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Herps In The News Local or national articles where reptiles or amphibians have made it into the news media. Please cite sources.

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Old 03-18-2023, 09:29 PM   #1
Martin Nowak
Exotic Common Snapping Turtle

In the FC section "General Herp Talk" I provided a brief review of the book "Exotic Amphibians and Reptiles"; followed by an excellent discussion by John Zillmer.
https://www.amazon.com/Exotic-Amphib...ustomerReviews

Next in this section I previously commented about the book’s narrative on exotic introduction of the North American Bullfrog.

Now a look at the book’s comments on exotic introduction of the common snapping turtle.

Doing a bit of easy research in follow-up, I reviewed anthropological and historical human dietary evidences for turtles in past societies and geographical locations.

The book notes only the following about the common snapping turtle:

“… exotic to AZ, CA, NV, NM, OR,UT, WA.”

However, in Western North American Naturalist, Jones et.al. report on evidence of the common snapping turtle in New Mexico and propose it is native fauna and not exotic.

“The turtle specimen derives from an archaeological context securely dated to the early seventeenth century. The presence of C. serpentina in this context, taken together with the composition of the rest of the Isleta Pueblo Mission archaeofaunal assemblage and the present-day C. serpentina population in the Middle Rio Grande, suggests that C. serpentina has been present in this drainage since at least the seventeenth century and is likely native.”

https://bioone.org/journals/western-...082.0317.short

Since the common snapping turtle is found native in Colorado and Texas, including counties that border New Mexico, it would be reasonable that the species could also be native to New Mexico. The logic of natural ranges extending into adjacent counties would seem to require deeper review of the subject for any species.

In summary, it seems to me the book is not comprehensive in its narratives, facts, and even some reasonable suppositions. Since neither the bullfrog nor the common snapping turtle are fully vetted, one might conclude the other entries are suspect in terms of complete discussion. In addition, assigning causal factors for an animal to be deemed exotic needs to be carefully and fully researched. The issue then is that this book will be used by game and fish commissions to create regulations and laws; and will also be cited in future academic papers. Corrections and/or retractions in publications are difficult to come by and so future publications will simply cite the book “as is” and the shortcomings carry on ad infinitum.
 
Old 03-19-2023, 12:33 AM   #2
WebSlave
In determining the "natural" range of any species, what are the actual definitions of "native" and "exotic"?
 
Old 03-19-2023, 10:29 AM   #3
Martin Nowak
Rich, good question. I use the term "exotic" only in the sense that it is title of the book: "Exotic Amphibians and Reptiles of the United States".

In the Introduction, the authors provide their definitions: "What constitutes an exotic species? Very simply, an exotic species is one whose dispersal is a result of human mediation." And for "native": "A species whose presence is not the result of human mediation".
In the Introduction, the authors provide their definitions of "exotic", "invasive", "native", and "endemic".
Given that definition, the presence of a species in one part of a state could be natural and in another part of the state "exotic". However, the species enumerated are all described on a state wide basis; with some specific locations included.
I did not see clarity of definition if the species had once existed, then absent for X period of time, then "reappeared" via natural or exotic means or new findings. The common snapping turtle would be such an example.
It would be reasonable to consider if fossil evidence constitutes a species to be native even if a current population were human mediated.

My main concern with the book is mostly confined to the discussion for each specie under the heading "Introduction history and geographic range". The pet industry and reptile keepers are not responsible for all the "exotic" introductions. The book does not cast that net over all "exotic" populations; but, certainly the narrative, in my estimation, leans heavily on reptile keepers and the pet industry. Yet the current trend to regulate keeping reptiles seems to have foundation on narratives of "escaped pets" or "storms that demolished the reptile facility".

As noted in the bullfrog discussion, it is likely that much of the "exotic" dispersion of that species came about due to socioeconomic conditions post Great Depression. Although a scam, people were starving and seeking means of support. This notion was ignored in the book's narrative. The use of amphibians in recreational fishing as bait is largely ignored because this activity provides revenue via state license sales. Environmental damage by feral and domestic house cats I suspect far exceeds the damage of pythons in Florida. (I don't endorse either - but house cats are totally ignored by regulators). The vast majority of venomous snake bites occur to non reptile keepers. And so forth.

Finally, the book's authors use several terms under the heading of "human mediated" including "deliberate, accidental" and other terms. In reply, John Zillmer provided an excellent categorization of the terminologies used in the book for how the species were dispersed.
 
Old 03-19-2023, 11:36 AM   #4
Socratic Monologue
"I did not see clarity of definition if the species had once existed, then absent for X period of time, then "reappeared" via natural or exotic means or new findings. The common snapping turtle would be such an example.
It would be reasonable to consider if fossil evidence constitutes a species to be native even if a current population were human mediated."

This is an interesting topic. I think adding the category 'reintroduced' would help to clarify certain cases, but questions would remain.

What is the difference between accidentally and intentionally reintroduced populations, and between populations intentionally reintroduced for different reasons (e.g. sport fishing vs species reestablishment), or by different groups (hobbyists/"guerilla conservationists", legit/academic conservation organizations, state agencies) . The answer to this question could help to uncover the biases of the speaker.

If the reintroduced animals are of the same species but are from a locally different population than the original extirpated population, does that count as reintroduction? And if the habitat has changed radically since the extirpation of the original population, does reintroducing the species count as reintroduction even though the species is only being released at the same latitude and longitude but not in the same plant and animal communities that originally existed at those coordinates? This seems most relevant to the reintroduction of non-herp species -- wolves, bison, and especially horses -- but those might be interesting analogous cases to investigate.

Though I don't keep up with this movement, the horse rewilding debate seems to have grown far enough outside its justifiable boundaries to have become something of a monster, and I wouldn't like that to happen to herps any more than it already has. Imagine how well a rattlesnake reintroduction program would be accepted if it was allowed to become a culture war as is the fashion lately.
 
Old 05-17-2023, 10:43 AM   #5
Martin Nowak
John, while this thread is not about wild horses - you did bring up the comparison! In any event, here is an Op-ed from today's Anthropocene that asks the question: "Wild horse numbers are out of control. The remedy hinges on whether they are wildlife, pets or livestock."
And also a partial answer: "The lack of sound science isn’t what’s keeping land management agencies from effectively dealing with the horse conundrum. It’s the politics."

It seems to me, reptile keepers ask the same question and at least in part, have the same "answer". The hobby's continued presence and success will greatly depend on how reptile keepers answer this question to "authorities". And like with wild horses, reptile keepers have to battle the anti-cage groups, the general public fearful of snakes, and a lot of sensational and fake news. Real challenges. It also doesn't help the hobby to continuously have illegal activities occur.

https://www.anthropocenemagazine.org...s-or-livestock
 
Old 05-17-2023, 06:07 PM   #6
Socratic Monologue
Thanks for linking that report -- very relevant.

A few years back (2015) in WI Governor Scott Walker took pains to convince people that what we really need is only elected representatives making policy decisions (because Go Democracy! I guess), and so cut a bunch of scientist positions in the DNR (he wanted to cut something like 25, and ended up with about half that) so that there weren't voices pointing out from the inside how wrong his policies were. He also tried (I don't recall how successfully) to prohibit state employees from making public claims regarding contentious environmental issues.

This sort of thing, of course, is relevant to the current discussion and also to some things going on in state politics right now (and in national politics for some time). I think reptile keepers need to give some serious thought as to how they see science and politics playing out in various issues lately, and which they ought to give their support to.
 

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