Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was very happy to pick up a cherry county pale milk today. She is an 09 and the gentleman I got her from says Jeff Hardwick produced her. She is a beautiful snake. In June I hope to get to see some in the wild. I'll be making a 2-3 day trip to Cherry Co. Nebraska. Leaving Houston dropping the family off at the grandmothers house in Western Oklahoma and heading North. Here are a few quick pics of her and yes Joe i'm positive on the I.D. on this one! Chris

Super nice pick-up, Chris!

keep us posted on your trip! Be sure to have the necessary permits if you plan to collect anything. Just a heads-up.

-Cole

Hey Cole. Thanks for the reply. I was going to shoot you an email and ask you what the rules and regs were in Nebraska.

Chris

I keep my Monster Island milks locality hidden I will just respond with a link to this post. For every idiot collector there have to be what....10-20 smart ones?? Anyone ever hunt around the Okeetee Hunt Club?? Very pretty snakes, but yet another reason to keep spots secret.

Was there something wrong with this post? I didn't think so.

Did you not just defend an admitted COMMERCIAL collector several threads below? I doubt Chris will collect anything at all, and if he does, it'll be for personal use.

and... The identity of "Monster Island" isn't all that secret...

-Cole

Like I told Cole in an email, If I can get a permit I would not collect more than a pair if I'm lucky enough to find some and if I do they would be for me not to turn around and sell. If I don't get a permit I won't collect. simple as that. I am going more to photograph, find new species to check off my life list and enjoy the beautiful habitat. You know what herping is supposed to be about. Not overcollecting for profit.

Chris

I did defend collecting and still do. What I was going "jeesh" about was that you could go anywhere, do anything, but once a locale is "public" its open season. If everyone hunted at random each place would suffer less attrition and therefore more likely to be within carrying capacity limits. "Popularity", read $$, brings higher densities of collectors, greater chances of over-collecting idiots and more likely trouble with protected areas. Personally, I would feel more comfortable getting "Cole's milks" than "X county, locality MT". know what I mean? You have to rely on the breeder/collector's honesty to begin with, why label it with anything incriminating?? Different locales? Jeff's type 1,11, 1A Easterns, etc. The purists cant even argue with this logic,lol. Who you share your locale info is up to you, I just cringe at the idea of finding beer cans, water bottles, overturned boards and no snakes in my favorite spot.

Cole, I think he does it for the sheer "shock" value..LOL!

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

my website -serpentinespecialties.webs.com

I understand what your saying Jeff. Unfortunately people can never keep a secret including herping spots. You tell a trusted friend and then he tells a trusted friend so on and so forth. Who is to say your secret herp spot is not someone elses secret herp spot. I'm sure there are not as many people going to Nebraska to collect milks as there was people going to west texas to collect alterna and last I heard we are not having a shortage of alterna in the field here in Texas. It helps that people like Cole and Terry and others are breeding and producing beautiful captive bred animals to take the pressures off wild populations. I do not plan on hitting anyone up on there secret multistrata spots when I get there. I plan to look on my own and if I don't find any well thats my luck and probably what will happen. lol.

Chris

Look, nothing personal Chris, most here understand that,lol. But Nebraska is a pretty big kinda rectangular state.....my bet is that similar habitat occurs outside of Cherry co. and I cant think of any kind of natural genetic dividing line out there. If I found a female within 100 miles of there you know....its probably not that dissimilar.

Finding other places is what hunting is all about. It gets you out in the field, out of your normal life. The last thing anyone needs to do is something someone else has already done before even if its easier. There are just too many people willing to cut corners and take the easy way instead of making a new discovery...We are very individual people to begin with, thats why we like snakes! If you want a female Cherry county BUY one. If you want to find your own, more power to you, good luck and keep that info to yourself. Publishing locales as a pride thing...useless.

Jeff, As I'm sure you know Cherry County is 6010 square miles! This is larger than the whole states of Connecticut, Delaware, and Rhode Island. I find it a little surprising that you're an advocate of commercial collecting but are concerned with someone interested in photographing and maybe (with the proper permits) collecting a pair for personal use from a county so large? I know your point here is a little different that the points you made about commercial collection, but didn't you say "There is NOTHING wrong with taking sustainable yield anywhere on anything."?

My two cents for the record: I am 100% against commercial collecting (and yes I know it is legal in some places) and and even moreso against the selling of WC animals where prohibited by law. I do however have no problem with anyone collecting for personal use within the confines of the laws as applicable.
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Joe

WoW, had no idea it was that big. Joe, my point was that people drive through perfectly good milk habitat to get to another because....Its published?? Too many people playing follow the leader was my point. I dont care if anyone takes a couple milks from anywhere, especially if they want to try captive breeding. But if you are going to catch them yourself and its going to be such an experience...and Chris has a 3-4x better chance of finding a male than a female...

As far as selling wc, turn it around. Sometimes finding a locality matched mate is next to impossible. Is it worth something to you if someone else could do it for you? Yes. We are assuming there are no CB from this locality....and if you cant take a vaca to fly across country would you buy one from someone? Yes. If you and I lived on different coasts but hunted the same LEGAL spots yet didnt have a friendship....If I had a male and you had a female are you telling me you wouldnt buy it from me? Do you think I wouldnt buy it from you? Mind you this I think is different from commercial collecting....but now we are splitting hairs. Does the end justify the means? Its different from circumstance to circumstance but I am glad that captive breeding has eliminated the middle men, the fascilitators.

Man, I love the white on the Cherry County pales! Very nice addition!

Dan Eby

Thanks Dan. That is something that really caught my eye when I started getting interested in milks. Love the color on the pales.

Jeff, that would be great to find a male since I just bought the female I would have my pair. Trust me I will herp all the way there and back. I'm not going straight to Cherry Co. to herp. It won't hurt my feelings if I find a pale in Nebraska and its not from Cherry. lol. At this point I'll just be happy to see some herps.

Chris

Chris, We WANT you in the field, we NEED you in the field, lol. New blood is always sooooo much more "valuable" to me than 5th generation CB. Remember quarantining procedures and keep substrate in your bag. I can only imagine that if the rest of the country has had as much rain as we have here in the NE region skin blisters may have a record year. Good luck!

It feels great to be wanted! lol.

Chris