcase my animals in nice big exhibits that look cool.
I, too, have found that as I get older (and I can only wish I was as young as Peter!) I am getting pulled more and more into the field. I find far more enrichment and joy in studying herps in the wild and enjoying nature than keeping them in a captive setting. I think that's also why I'm disliking racks more and more. To cram a large cobra or any snake in a small rack just seems like a slap in the face of these magnificent animals. I get the usually B.S. argument "hey man, my snakes are fat and healthy and breed all the time in my racks". Well, if that's how we apply "happiness" to herps, I think we are missing the boat. I know we can't anthropomorphize, however, when you spend time in the field you will quickly realize just how far even small herps move within their habitat. I'm radio tracking western fox snakes right now in an effort to save them in our county and I'm just blow away by har far they travel. And yet we cram them in little sweater boxes in racks and say
"they're happy". No way.
Have fun with photography and getting in the field - you'll be glad you did it. Who knows, maybe you'll sell pics instead of herps!
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RE: a phase im going through
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by Rob_Carmichael on January 23, 2009
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nice typo on my part:
blow away by har
Should read "blown away by how"...if I didn't correct myself that would bug me all day!
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RE: a phase im going through
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by Peter84Jenkins on January 23, 2009
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I like Robs example of finding enrichment in the field I guess it’s safe to say I feel the same. I think the observation of herps in the wild is much more fulfilling now. Like I said I know there are folks much older and wiser than myself in this hobby so I guess it is that group im reaching out to. I really think the younger generation of hobbyist is missing out on all of the other ways to enjoy herps like a good book for example. I am taken aback when I go to shows and see 16 year olds buying spitters and the vendors allow this. And the only knowledge of spitters these kids possess is from that muffdaddy video on youtube. Thanks for all the advice. Thanks for the compliments Jon.
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RE: a phase im going through
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by jay72 on January 23, 2009
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This happens. I find that its better for me to keep a select few of my favorites. I find this works best for me as I can provide each with the appropriate size enclosure and stay on top of cage maitenance and proper husbandry whenever there is a need.
Personaly I never liked just warehousing snakes as its hard and alot of work to give them all 100% which is what they deserve....
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RE: a phase im going through
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by FSB on January 23, 2009
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Daniel, I went through much the same thing at around your age, and except for a few "pets" almost stopped keeping snakes and other reptiles altogether for much of the 1980's, preferring to look for them in the field and study them second-hand, in books and zoological collections. I have always been happiest in the midst of some primeval-looking coastal swamp away from all the noise and confusion of society, and have always preferred to view reptiles in situ.
I would love to be transported back to the Jurassic and see what this world really looked like before we got ahold of it, roaming Allosaurs notwithstanding (you know, I'm sure that in reality dinosaurs, just like great white sharks, were just another type of animal, trying to live, and not the fierce monsters they are portrayed to be by Spielberg et al. Chances are, even the most fearsome-looking carnivores would not even recognize a human as natural prey and would be more likely to run away in confusion than anything. Not a good premise for a movie, though).
It was, lamentably, impossible for me to stay in such magical places forever, and bringing reptiles home and caring for them was a way to stay connected with those places, however imperfect when compared to the real thing. That's one reason I've always liked to house them in natural-looking habitats so they can look as much as possible the way they do in the wild. If I could have, I'd have been more than happy to just live out in a swamp, but since that was unrealistic, I would bring pieces of the swamp home. I still like to be surrounded by a jungle of exotic plants.
I'm not a fan of the acquisitive approach to collecting reptiles. as if they were stamps or coins to be checked off on a list. I have known people who keep snakes squirreled away, almost in secret, and have no interest in sharing them or really learning more about them, just possessing them. I find no joy in that. My desire has always been to display them and share them with the public, and I'd much rather take care of a large educational collection in a zoo than my own house.
However, since the 1990's I have seen the favorite, irreplaceable haunts of my youth being developed and destroyed forever at such an alarming rate that I felt compelled to become involved once again in maintaining these creatures and trying to educate people about them (and learn as much as I can from them myself) before they are lost for all time. Gaboon vipers may seem relatively common and easily acquired for now, but really, that could change overnight. It's happened many times before.
The opportunity to interact with reptiles and other animals since early childhood has caused me to care a great deal about them, and the natural world they live in, and I believe there is no better way to get people to care about such things than by creating opportunities for them to see and interact with them firsthand. Most people wouldn't even dream of entering a swamp full of green-head flies and mosquitos just to look at reptiles, so the only way most of them are ever going to experience such things is going to be in a display or educational program. Not even television can compare with seeing a given reptile "in person."
There is an African proverb which says: In the end, we will conserve only what we love. We will love only what we understand, and we will understand only what we have been taught.
Unlike the old days, I never collect specimens from secure, unspoiled habitats anymore. I only remove wild specimens from threatened or compromised habitats where they have no hope of survival, and I figure they are better off in captivity, performing "public relations work" for their remaining kin in the wild than being ground up under a bulldozer. Long ago I would bring herps home to Winston-Salem from coastal NC, dutifully returning many of them to the same areas later and collecting more. Today, many of those old habitats are just wiped out - gone - and my conscientious collecting efforts were all for nought. Better to have kept and bred them, I now see.
As long as people keep seeing strip malls, golf courses, boat marinas and housing developments as being some sort of improvement over the natural heritage we have inherited, countless millions and millions of years in the making, we are in big trouble. And I can't believe otherwise, as we continue to barter away that which has real and unfathomable value in exchange for that which has value only because we SAY it does (i.e. $$$).
Incidentally, everyone does realize that the dollar sign is basically a snake on a stick, right?
In the old days, buildings, houses, towns and roads were constructed in harmony with the natural surroundings, working around and incorporating what was already there. North Carolina was just so beautiful and spooky and haunting in the 1960's, with big ol' oak trees shading ancient farmhouses. These days we just plough right through everything, wiping the slate clean, totally erasing whatever was there and starting over, building something that is completely artificial and in the end, completely souless and worthless. I swear, time was such places were home to spirits and ghosts, but they are all gone now, destroyed by boorish people who lack the sensitivity to perceive and value such things (I'm trying really hard not to use the "Y" word here), yet they always seem to have the money and power to overwhelm, discredit and crush those that do.
Oh well - I guess a fatal devotion to lost causes must be encoded in the Southern DNA. I just hate to think that my son will never have the opportunity to see the world as I once did.
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