On genetic ambassadorship for wild types & conservation

[erie-herps]

It’s a good thought, but overall it wouldn’t work. I highly doubt that governments would want to work with captive breeders unless they were associated with a zoo or research facility. Additionally, captive animals aren’t that genetically diverse (like eastern indigos, I’ll use that example later) and I’m sure many (if not most) captive animals have diseases that have a risk of wiping out entire ecosystems. Many zoos and organizations have been working on captive breeding projects to release into the wild.

The difference is that everything is meticulously recorded and planned. In the hobby, most species can only be traced back a few generations at the most, maybe up to 5-6 (like with crested geckos), but they are pretty much never traced back to the original animals captured from the wild (except with rare exceptions like when wild blood was added). With organizations, the animals’ lineage can often be traced back to when the animals were collected, and everything was recorded in great detail and pairings are made to reduce inbreeding.

For example, in the hobby, eastern indigos are likely the most inbred snake, there were extremely few individuals that started the hobby population and they show negative signs of inbreeding. Many zoos/organizations have been working with indigos to release them back to the wild (look up eastern indigo release and you will find many examples of this). With licensed zoos/organizations, they are communicating with other groups and making the best pairings to reduce inbreeding and maximize future possibilities.

I’ve talked to a couple people that have helped with an SSP (Species Survival Plan) for a species. This is when zoos/organizations take animals that are endangered/threatened and do their best to captive breed them, and often restock wild populations. Everything is tracked to the extreme and they communicate with dozens or hundreds of accredited zoos and organizations across the country and sometimes world and compare pedigrees and ancestry to find the best pairings to reduce inbreeding. Then, animals are shipped and traded between the organizations, bred, and then the cycle continues, trying to create as many captive animals as possible while keeping inbreeding to a minimum. Testing is done to make sure the animals don’t have diseases or parasites that could wipe out an ecosystem. Often, the animals are then released in very specific spots and sometimes acclimated in pens to reproduce and attempt to start a wild population.

Honestly, the reason why this won’t work is because the hobby is lazy. Nothing is seriously tracked (there’s no major database connecting everything) and even when breeders track pairings/parents/offspring, it doesn’t go back far enough and it isn’t detailed enough to be seriously effective. If hobbyists actually wanted to support wild populations by captive breeding, they would need to join a zoo/organization and help with conservation plans with their animals.

These are a couple other posts from discussions about this topic:

@t_h_wyman

@erie-herps

if the wild population is at risk it would likely be possible to release captive geckos into the wild

This is, unfortunately, one of the fallacies of the hobby that is often used for improper justification for wild-collection.

Yes, captive populations can help preserve the genetic identity of an animal species if the habitat were obliterated. That said, the captive populations in the hobby could never be released into the wild because of the way the hobby breeds things. There is zero thought given to genetic diversity and maintaining a broad and healthy represented population. Actual SSPs have to go to some very extreme measures when they are working toward reintroduction populations

@chesterhf

@shugr231

If the wild needs ball pythons back Im sure we could restock like we do fish.

This is arguably the worst argument I have ever heard, plopping domesticated ball pythons back in the wild is not a band-aid for demolishing natural populations. While undoubtedly the ball pythons that have been in captivity for generations are very similar to the ones found in the wild, generations of selective breeding and husbandry have undoubtedly contributed to genetic drift from wild populations. They may have less resistance to parasites, starvation and no fear of natural predators. Snakes that have been fed F/T or even live pet store mice/rats may not know how to hunt for themselves, and individuals that show unique coloring or patterns are at a higher rate of death by predator.

Edit: I just had another thought. The main way that hobbyists can truly help wild environments is by avoiding wild caught animals. The capture of these animals for the pet trade is doing horrible things to wild populations and occasionally nearly wiping them out. Don’t support the selling of wild caught animals to try and discourage the capture and destruction of the population. If someone is serious about this, they could start a captive population of often WC species. For example, Josh’s Frogs talks a lot about their work with red-eyed tree frogs. Many of the frogs for sale are wild caught, but captive breeding has made more CB animals available. I was very serious about starting a project like this for day geckos. Many day geckos are WC and some are very endangered in the wild (like the williamsi/electric blue day gecko). I wanted to get many species of them and breed them to create many CB offspring and sell them at prices competitive to WC animals. I decided to put those plans on hold because right now I don’t want the responsibility/expense of all of those animals, but someday I fully plan to pick those plans back up and help prevent WC animals from being caught and sold.