I think captive breeding is a necessary thing so we don’t have to wild collect anymore unless last resort …
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A lot of people are going to disagree with you I believe. It is necessary to preserve/prevent a species from becoming extinct of course.
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In principal, I can agree with you. In practice, I ask, where then do you draw the line?
-How many of a ‘new to herpetoculture’ species is enough to ensure you can establish a viable captive-breeding population?
-Is there ever a case for WC to add fresh genetics to combat the rampant levels of inbreeding that happens in the hobby?
-Who is considered proficient when it comes to establishing a new species (bear in mind that AZA and ZAA regulations do not allow for distribution of animals to non-AZA/non-ZAA members)?
-Who gets to decide?
These are just some of the important question you need to address when having a discussion around this
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I second this all the way.
If theres already a healthy captive-bred population of a species I’d avoid WC as much as possible, though having some fresh genes is a very important note to add.
If its a species new/rare to the hobby that doesn’t have a lot of CB individuals, that CB population may become very inbred quickly without new individuals… theres a lot of variables that goes into it and it is very controversial in of itself…
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Then both are necessary
Both new blood and new cb bred to different people’s collections for cross breeding … If only there was an exchange system