Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Sorry I'm not on the forum to post much lately,
but thought this bit of info would be worth sharing.

Earlier this week at the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES CoP13), it was decided to put the genus Uroplatus on CITES appendix II.
This will mean that there will be monitoring of trade in these species and likely quotas on how many can be legally exported.

I think is a good thing and was inevitable considering the conservation state of Madagascar and the numbers of Uros being exported. Hopefully these geckos will stay off of appendix I, which would severely restrict ownership in the hobby.

Regards,
Neil Meister

well, i guess we all saw it coming. im just frustrated it happened at the time i decided to really try to put some money and effort into breeding a few species. well, im gonna keep my eyes open at the reptile shows, hopefully ill still be able to come across something.

thanks for telling us neil when will your book come out? also maybe we should work together asd a group to get more uros into responsible peoples hands. i will have to work really hard to try and get more animals for breeding projecys but there have been none available.

well it sure would be nice if we could work out a network of people who have had success or are very serious about breeding members of the genus. if we had a network of people, i am sure it would be a whole lot easier to find individuals we need. i've been searching the net constantly in a desperate search for more female phantasticus, but every time i find someone with phantasticus on their availability page, i give them a call and they have either sold out, not updated the webpage in some time, or decided to hold back their phants to try to breed them themselves. i ran into someone from virginia who has had plenty of success in breeding phants, but just cant get the babies to survive. he has several eggs incubating now, but i think he keeps the temperatures a little too high (and i told him this too).

anyway, im sure theres gotta be people with them for sale out there, it's just a matter of tracking them down. hopefully with inclusion in the CITES list the members of the genus will become too difficult for inexperienced keepers to hunt down, leaving more possibility for those who plan on trying to produce more. if they are just sold haphazardly, of course some will be lost to inexperiences keepers. furthermore, i hope it doesn't just make things harder for people like me who are very interested in establishing CB populations (like neil has). i really wish there was a way to get connections with importers like some people do, but since i have no connections, i don't know where to start and i doubt i ever will get contacts since ive got the idea importers will only sell quantity. we need a neil meister for the US!!!!

You know I was worried about what would happen to the status of Uroplatus, because I really want to acquire a group of U. phantasticus to attempt to breed, but this plan is very conservative, yet doesn't completely shut out hobbyists. Hopefully, Madagascar can start stabalizing and preserving what is left of these animals natural habitat. I understand the strain that the pet trade has on species, but often times we can't hold a candle to the number of animals that are lost due to the destruction of their habitat. Just my two cents. I too am excited to see Neil's new book, a definite must have for people who want to experience this fascinating creatures.

I think C.I.T.E.S should create a Appendix sort of between Appendix 2 and 1. I think uroplatus should be imported but only in very small numbers to refresh the gene pool. I think that then to get the imports you should have to have some sort of permit that states you are a breeder. The problem with Uroplatus in Madagascar is no longer forest degration but collection for the international exotic pet trade. Most the uroplatus live in the Madagascars National Parks due to that most of the forest outside of the parks is no longer suitable for uroplatus to live. Therefore most of the uroplatus available are a result of poaching from the national parks. Captive breeding populations are not the answer to the survival of Uroplatus there needs to be something done in Madagascar to help them.
Matt

i was just looking over a past CITES list, and i noticed both Phelsuma and Uromastyx are listed. i know before neil mentioned that uroplatus is now appendix II, i pretty much always saw day geckos and uromatyx offered in greater numbers than uroplatus. i didnt even realize that day geckos and uromatyx were listed by CITES at all until now. so what really will we be seeing as an effect of putting uroplatus on appendix II? will we start seeing even fewer specimens being offered at shows? it's already becoming hard for me to find leaf tails at shows. sometimes i hit a jackpot, but usually the number offered at shows here in nc are very low, this last reptile show in september, i saw 2 lineatus, 3 ebenaui, and 4 henkeli at the entire show, and i got there right at the beginning. i dont know if someone else got ahead of me and bought them all up, but i was really let down to see that there were no satanics at all. now pretty much enothing but a few henkeli, sikorae, and lineatus are available. are there often "dry spells" like this in the trade where animals just arent available, but sooner or later come back around?