Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm dyin'here with busy! BUT!!!!....LESTER AND ME DID SAVE THE BLAINVILLEI FROM THE KID WHO WANTED TO TRADE IT FOR AN ALIBINO PYTHON, OR TO THE HIGHEST BIDDER! Les has it now, just talked to him this morning after a touch and go weekend. glad it's in good hands, and he knows right in the home range where it was taken. three-year old female. more to come on that when I get back with Lester.

thanks Cable for the assist in setting this up. I was an almost
blanvillei owner, long distance!

Mick
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"A man that should call every thing by it's right name, would hardly pass the streets without being knocked down as a common enemy."

The Complete Works of Goerge Savile, First Marquess of Halifax, 1912.

I guess now that I'm getting heckles from the gallery too,
I need to finish. but hey, gimme a break...George Lucas just finished the story he started when I was a kid! LOL
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"A man that should call every thing by it's right name, would hardly pass the streets without being knocked down as a common enemy."

The Complete Works of Goerge Savile, First Marquess of Halifax, 1912.

Sorry to have opened the flood-gates of the ever-dreaded Peanut-gallery. thats a lot of hyphens in a sentence.....Oh well. I was just joshin' with ya. What was this about the blainvilli? I hadn't heard. well, seems like a good thing you and Lester saved it. Hope you're having a good one, and no worries about the story. Talk to you soon.

regards,
-Phil

I know Phil. in my dry wit, I was being facetious.

you wouldn't have really heard about the blainvill(ei)(i)(ii)[which ever it is spelled this decade]. we were trying to keep it off the forum until the "sting" went down. that was just a shout out to Cable to let him know how it turned out. I was going to be more specific and let the forum know all about it after I heard back from Lester again. he is evaluating it and was going to get me some better pics, etc. and keep me updated about whether he's going to release and track her or whatnot.

what happened was this guy contacted my cousin out in Clairemont about trading one of the albino ball pythons he breeds in exchange for a "Phrynosoma Coronatum Blainvillei, very rare." my cousin confirmed with me it's status and was quite aggitated about the failure to disclose that to him in a negotiation for an $1800 snake. he was going to have me email the guy and give him a grilling. I told him I would do better and asked him to give the guy my email instead and state that I would probably be interested.

we were both, most of all, of the opinion that the willingness to sell or trade an animal of such a status, to anybody for the right price, regardless of that other person's knowledge of this animal; and without concern for it's possible fate in the hands of the inexperienced, AND failing to be completely honest about the potential risk of accepting it...really turned our stomachs. also because he had done it in the past and I was afraid that this may lead to motivation to collect and sell more.

after he made contact with me and pulled the same stunt, I subtly informed him that I was in Texas and was he aware it might be a little too hot to unload at any price given it's status? he asked if that was a problem?

so I continued to draw it out...asking for pics, etc....all the while trying to get in touch with Lester so we could get it off his hands before it ended up with the highest bidder or dead ( apparently he had one before that did not fare well on a normal light bulb and without ants ).

once I negotiated set up a transaction meet, where Lester was to be my proxy, supposedly because he knew how to ship it to me without it being discovered in transit, he got cold feet and I discovered that he was a 15 year old kid. he confided that his parents had called it off because they were weary of fish & game involvement. he asked that I call and convince them, otherwise they were going to release it...which I wasn't confident I could trust that story. I felt the time was right so I called and informed them that I was not F&G, but he had been talking to a former law enforcement officer in the State of Texas, that I did have a contact there, who does work closely with F&G, and that they were aware of the situation, having been updated by email during the whole negotiation; including the camera phone pictures that he disclosed to me which established his possession. after speaking to his mother, and advising the best course of action was to surrender the lizard for it's welfare and to avoid any consequences...they agreed.

one of my stipulations was that if he voluntarily gave up the lizard, I didn't want anyone prosecuted in this situation. I was primarily concerned about the welfare and fate of the lizard, but also wanted the kid to learn something in the process. I'm glad I did call because apparently there was much that his parents were not aware of, eventhough he said they were. I also had a discussion with him about his gathering of gopher snakes too!

