What are everyone's thoughts on purchasing wild caught tortoises vs. captive bred and hatched tortoises?
Personally, I would never buy a wild-caught tortoise for a pet. Doing so supports an industry that takes wild animals from their native habitats. In terms of population biology, you might as well be killing those animals. When these animals are harvested for the pet trade, their portions of the gene pool are essentially erased from that population. Here's why that's bad: tortoises have a life history strategy that depends on long lifetimes for adults, particularly females. Because only a small portion of eggs laid by females within a population each year actually hatch, and because only a small portion of those hatchlings actually reach maturity, and because tortoises take many years to reach maturity, long term viability of tortoise populations depends on 50 to 60 to 80 years of reproduction from adult females. Because of this life history strategy, tortoises typically don't respond well to environmental disturbances that result in increased rates of removal of tortoises from the population, whether you're talking about deaths or harvesting for the pet trade. This is the reason that so many of the world's turtles and tortoises are declining so quickly - populations are simply not able to sustain harvest and other disturbances caused by man.
Besides the moral and ethical arguments for not purchasing wild caught tortoises, consider that wild caught animals are far more stressed than those hatched and raised in captivity, and they often carry a parasite load. These factors can combine to make sick tortoises, which probably often leads to death if not treated quickly.
Most (if not all) tortoise species commonly kept as pets are readily available as captive bred and hatched animals. So why would anyone even consider purchasing a wild caught adult tortoise these days? The only reason I can see as possibly being an acceptable reason is the professional breeder who occasionally needs to supplement his or her captive population with some different genes to prevent inbreeding. Everyone else (in my opinion) should be purchasing captive bred and hatched animals, which will ultimately lead to less harvesting pressure on wild populations, and recovery of those populations.
I suspect that most of you reading this would agree with my argument. Those pet owners that purchase wild caught animals probably don't realize they're doing it or what the implications of their actions are. So it's up to us to educate them.
Any thoughts?
Personally, I would never buy a wild-caught tortoise for a pet. Doing so supports an industry that takes wild animals from their native habitats. In terms of population biology, you might as well be killing those animals. When these animals are harvested for the pet trade, their portions of the gene pool are essentially erased from that population. Here's why that's bad: tortoises have a life history strategy that depends on long lifetimes for adults, particularly females. Because only a small portion of eggs laid by females within a population each year actually hatch, and because only a small portion of those hatchlings actually reach maturity, and because tortoises take many years to reach maturity, long term viability of tortoise populations depends on 50 to 60 to 80 years of reproduction from adult females. Because of this life history strategy, tortoises typically don't respond well to environmental disturbances that result in increased rates of removal of tortoises from the population, whether you're talking about deaths or harvesting for the pet trade. This is the reason that so many of the world's turtles and tortoises are declining so quickly - populations are simply not able to sustain harvest and other disturbances caused by man.
Besides the moral and ethical arguments for not purchasing wild caught tortoises, consider that wild caught animals are far more stressed than those hatched and raised in captivity, and they often carry a parasite load. These factors can combine to make sick tortoises, which probably often leads to death if not treated quickly.
Most (if not all) tortoise species commonly kept as pets are readily available as captive bred and hatched animals. So why would anyone even consider purchasing a wild caught adult tortoise these days? The only reason I can see as possibly being an acceptable reason is the professional breeder who occasionally needs to supplement his or her captive population with some different genes to prevent inbreeding. Everyone else (in my opinion) should be purchasing captive bred and hatched animals, which will ultimately lead to less harvesting pressure on wild populations, and recovery of those populations.
I suspect that most of you reading this would agree with my argument. Those pet owners that purchase wild caught animals probably don't realize they're doing it or what the implications of their actions are. So it's up to us to educate them.
Any thoughts?