Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm expanding my website to include local herpetofauna and other info..

For those few of you that don't have a perspective on how much biological diversity has been lost in America (and elsewhere!) this will inform you, for the even fewer of you that share my perspective this may bring tears.

Either way, BEHOLD!
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Gus
A. Rentfro
RioBravoReptiles.com
www.riobravoreptiles.com

"Quality is not an accident. Perfectly healthy animals are a minimum requirement.. everything else is just salesmanship" gus

nm

nm
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Gus
A. Rentfro
RioBravoReptiles.com
www.riobravoreptiles.com

"Quality is not an accident. Perfectly healthy animals are a minimum requirement.. everything else is just salesmanship" gus

that's just... i don't even have the words for it...
jb
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Jonathan Brady
"Sarcasm is angers ugly cousin" -Dr. Buddy Rydell (Jack Nicholson) in "Anger Management".

That is a change of pace. What a shame what people have destroyed just for "sport" and I use the term very loosely. The sad thing is that it still happens everyday. Most people still kill snakes and other misunderstood animals on sight based on misguided ignorant beliefs.
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Jared Douglas

I should have added that we as herpers should do our part to educate people to stop this cycle.
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Jared Douglas

or any of the other small cats recently ? Do you still think occelots still inhabit your neck of the woods ?

np
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Gus
A. Rentfro
RioBravoReptiles.com
www.riobravoreptiles.com

"Quality is not an accident. Perfectly healthy animals are a minimum requirement.. everything else is just salesmanship" gus

At 200 lbs and over 7' long thats a full size Jaguar isn't it? I did not know that they came up that far north ever (well at least in modern history) It is a shame that it was killed but back then it was a threat to their livestock and that could have made a life or death difference for them. It is amazing what is just around by our back door.
Thanks for the picture
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Jim Hopkins "Hoppy"
Hopkins Holesale Herps
Hopfam1@aol.com

np

I think Gus is right. The REAL measure of an atrocity like this is if we continue doing the same today. And, regrettably we do. Under the Bush Administration,Wolves , which were protected in the lower 48 states, are now NOT going to be fully protected in ALASKA. And they are going to be allowed to hunt them Aerially, by plane. This IS a tragedy,as the wolves themselves keep polulations of ungulates, deer and other herbivores in check. Which of course means that their are less "Trophy" animals for hunters to kill. Its pervasive and sickening. The end result is an eventual bloom in the deer population which overwhelms there food sources. And the eventual starvation , death and disease that comes from this. Remember what happened with the ELK not to many years back? They were dieing in numbers. NOT being weeded out by their natural predators.

I am sorry that I am so heated, but this sickens me. Show me the sport in shooting a wolf from an AERIAL plane with a high powered rifle, and Ill show you the sport of shooting fish in a barrel.

Sincerely,

Frerick Albury

One thing that this made pop into my head is the weekend "fun sport" of coyote hunting. I know most people look at Coyotes as a waste of an animal and should be exterminated but they are important to the ecological balance. Another big problem imo around here is that hunting bobcats is fairly common (one of my bosses killed 13 bobcats in one month alone) and that is with legal trapping permits. That is way excessive imo. I am a full supporter of allowing hunting but when you go out of your way to kill predatory species for nothing more then the sport of it that is a pathetic and wasteful use of power.

Gus, what is the date on that photo? I am guessing somewhere around the late 40s. (But I figure I am way off.lol)
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Randall L Turner Jr.
www.aircapitalconstrictors.com
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.. what people did 50 years or more ago in the context of what we have and know now. In 1940's South Texas there was not the same recognition of wildlife and wilderness as finite resources.

To the extent that the attitudes that led to the killing of that animal still exist today.. that is our failing.
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Gus
A. Rentfro
RioBravoReptiles.com
www.riobravoreptiles.com

"Quality is not an accident. Perfectly healthy animals are a minimum requirement.. everything else is just salesmanship" gus

too many people see animals as a source of financial gain and nothing else...they use words like courage...and exploration. much of it has more to do with their own selfishness. it's sad. i look forward to seeing the progress of this new direction you are taking with your site.

hats off, chris
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www.chrisolsonreptiles.com

There have always been Jaguars' in southern Texas, & New Mexico, but recentlly there have been more sightings, which may mean the population is on a rise. 10 years ago the speices was thought to nolonger in the U.S. but now we know other wise. A picture was in a Nation Geographic last year of a wild Jaguar in Southern New Mexico. If it was killed in south Texas at 200lbs, I would have to think it to be a male seeing as how the nothern speices from Central America north don't grow as large. Offcourse animales found in the more desert regions (northern Mexico) are going to be smaller yet. Keep in mind the Jaguar is the 3rd largest cat in the world, males from the Amazon basin can reach sizes of 275-300lbs! If this cat found in Texas wieghted 200lbs he had to have been top cat, most jaguars found that far north only reach 150-175lbs.
Jason Reese.