Lester offered him membership in the CHLCS and took an info packet to him when they met at LLL reptiles in Escondido on Sat....and that's where we stand for know. here are a few pics that I did get.

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"A man that should call every thing by it's right name, would hardly pass the streets without being knocked down as a common enemy."

The Complete Works of Goerge Savile, First Marquess of Halifax, 1912.

2

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"A man that should call every thing by it's right name, would hardly pass the streets without being knocked down as a common enemy."

The Complete Works of Goerge Savile, First Marquess of Halifax, 1912.

3

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"A man that should call every thing by it's right name, would hardly pass the streets without being knocked down as a common enemy."

The Complete Works of Goerge Savile, First Marquess of Halifax, 1912.

I couldn't be for certain of the sex from those pics due to the distance, clarity & fact I don't know Coronatum tail morphology that well. I though it might be male, but Les says female.
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"A man that should call every thing by it's right name, would hardly pass the streets without being knocked down as a common enemy."

The Complete Works of Goerge Savile, First Marquess of Halifax, 1912.

What a great story, glad it all ended the way it did. Here is a typical example of the cost relationship people are willing to put on a horned lizard. It's amazing too me. Lester told me that these are imported illegally out of the U.S. and sold for big bucks. By the way with respect to Blaniville, this is a female as far as I can tell, the reasoning is that the male has the bulge down their as well as post ananl scales and this looks to be a female.............Cheers!!!!
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Phrynosoma.com

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signature file edited. [phw 11/14/04]

yeah, I knew as much about the bulges and scales. but how could you tell from the quality of that picture? too blurry for me to see if there's scales or bulges at all.

Mick
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"A man that should call every thing by it's right name, would hardly pass the streets without being knocked down as a common enemy."

The Complete Works of Goerge Savile, First Marquess of Halifax, 1912.

by the looks of the top shot the tail is long and uniform,not wide at the place where the hemi-penal bulges would be, and the bottom shot although blurry looks the same which would lead me to think female, I just mentioned the bulge and anal scales as a way of postive Id on these. Since I spent 40 years in California have had many of these.
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Phrynosoma.com

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signature file edited. [phw 11/14/04]

ok. I couldn't even tell from the first shot, the way the tail was curved and all. and it kinda didn't look like the same lizard in the last one. the tail looked even broader. but that's why my specialty is Cornutum, being there aren't any Coronatum in Texas for me to see...are there, Lou? d'ya bring any back? could we possibly have Castrovillei running around? ROF! too funny

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"A man that should call every thing by it's right name, would hardly pass the streets without being knocked down as a common enemy."

The Complete Works of Goerge Savile, First Marquess of Halifax, 1912.

No-when I was in California I had a long term trio that I kept outside and Lester I believe knew about that, but I always loved running into them but did not capture so I kept my nose clean. Two of those three died just like some of Lesters and at the exact same week that his died, mine did and they were the fit of health one day and the next they were dead. Lester and I had discussed this in some detail and he felt that this may have been attributed to feeding them crickets, as part of the offering. He was doing the same and thought that some of the cricket orders we were getting from vendors were conta minated. From that time on I began feeding mine only 1/4" crickets and sparsley - I also researched some of the distributors as well and was more careful about quality than just good price. I do feed my Solare occassional crickets but mostly wax worms, mini zoophobia and a lot of ants. Also throuw in an occasional moth or small grasshopper that we have in the back yard they seem to relish. I suppose the most operative was small. I have been seeing some horned lizards out here but not in abundance, since we got this hot spell. I haven't had a camera with me though so I've missed several oppertunities to get pictures, I hope to get some pictures next week.
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Phrynosoma.com

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signature file edited. [phw 11/14/04]