Hognose Survey for Research Project- Please help me out!

[Nichalia]

I'm currently researching the availability of Southern Hognose snakes as it might pertain to the possibility of buying and importing large numbers for breeding and releasing into controlled wildlife areas in an effort to help repopulate S. Hognoses in South Carolina. (The Southern Hognose is the only snake on the Rare, Threatened, and Endangered Species Inventory for Richland County, South Carolina.)

I'm also trying to gather numbers regarding the ratio of Southern Hognoses owned and/or bred to the total number of Hognoses (Western and Eastern and Southern) owned and/or bred by individuals.

Here are my questions:
((and if you could all just leave a quick response, I would be VERY happy and a good deal indebted to you.))


*1) Do you own Hognose snakes? Which kinds (Eastern, Western, Southern) and in what numbers?

*2) If you own Southern Hognoses, would you be willing to sell your animals to a breeding program?

*3) What price would you ask for Southern Hognoses, both as individual snakes and as large groups?

*4) Do you know of any (or are you a) larger-scale Southern Hognose snake breeders?


That's it! It's so easy! If you don't have any Southerns, please let me know! I'm interested in as much information as I can get about the pet-owner numbers that are out there at this time.

Thank you SO much.
-Nichalia Schwartz
(803) 309-1453

***PS: Please note if your snakes are albino, as releasing or breeding albino hognoses into the wild would not be in anyone's best interest.

 

[tandy4000]

i would reccomend making this a poll, that would make tabulating results a lot easier and faster, plus, people would be more inclined to respond

 

[reptilebreeder]

There's a couple (at least) problems with your idea or project.
First, in most areas it is illegal to release captive bred snakes into the wild even in areas where they are present. In fact in a lot of places it is illegal to release even a wild caught snake if it has been in your possession for a certain amount of time.
Second, even if you found someone who was undertaking this task in an official capacity, I doubt they would use stock taken from a bunch of hobbyists. They would catch their own, with accurate locality records, and do everything in a controlled scientific manner.
Third, one of the biggest reasons such efforts usually fail, is that the reason (more often than not) an animal is threatened/endangered, is because of the destruction or disappearance of the animals natural habitat, so even if such a project was undertaken, there is nowhere to release the animal.
Fourth, you list a specific area where Southerns are listed as rare/endangered. If this is the specific area you want to "repopulate" you would need to find out why it is listed. It might not have been "populated" to begin with. IE it might not be due to habitat loss, it might just be because it is on the outskirts of it's range, or an area that just isn't optimum for Southerns. If such were the case, "repopulating" the area would probably not work, and even if it did you might be screwing with the natural balance of animal diversity in this specific area.