Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I recently heard that the import of Savannah Monitors has stopped (or will stop) because those animals have moved from the threatened list to the endangered list. Can anyone varify that or give me some up-to-date resources to check out? Thanks!
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our doubts are traitors
and make us lose the good
we oft might find
by fearing to attempt

Never heard of it, if it was true then they would disappear from the pet industry because nobody breeds them, simply because anyone who would or could doesnt want to or care to breed them. When imports sell for $1-5 wholesale price each, and you can actually find retail prices starting at around $5-20 each. Between the savannah and nile there are 30,000-100,000 a year imported (more than half as skins). Id think something like that would make big time news in the pet industry if it were to happen.

I know that there is fact in the numbers of skins imported, but I havent a clue as where these reptile skin items are marketed, and how they are represented. Do you have any info on the retail side of the skin trade? Im just curious, as who is doing the pushing of these "fasion" pieces. Are they sold as "monitor skin..."?
I couldnt imagine walking into a store and seeing monitor skin on display. I would be just a tiny bit pissed off.

...miffed me

I've heard of a lot of blood and reticulated pythons getting imported as skins too, but I don't have any idea where they go either. You'd think people would be content with farmed alligator skin.
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Peter: It's OK, I'll handle it. I read a book about something like this.
Brian: Are you sure it was a book? Are you sure it wasn't NOTHING?

I've seen tegu skin watchbands, monitor skin wallets, python skin women's belts and shoes and python skin cowboy boots in the US.

Python, monitor and tegu skin products are illegal in Australia, yet I STILL see women wearing python belts and shoes.

WHO was selling them? We havent begun to slander yet...it wont hurt to throw some names around.

my apologies, I didn't clarify. I have seen people wearing all of the above, although I had seen the cowboy boots in a shop window, along with countless that were made of rattlesnake skin and caiman skin (it was skin from the back of the neck, so the nuchal scute pattern was readily identifiable).

I've seen rattler skin, I used to live in Texas. I just can't remember seeing anything that was from overseas.
I'm getting the idea that stores that sell python and monitor skin are very upscale sorts of places and that's why most of us haven't seen them. Well, at least that's why I haven't seen them.
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Peter: It's OK, I'll handle it. I read a book about something like this.
Brian: Are you sure it was a book? Are you sure it wasn't NOTHING?

I myself have a monitor skin watch band that was not expensive at all ($20), they are sold as lizard skin, but you have to identify it. I believe its water monitor or bengal? Most of it sells in Europe and Japan, then some sells here and most of it is upscale type wallets, etc. Think who are the expensive big names in jewlery, fashion etc. These are the people who sell most of it, look at those New York, and California names that everyone knows.

Hi Shvar,

Varanid skins from Africa go primarily to France and Europe; those from Indonesia/S.E. Asia, go to Singapore and then abroad to Mexico, where they are exported to USA via California 750,000 pieces of vara-skin annually. Where do they get 750,000 salvator skins? Beats me, but if I had my way, I would extinguish this skin trade business - the last "skin-trade" business was horrid enough, and is still practiced in 15 or so countries world-wide.

cheers,
markb