Some of you may never have field collected. Some of you may only field collect. Some of you are doing this for new bloodlines. Some of you are doing this to increase the variety of your collection. BUT, some of you are doing it to increase the number of dollars in your wallet.
This post is directed towards those who are collecting every living animal just to make a dollar. Perhaps your excuse is that you're just trying to recoup the cost of your trip. But when you take animals that have little or no chance of survival outside their respective niche, then that is totally irresponsible, and you may be contributing to the loss of a species.
This rant comes from seeing some Horned Lizards being exhibited for sale at a recent reptile show that we attended. Most people know that Horned Lizards (horny toads to most people) almost exclusively eat ants. So...new owner...did the seller tell you that? Do you know where to get ants? And how many ants does it need to keep weight on and thrive?
If you see this at a show, perhaps you should tell the show sponsor that this is not appropriate. But the damage has already been done when the animal is removed from its habitat. The person who took it is not going to drive back to return it. They're probably not going to try to find those ants for its diet either. They'll just try some other insects and let it languish and die while in their "care" if they can't find someone to buy it.
So, field collect if you want, but with integrity.
This post is directed towards those who are collecting every living animal just to make a dollar. Perhaps your excuse is that you're just trying to recoup the cost of your trip. But when you take animals that have little or no chance of survival outside their respective niche, then that is totally irresponsible, and you may be contributing to the loss of a species.
This rant comes from seeing some Horned Lizards being exhibited for sale at a recent reptile show that we attended. Most people know that Horned Lizards (horny toads to most people) almost exclusively eat ants. So...new owner...did the seller tell you that? Do you know where to get ants? And how many ants does it need to keep weight on and thrive?
If you see this at a show, perhaps you should tell the show sponsor that this is not appropriate. But the damage has already been done when the animal is removed from its habitat. The person who took it is not going to drive back to return it. They're probably not going to try to find those ants for its diet either. They'll just try some other insects and let it languish and die while in their "care" if they can't find someone to buy it.
So, field collect if you want, but with integrity.
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