Albinos, morphs, mutts, and mutants,...

I do not believe that any of my Indigos will ever be willingly released into the wild. Not even if the powers that be were begging me to do so. And if they ever asked, I'd reply by quoting Charlton Heston in saying,..."FROM MY COLD DEAD HANDS"! I would, therefore, never delude myself into thinking that the captive gene pool would somehow save the day. And I agree whole heartedly with Jeff. We have to know why they disappeared to begin with. But we do need to protect what is ours. The best way I can see to do that, is a breeders association, the funds it generates, and a studbook/genetic database.
I really think that we need to take a good hard look at the possibility, that global warming is having a negative effect on wild populations. I think there is probably a firm link between wild couperi population, and frog population.The frogs are disappearing, so the indigos can't get enough to eat. Global warming could be having a negative effect on couperi in ways like incubation temps being too high. And I think if global warming is not a problem for indigos now, and if current rates continue,...at some point, it will be a serious problem for indigos in the future. At some point, the only indigos we may have left, are the ones we have in captivity. All the more reason to get it together, and do whatever it takes to maintain a healthy, captive genepool now!
T.

Tony,

Why would you not allow any of your indigo's to be released?
I understand that under the current set of circumstances, repatriation is a bad idea, but what if the answers we seek regarding indigo decline are forthcoming? I would think you would be jumping at the chance to be involved.

I do not buy into the whole global warming issue. I believe there may be a slight warming trend, but there have been warming & cooling trends throughout history. It's is my belief that the whole GW issue is nothing more than a bunch of liberal fear mongering.

Eric

I wouldn't release them for a number of reasons.
1.I love them, and would not subject them to certain doom.
2.Previous release attempts have not been proved successfull.
3.We have not yet fixed all the reasons why they are disappearing in the wild;
a.Habitat loss, and fragmentation.
b.roads/traffic[wich is only getting worse]
c.fire ants.
d. ferrel hogs.
e.dogs
f.cats
g.guinea fowl
h.idiots with shovels, rakes, and other implements of distruction.
i.climate change, weather you believe it or not. Mainstream science does.
j.basically just mankind, and all the pestilence he generates around him.
k.frog/amphibian decline[food source for indigos]
l.fertilizer/pesticide, and other chemical contamination.
It is my humble opinion that until all these issues have been addressed, and corrected, it would not be a good idea. And so far, we have done very little that I'm aware of. We have not yet even sufficiently answered the question of what happened to wild populations which have been extrapated, let alone fixed the problems. The things I have mentioned here are only the obvious ones, and I may have missed some. We simply have not done the research to know everything we need to know about indigos, their needs, and their environment to even begin to fix the problems at hand. And until we do that, my indigos will remain in my care! Before we europeans came along, drymarchon couperi had no reall enemies, or serious predation. It had none of these problems to worry about. Now it has all of them.
T.