my herping experience

[hooter]

How was he braging?

Its called the Field Herping section of this forum. What the **** eles do you think we would talk about? He did nothing wrong and im sure if someone wanted to find these turtles that they very well could regaurdless of his post. You people need to chill I swear you take to much stuff WAY TO SERIOUS. Dont even quote me on this and say that endangered turtles is more serious because I really dont care what you have to say

[Shad0w]

I have to agree with hooter...

I see nothing wrong with sharing locations of where fellow herpers spotted certain animals..

after all, most of us just want to view the animals..

Personally, If I saw a rare herp... I would be eager to share it with you guys.. after all its why we are here right?

[nburgmei]

Although I questioned the necessity of the tone of S Gillingwater's post earlier, I agree with what he's saying. Well, except the bragging part, but that's not important to this discussion really.

Economically speaking, spotted turtles are a scarce resource. Just because most of the vocal members of this website are willing to obey laws and respect herps, that doesn't mean everyone reading the website is. The field herping section would be a prime hang-out spot for someone trying to find a rare species to keep as a pet or to sell. I'm sure there are some less respectful keepers out there that would be willing to pay a high-dollar amount for a rare species.

Sharing that you found a rare herp isn't a bad thing, we're glad to hear it. I found rare herps all summer. That was part of my job, but telling us a narrow range as to where it was spotted is. That's how people pinpoint where to find things.

I found Kirtland snakes, copperbelly water snakes, and four-toed salamanders in southern Indiana. That's common knowledge if you flip through a field guide, but I'm not going to tell you any more than that, especially if I don't know you.

[CamHanna]

nburgmei, could we see some pics from your finds this Summer? I'd love to see the copper-bellied watersnakes.

[nburgmei]

Well, I don't personally have any of the pics, but I might be able to get hold of the person that does.

I'll try my best to contact them and see if I can get the pictures of the kirtlands and copperbellies.

[bidden]

wow, I leave this thread for a while and look what happens

You all are right, I should not have mentioned exactly where I saw these. At the time I was very happy to have seen these and in a way it was bragging, yes. But as mentioned earlier this is an area to brag on what you have descovered.

Yes it was ignorant (as in your definition) and I did try to rectify my mistake as soon as I could, but unfortunatly the damage had already been done because you cannot edit your thread subject on this fourm.

So now I wonder what the big deal is if I did mis-identify the species I saw. Why is everyone getting all worked up about me flapping my jaw for nothing at all......

Yes I understand people are passionate about their work/hobbies... if you catch me posting on an off day you'll see I can blast someone about their inproper care of gecko's like the best of them.... But a polite reply like David did was all it took for me to try to correct my mistake.

again I apologize for the mixup... let's let this thread die

[Ontario_herper]

It is possible to share your field experiences and photos without disclosing the capture sites, especially with the detail that Bidden did.

Of course there are some species that would be more at risk from disclosing locality data than others. Hognose and more so spotted turtles are two species in Ontario that may have some attraction to poachers.

It only takes one or two bad apples to make all private keepers look like a group that is out to poach animals at every opportunity. Unfortunately, many people outside the private sector (field researchers etc...) have this opinion of people that keep reptiles in their homes. Instead of seeing private keepers as a wealth of information and an ally, they are seen as a threat to wild species survival.

As someone that is very passionate about studying reptiles both in captivity and in the wild I find the label of being one of these unethical keepers and all the bad things that are believed to go with it very tough to swallow. Because of these ignorant (yes there’s that word again) opinions sometime expressed by people outside the private sector, I do take disclosing the location of certain reptiles seriously. I do not want to add to the stereo-type by sharing sensitive information.

[ydnic]

blah blah blah.....

[Matt_K]

Originally posted by ydnic
blah blah blah.....

Thanks for your imput..

Hooter, keep your posts clean we don't need the profanity.. Ontario_herper, nburgmei, S Gillingwater and Cerastes all make VERY valid points.. No need to be rude to them or any other members...

[Matt_K]

Also, I edited the title for those of you who requested it be edited..

[Siretsap]

There are also downfalls to keeping locations of rare species a secret. As the value of houses increase, it will not be that long till you wake up to see your childhood forest being torn down to build houses. If you always kept your findings to yourself and not mention it to others, your species would dissapear with the destruction of that habitat.

I do not see why he shouln't have put the title there, if it is a provincial park. The species are prob listed at the entrance of the park, so anyone who can read knows what species there are.

I do not think that we should publish the findings in the papers, but it is important to let people know there are protected species.
Keeping this information in case of a few bad apples can do more dammage in the long run than having a neighberhood aware of a valuable species in a secluded area and thus protecting it. The weight of a community is way heavigher on your city "maire" than that one of a few herper society. Rescencing the findings is a valuable information to also keep.

[Ontario_herper]

http://www.gbayreptiles.com/monitoring.htm

This is a URL for an organization that will gladly accept your reptile sightings. The species and location can in turn be distributed to the appropriate people.

[bidden]

thanks matt

[Matt_K]

No Problem, next time if you need it changed, just shoot me a PM or an Email, it takes two seconds and i have no problem doing it