By Andrew C. Revkin, Columnist, DOT Earth, New York Times
March 6, 2015 4:45 pm March 6, 2015- Go to following URL for mentioned videos
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2...life&pgtype=Blogs®ion=Body&_r=1#more-54495
The Fish and Wildlife Service is extending trade restrictions to four non-native constricting snakes, including reticulated and green anacondas, here seen in a pet owner's YouTube video. Only interstate trade or imports are banned. Credit JuggernautReptiles
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today extended trade and import bans to four species of constricting snakes that can devastate native wildlife, but the agency dropped the boa constrictor from consideration because it is already so widely reared and kept as a pet.
As of 2012, the restrictions, under the Lacey Act, applied to the Burmese python, yellow anaconda, and northern and southern African pythons. Added today were the reticulated python, DeSchauensee’s anaconda, green anaconda and Beni anaconda. The green anaconda is the world’s largest snake, yet is a popular pet, as you can see from a “pet green anaconda” sift on YouTube.
The rules will not ban ownership, only interstate transport or importation.
The Center for Biological Diversity, a conservation group, expressed disappointment with the decision to drop the boa from the list:
“Unfortunately, it appears that the agency caved to pressure from snake breeders in its decision not to restrict trade in the boa constrictor — a snake that is clearly damaging to U.S. wildlife,” Collette Adkins, an attorney and biologist at the center focusing on the protection of reptiles and amphibians, said in a statement.
In its news release, the wildlife agency explained the boa decision this way:
Although the boa constrictor can be damaging to U.S. wildlife, the circumstances surrounding the species, which include widespread private ownership and domestic breeding, render importation and interstate transport prohibitions less effective.
The boa constrictor, in essence, is already out of the bag.
So is the Burmese python. To understand why such restrictions are vital, revisit my reporting on this remarkable reptile, which — released by pet owners over the years — have been feeding, breeding and spreading in south Florida, where the python has had a catastrophic impact on small mammals and wading birds, according to federal biologists.
When I wrote about this species in 2007 (read “A Movable Beast“) I had an interesting, if brief, close encounter demonstrating how effectively they hide:
This excerpt from the Center for Biological Diversity news release conveys the scope of the problem:
After a decade of colonization in the Everglades, Burmese pythons have nearly wiped out populations of small and medium-sized native mammals — one study showed declines as high as 99 percent. Researchers further identified 25 species of birds in the stomachs of these invasive pythons in the Everglades, including four species of special concern in Florida and a wood stork, which is listed as federally endangered. Global warming may expand the region where nonnative snakes can survive and establish.
Welcome to the rambunctious ecology of this Anthropocene “age of us.”
March 6, 2015 4:45 pm March 6, 2015- Go to following URL for mentioned videos
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2...life&pgtype=Blogs®ion=Body&_r=1#more-54495
The Fish and Wildlife Service is extending trade restrictions to four non-native constricting snakes, including reticulated and green anacondas, here seen in a pet owner's YouTube video. Only interstate trade or imports are banned. Credit JuggernautReptiles
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today extended trade and import bans to four species of constricting snakes that can devastate native wildlife, but the agency dropped the boa constrictor from consideration because it is already so widely reared and kept as a pet.
As of 2012, the restrictions, under the Lacey Act, applied to the Burmese python, yellow anaconda, and northern and southern African pythons. Added today were the reticulated python, DeSchauensee’s anaconda, green anaconda and Beni anaconda. The green anaconda is the world’s largest snake, yet is a popular pet, as you can see from a “pet green anaconda” sift on YouTube.
The rules will not ban ownership, only interstate transport or importation.
The Center for Biological Diversity, a conservation group, expressed disappointment with the decision to drop the boa from the list:
“Unfortunately, it appears that the agency caved to pressure from snake breeders in its decision not to restrict trade in the boa constrictor — a snake that is clearly damaging to U.S. wildlife,” Collette Adkins, an attorney and biologist at the center focusing on the protection of reptiles and amphibians, said in a statement.
In its news release, the wildlife agency explained the boa decision this way:
Although the boa constrictor can be damaging to U.S. wildlife, the circumstances surrounding the species, which include widespread private ownership and domestic breeding, render importation and interstate transport prohibitions less effective.
The boa constrictor, in essence, is already out of the bag.
So is the Burmese python. To understand why such restrictions are vital, revisit my reporting on this remarkable reptile, which — released by pet owners over the years — have been feeding, breeding and spreading in south Florida, where the python has had a catastrophic impact on small mammals and wading birds, according to federal biologists.
When I wrote about this species in 2007 (read “A Movable Beast“) I had an interesting, if brief, close encounter demonstrating how effectively they hide:
This excerpt from the Center for Biological Diversity news release conveys the scope of the problem:
After a decade of colonization in the Everglades, Burmese pythons have nearly wiped out populations of small and medium-sized native mammals — one study showed declines as high as 99 percent. Researchers further identified 25 species of birds in the stomachs of these invasive pythons in the Everglades, including four species of special concern in Florida and a wood stork, which is listed as federally endangered. Global warming may expand the region where nonnative snakes can survive and establish.
Welcome to the rambunctious ecology of this Anthropocene “age of us.”
