I'm mailing this (with the map Tom Lott provided attached) today:
24 April 2007
Troy Hibbitts
PO Box 486
Camp Wood, TX 78833
The Honorable Members of the House Calendar Committee,
Dear Representative XXX,
I am writing to express my reservations in regard to HB 2414, a bill pertaining to hunting from public right of ways. This bill, in its amended form, would prohibit the hunting or capture of all wildlife from public right of ways. While hunting from a right of way with a firearm is certainly inappropriate (and is already illegal), the live capture of reptiles and amphibians from a right of way represents no public safety hazard. Rather, this live capture and salvage of road-killed specimens from public right of ways represents one of our only methods of assessing changing patterns of distribution and abundance in reptiles and amphibians in large portions of the state.
It is said that a picture is worth 1000 words. Please note the map at right, taken from “Texas Snakes” by Werler & Dixon. This map represents the known distribution in Texas for a single species of snake (the Mojave Rattlesnake). Careful examination of the data points represented on this map will show that 95% or more of those “dots” correspond with public roadways. Therefore, the ability to collect specimens (both live and road-killed animals) from the roadways clearly represents an extremely important method for gathering data in regards to Texas’ reptile and amphibian populations.
Although some of these specimens are taken by researchers under scientific collecting permits, many specimens that end up in research museums are collected by hobbyists. Over the course of the past 20 years, I have personally donated over 1000 specimens to the Texas Cooperative Wildlife Collection at Texas A&M and to the University of Texas at Arlington Collection of Vertebrates. Most of these specimens were collected from public right of ways in Texas. Some were salvaged road-killed specimens. However, many of these specimens were live captured animals that I maintained in captivity for primarily recreational reasons (I enjoy the captive husbandry of reptiles & amphibians) and only preserved them as scientific specimens upon their deaths. Included in my list of specimens are over 30 geographic distributional records – extensions to the known range of a species as well as new county records.
Furthermore, our society is one that is increasingly removed from contact with the natural world. One of TPWD’s mandates is to provide opportunities for Texans to interact with and appreciate nature. I have fond memories of driving the roadways of Texas with my father as a young boy searching for reptiles and amphibians. Most animals that we encountered were released off of the highway. Occasionally, an animal was brought home to be kept as a “pet”. However, unlike the pet snake that many children buy at pet stores, the animal that we brought home from a Texas Highway also came home with a host of associated memories and natural history information. Having experienced the animal’s habitat and weather conditions that supported its activity, I developed a better understanding of the animal and its place in nature. Like most hobbyists, over time I brought home fewer animals from the wild for captive husbandry – yet the appreciation for the animals remains. Unfortunately, in Texas, one of the only places that a person can interact in this manner with our reptiles and amphibians is along public right of ways.
Searching for and collecting reptiles and amphibians from public right of ways is a safe and enjoyable hobby for many Texans and visitors to our state. There is no record of traffic accidents or traffic citations associated with this hobby. Furthermore, the close association that many reptile and amphibian hobbyists have with academic institutions allows hobbyists to directly contribute to our body of knowledge in regards to amphibian and reptile distributions in Texas, allowing the professional Herpetologists in Texas to make sound management decisions in regards to these species. An exemption to HB 2414 has already been granted to falconers for the “educational and sport take” of raptors from the public right of way. Similarly, an amendment to HB 2414 should be added the exempts the “educational and sport take of reptiles and amphibians” from this legislation. Please send this bill back to the Culture, Recreation, and Tourism Committee in order for this amendment to be added.
Sincerely,
Troy Hibbitts
Texas Herpetological Society
Past President
Liaison to TPWD Wildlife Diversity
Camp Wood, Texas
