aft's in the wild disappearing?

[HepCatMoe]

ive been thinking about this, as i have recently read an article about fat tails (leo's) disappearing from southern asia, due primarily to collection for the pet trade.

well, i almost never see wc leo's for sale. but i do almost always see wc aft's. i hear of importers bringing in thousands at a time.

i imagine a lot of them die in transit.

just makes me wonder what we are doing to the wild aft's.

personally i dont think there is anything wrong with importing aft's and keeping them as pets, as long as it doesnt threaten their survival in the wild.

does anybody know the current status of aft's in the wild?

just curious.

 

[mpherps]

I do not know the numbers of fattails in the wild or that are being imported. I do know that they are being over collected in the wild and brought to the states. It is not nessecary to import thousands of fattails a year especially since most of them die in transit. There are enough produced in captivity to fill the demand. There should only be some imported just to keep genetic diversity.
Baby normal ball pythons used to be imported in the 10's of thousands and now they are only worth $25each. If importing would get cut in half then captive bred animals would be worth even more and we could help maintain the wild population.

Mike Patula

 

[bohannbj]

They should stop importing them all together. I don't see the point in pillaging the wild population and flooding the captive market. Personally, I don't think any wc animals should be sold to the general public. Only licensed breeders should be able to purchase wc animals, due to the difficulty in keeping them alive. I hate it when importers bring in massive amounts of wc's and sell them like they are just as good as cb for half the price. Of course a nieve new buyer is going to say "half the price and just as good, I'll take it." Then when it dies in a month they think that they did something wrong and leave the hobby. Of course this also applies to breeders that sell young or unhealthy animals of any kind.