Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This fall i will be going to school in hawaii and i was wondering what the herp laws are over there about chameleons and tortoises. If anyone knowns any information on whats herps arent allowed and such. Thanks alot Ryan

( same thing > ? ) we were there in November with a free trip from my wifes employment and asked around but I had some knowledge of this before hand. The Islands are in and has been for years , fear of invading species making the Islands home due to climate. They already have a problem with " plant " species and the airports are constantly checking out flights from any incoming planes from parts of Asia and other countries. The Brown snake ? is one species that has gotten into the country that the Government is focusing on ( we were told ). Even though several species of chameleons are non-native, they don't joke around with them either. They allow them to live there and do not do anything as far as trying to eradicate them, but a lot of the native people do not enjoy the fact that they are there. They do not allow any collecting of any animal specie for any commercial value what so ever. Even the Zoos has one heck of a criteria to allow species ( and especially reptiles ) to be brought in to have. I also understand that domestic animals and pets go through a quarantine situation. Some people here might remember a herpetologist in Arizona that was trying to relocate and I think work with reptiles at one of the Zoos but was denied eventually. He has deceased but i remember Tom was highly upset. Even though the Hawaiian Islands are US, they are run with an intern government based on cultural groups, Polynesian, Japanese, Americans, etc. and private ownership of exotics are very rare if not totally impossible.

I agree, from what I have heard from others who have tried, you basically cannot have anything. This stems from the few native reptiles (no native snakes) and the many introduced species. While many arn't causing much problem (the chameleons and day geckos), species such as the brown snake have caused problems elsewhere and the fear is that they will spread to Hawaii.

Any non-native species puts some stress on the native ecosystem to some extent. Since Hawaii has everything that a reptile could ever ask for, it is not a good idea to bring any in.