In Mississippi all non-game matters are handled by the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science, a branch of Wildlife, Fisheries & Parks. In 1990 Bob Jones and I drafted regulations for the management of reptiles and amphibians in Mississippi. Said draft was then forwarded to MWF&P headquarters and then to the State Legislature where it was passed as written.
Mississippi was losing tremendous numbers of live herps to the Louisiana commercial collectors. Literally hundreds of thousands of gray treefrogs, anoles, box turtles, ribbonsnakes, speckled kingsnakes, etc., left the state to the huge Louisiana wholesale market. Our regulation now totally bans the taking of wild specimens for re-sale while catering to the hobbyist and private breeder.
An example would be that a Mississippi resident may have up to 20 native snakes. This can be one each of 20 different kinds or up to five of any one given species with a total of 20. All they need is a valid hunting & fishing license.
If they wish to possess more or want to breed them, all they need is a captive propagation permit at a cost of $35 per year.
Readily identifiable morphs are not included. Example; albino or striped cornsnakes are legal to sell but normals are not without the proagation permit. Even Okeetees or Miami phases are prohibited (except with a CPP) from sale because a warden cannot readily distinguish them from a normal Mississippi corn. Pet stores cannot order then re-sell normally colored cornsnakes from some place outside of Mississippi. This closes the loophole of selling local wild-caughts and using a reciept from a wholesaler in Florida to launder them. BUT, if pet shops wants to sell normal cornsnakes, all they have to do is purchase them from licencsed Mississippi proagators.
So, Mississippi, 50th in everything, has what has been touted as one of the best herp regs in the country. Our wild populations are protected (theoretically anyway) from large wholesale raveges while captive breeding and sale of babies is promoted. Sure, you can't catch a few kings and corns to supliment your income but it is not possible to please everyone.
This is just an example of how private people and government agencies can come together. Of course, at the Museum we have one ichthyologist, one ornathologist, one entomologist, one paleontologist, and SIX herpetologists!
BTW, road hunting and collecting on wildlife management areas is quite legal in the Magnolia State.
Sincerely,
Terry Vandeventer
