The regulations placed on Florida's Native big snakes are protecting them OUT of existence, this is not a simple theory and I don't think this information should be considered merely anecdotal, I have 22 years of field experience here in Central Florida, documented or not. The Indigos, Pines, EDB Rattlesnake, and even the Coachwhips population status has been misdiagnosed, they are not just secretive, and the outcome of this mis-diagnosis, will/should be considered oneday, on a scale not short of the conversion of the everglades, very soon the big snakes will be nearly gone in the "Flat Florida" this I find as FACT,(south of ocala), and due to the growing pet trades ignorant(in my opinion) fascination with the albinos there will not be enough diversity in genes to sustain NORMAL phase breeding programs in the future, especially true for the pinesnakes, but other contenders are fire ants, roads, forest fires and the feral hogs. BTW why do we not exterminate these invasive beasts, they’ve been devistating our ecology for what, five HUNDRED years, we should not treat them any differently than the Boas and Pythons, I should not have to explain this to officials but it would seem someone is sleeping over there. HOW DOES THE FWC SLOGAN GO AGAIN? The class III collectors are in the woods alot, at times on hands and knees and following/inspecting sand trails, ground and tree burrows, trash piles, fallen logs, ect… I/WE can tell you there just not there anymore. I, personally have seen over fifty Indigos in my years, and I used to find EDB, Indigo, Pinesnake, and Coachwhip sheds in the grass, and commonly! but NO MORE! (I have never sold any of the snakes on that list) but I have often placed Corn snakes from different locations into the same bag or cage and never seen or heard of a single death due to pathogens, this has to be a very rare occurrence, at best, and really makes me question the competence of these lab officials responsable for wrighting the laws regarding releasing captive bred, "native" snakes, which would give the snakes the foot hold they need, and give visitors to the snakey state something to see (and more and more these days seeking "snakes" in our parks but to no avail), other than a deer or pig or armoredillo... No big snakes, in a state renowned for SNAKES...the laws are only assuring/assisting the big Snake’s demise, I keep saying this ...“THE BIG SNAKES DON’T STAND A CHANCE JUST BEING LEFT ALONE” Their decline started in the 1940s and has gone from 0 to 60 since then, law should require local breeders to breed at least one native species, just for repopulating purposes. And to all whom can't resist blaming the collectors for the status of big snakes, your comments should be directed to the old timers that collected everything in sight, I only collect the little guys, Scarlet kings and ratsnakes, and only for a few months every other year, and this year has been very productive so I clearly haven't put a dent in the populations of these very common species, its the Big snakes that have vanished, the small snakes I'm certain will remain locally common as long as there are woods. Hopefully the proper person reads this and that they really give this "observation" some very serious consideration before their compleatly gone. JB

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