Posted by:
oldherper
at Tue Aug 19 00:58:07 2003 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by oldherper ]
It can have devastating effects on the wild populations. I believe these animals come from the Rattlesnake Roundups/Rodeos. I don't think that the number of Rattlesnakes being taken from the wild for the pet trade is really all that significant. Most of those animals are captured during "road-cruising", or in the field a relatively short distance from the roads. So, you are only depleting a percentage of the population within easy walking distance of the roads, and there's really not that many taken anyway. The population can easily support that collecting. The Rattlesnake Roundups, however, are a completely different story. Those guys frequently raid den sites for the animals in the west, and gas gopher tortoise burrows in the east for Eastern Diamondbacks. The Eastern Diamondback population is probably 10% of what it was 30 years ago. Also, when they gas the Gopher Tortoise burrows, they affect everything else that uses the burrow too, including Eastern Indigos, the Gopher Tortoise itself and others. These events are something that HAS to be stopped. The problem is that they have the political support because the events bring much needed money into these rural communities.
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RE: restraunts/ rattlesnakes....... - oldherper, Tue Aug 19 00:58:07 2003