Quote Originally Posted by Jeff B View Post
However taking in a few animals to captive breed and try to boost a local population, might be the only hope to maintain it? if its' habitat is being destroyed and it is a very small localized population? Even professional and governmental biologists do this.
If it's habitat destruction, then there is no point in trying to boost the population, as the population is already presumably as large as the habitat is able to support. However, if gathering, killing or a similar activity is threatening to reduce the density of the population to the point where animals are having trouble finding mates, then it may well be a way to counter the effects. In any other case, increasing the population does nothing at all to help. Quite the opposite, a sudden influx of individuals would reduce the available prey (which is presumably also dependent on the habitat that's being destroyed), for example, which would be disastrous for both the species you are trying to protect and the prey species. I couldn't even endorse boosting the prey populations alone for the exact same reason. If habitat destruction continues, then the population would be doomed no matter how many are bred and released. If it's a combination, like in the case where habitat destruction is the biggest threat and gathering the second biggest, then prohibiting or limiting gathering is a way to buy time until proper measures can be taken to protect and restore the habitat. Yeah, they do head-starting projects when it's an appropriate solution, but I'm very skeptical about doing it privately, especially without guidance from professionals. If you know of such a project, by all means, support it. That's something I can endorse.


The thing is, we can easily minimize the biggest treat. We can make a collective and conscious effort as an intelligent species to stop overpopulating the planet, however this is a heated topic that most would rather ignore . But even if we can't seem to accomplish that, we can also make an effort to stop detroying ecosystems by how, where, and when we devolope and how we dispose of our waste, and decrease our waste. If you have ever taken a microbiology class you are probably familiar with events that occur within a petri dish. The planet isn't infinate, it's just a great big petri dish and overpopulation of our species will cause the same end result.
The data charts really get the point accross the issues that we face as reptile and amphibian lovers, because most people really don't care if all reptiles and amphibians, especially snakes would all just simply disappear unfortunately. Thanks for sharing.
I agree (I have in fact taken microbiology courses, although the emphasis was on public health), but with all the people involved and all the different interests, it does seem futile.