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Pocono
Collectors threaten wildlife
November 26, 2006
Like many naturalists, my passion for animals was largely molded during childhood years when friends joined me in collecting "expeditions" into the wilds around our neighborhood. In our case, the wilds were vacant lots, city parks and marshlands on the outskirts of Queens, New York City, most of which have long since been paved over and developed.
In these green oases we left no discarded tire, plywood board or abandoned refrigerator unturned in our quest for garter snakes, box turtles or Fowler's toads. We captured these treasures, brought them home in bags on our bicycles, and transferred them to fish tanks and cages. This was before the dawn of the environmental movements of the 1970s, and it never occurred to any of us that these exciting explorations could ever become endangered by overcollecting.
For me, at least, these were introductions into the world of nature and the sparks that ignited an educational and professional career of a lifetime.
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Today, we know better. Populations of many reptiles and amphibians throughout the world are in trouble, and collecting them from the wild is just one of many contributing causes. Global warming is drying out breeding ponds, water pollution and destruction of the ozone layer are leading to mutations and deaths, a strange fungus is causing massive kills all around the world, and overdevelopment is adding roadkills to this mortality list as these animals attempt to travel between breeding and hibernation areas.
Collecting snakes, frogs, turtles and other herps — either for the pet trade or by individuals — may be the proverbial straw that breaks the camel's back for some of these species beleaguered by other threats. Solving the complex global issues that face wildlife is very difficult and time-consuming, but the solution to overcollecting is often as simple as passing new laws — and that's just what the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission has recently done.
After numerous meetings with the various special-interest groups hunters, breeders, collectors, park rangers, teachers, scientists, the commission has placed new restrictions on collecting our state's reptiles and amphibians, following decades of being far too liberal in its quotas, especially compared to the exemplary laws enacted by New York and New Jersey.
These new protective measures were proposed by a special advisory panel of scientists, chaired by Tim Maret, a biologist at Shippensburg University. They coincide with the completion of a statewide Herpetological Atlas in which hundreds of volunteers sent their observations to Dr. Art Hulse of Indiana University of Pennsylvania for six years. What resulted was a comprehensive book on Pennsylvania's reptiles and amphibians, with distribution maps and estimates of their specific population statuses.
Sadly, for many of these animals the data proved what many field naturalists had feared — they're disappearing from many areas. Habitat destruction is the chief cause of these declines in Pennsylvania, but unscrupulous collecting, either for individual possession or sale, is also contributing to some degree.
Based on what was legally permissible, it's no wonder.
For example, for most snakes, a collector is allowed to capture two per day, and there is no limit or season for copperhead snakes or snapping turtles. Timber rattlesnakes are protected to a greater degree, but even this uncommon and declining reptile is suffering from annual "round-ups" in some rural areas where collectors remove them from their dens, bring them to town and display them to crowds, often roughly handling or injuring them in the process.
Beginning in January 2007, all of this changes. For most snakes, the quotas have been cut in half, and only one copperhead can be taken annually from mid-June to the end of July. A special permit is necessary to capture snapping turtles up to 15 per day, and quotas for bullfrogs and green frogs have been reduced to 10 and 20, respectively.
And there's a "forbidden list" of species that can't be collected at all: smooth green, eastern hognose and eastern ribbon snakes; Jefferson, marbled and four-toed salamanders; spotted, wood and box turtles; fence lizard; and other species that are found in more western or southern parts of the state. These are species deemed rare and at-risk of becoming endangered by the committee of experts assembled by the commission.
The timber rattlesnake's protection has been bumped up a notch — now, only snakes greater than 42 inches long males can be "borrowed" for round-ups and then returned, thus protecting pregnant females from the stress and injury associated with being grabbed by hooks or tongs, thrown into sacks and transported long distances.
The restrictions for some of these animals, in my opinion, aren't stringent enough. Rattlesnake round-ups should become a relict of the past, and even common snakes like black rat snakes can quickly become extirpated from areas if collectors are allowed to capture one per day. Killing copperheads should also be banned, and the daily quotas on snapping turtles, green frogs and bullfrogs still seem way too high.
But this is a start, and, according to the commission's Chris Urban, more changes will be made as more information on these animals' populations is gathered. The days of unlimited collecting are over, and the focus of budding young naturalists should now be on observing and photographing their subjects in the wild.
As Tim Maret has said, "Our ethic needs to change. Where an animal is found is its home, and that's where it should stay."
Information about these new regulations was supplied by The Wild Resource Conservation Program, Harrisburg.
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Sorry if I didn't post this correctly here.
, but the goal is encapsulated by the quote at the end of the article (animals belong in the wild).