Quote Originally Posted by DrKate View Post
Just making the point that everything is connected. If you're making a well-educated choice to make an impact that you believe is sustainable through those good and bad years, that's totally fine by me. But I do think suggesting that celticguitar's and Ibkukin's impacts can be written off as completely harmless (and by implication not worth educating themselves about) is irresponsible.

Don't get me wrong, I think assuming that the impact of collecting wild frogs is overwhelmingly greater than other available foods (e.g. store-bought fish from potentially unsustainable fisheries), and AGAIN by implication not worth educating oneself about, is also irresponsible.

I think a better answer is to seek out the help of your state/local Dept. of Fish & Game or local university's amphibian biologists before making a decision about collecting from the wild, even if the local population seems to be booming and especially if you don't know what the species is.
Then I guess none of us should be collecting snakes from the wild population by definition of your statement and from what I read is what alot of us do. You could look at it like my snakes came from that area and I collected a few frogs from that area wouldn't I just be removing the frogs that my guys would eat anyway? I feed my guys worms so other than the little green frog that I have it's a non issue for me. I also forgot to mention I raised a bunch of tadpoles this spring to let my son watch them morph and released them back. I have a little understanding of sustainable populations and the need not to remove the most fit specimens to maintain good gene pools to maintain populations. I am not advocating commercial harvesting and while I am not at this area 24 /7 I truly believe I am one of a very few if any who visit this spot who would could possibly be interested in collecting frogs to feed snakes which I am not. So for the most part I am only talking about my small part of the universe and people have to be intelligent about what goes on in their little microcosoms they vist. If they see very few frogs then the should leave them alone as the area is not healthy but if they are tripping over them well what's couple of frogs between friends
Dwight