Herpetofauna in the wildlife trade and nature: on the difficulty of estimation

3 Pages·1996·1.5 MB·English

by  Allen Salzberg

©Amphibian&ReptileConservation Amphibian&ReptileConservation (Fall1996), 1(1):24-26
Printed in the UnitedStates. Alt rightsreserved
Herpetofauna in the Wildlife Trade and
On
Nature: the Difficulty of Estimation
Allen Salzberg
New York Turtle and TortoiseSociety, 163AmsterdamAvenue, Suite365, New York, New York 10023-5001
Key Words
Populationestimation, numbers, wildlifetrade, reptiles, amphibians
Abstract reluctant to make it public un- caught and sold each year and
Due to the complexity ofanimal less it is somehow mandated by their impact on wild populations.
populations both in the wild and law. This is especially true of One would have better luck
themarketplace, itisdifficult for some dealers and collectors of trying to find the numbers of
scientists to estimate the actual live animals who are afraid of a herpetofauna being sold into and
numbers. Obstacles in the mar- sudden surge in acertain species out ofthe United States. At least
ketplaceinclude:illegalactivities, attracting the unwanted
inefficientestimationprocedures, attention of their competi-
and understaffed monitoring tion, scientists, conserva-
agencies. Mostexpertsagreethat tionists or law enforce-
the existing numbers often times ment officers (Enge 1994).
are estimated extremely low. All So ruling out the pass-
numbersshouldbeusedwithcau- ingofnewlaws,forexample,
tion. Furtherresearchandtighter how does one find out how
controls are calledfor. many reptiles and amphib-
ians are sold within the
United States? Currently
One ofthe firstthings we learn as the only numbers on pet
children is the art ofcounting. As herpetofaunaintheU.S.that
adults, counting large numbers is exist are guesses made by
replaced by complicated estima- two recent pet industry sur-
tiontechniques. Largenumbersof veys (American Pet Prod-
variables makes estimation diffi- ucts Manufacturers 1994,
cult. Nowhere is this more true American Veterinary Medi-
than when trying to measure the cal Association 1992). They
trade in reptiles and amphibians estimate in the United
anditsimpactonwildpopulations. States there are between Greek tortoises from Jordan in their original
Simply, the problem is that one to four million reptiles shippingcrates.Theshipperoftheseturtleshad
reliable numbers of how many andamphibianskeptaspets. aCITESpermitforaspecificnumberofanimals.
animals are being sold, collected, Notonlyisthisnumber hBaudt4a3smmoarneyaCnIiTmEalSssthhiapnmeanltlsowdeod,,tshiostshheiepxmceensts
or in the wild do not exist. At too broad to be usable, sur- animals were confiscated. Due to infrequent
least, numbers which are precise. veys failed to ask specific inspectionsmost"padded"shipmentsgothrough,
Take for example the questions that would supply indicatingthatofficial CITES numbersdonot
seemingly simple act of esti- data which would be more reflectactualnumbertraded.
mating how many animals are useful. They asked pet owners if thereexistsestablishedtradedata
sold in agivenyear. Anywellrun they owned a snake or aturtle. If bases; LEMIS, or The Law En-
business has this statistic but is they had asked, more specifically, forcement Management Informa-
whatspecies owners had then sci- tion System run by the U.S. Fish
Correspondence, e-mail:Asalzberg(w entists could better estimate how & Wildlife Service and a count of
aol.com many amphibians and reptiles are CITES animals traded, put out
COLUMN
(Popular) EstimationDifficultiesintheWildlifeTradeandNature 25
by England's Another
World Conser- problemiswho
vation Moni- does the col-
toring Centre lecting. Myfa-
(WCMC). voriteexample
LEMIS
ofthisis asto-
showsthatthe ryaboutCaret-
U.S.eitherim- toclwlysinculp-
ports or ex- ta.Itoriginally
portsuptoten was believed
million live or to be a very
dead reptiles rarespecies.It
and amphib- turnedoutthat
ians per year. the scientists
But even here who first dis-
thereareprob- covered this
lems. LEMIS animalwereto-
doesn'tinclude tallydependent
aall.ll,smpyesciteesr.i.Tohues 6Bambil-VlisolnideorfstihnesaeFwleorrriedashdiepalpeerd'sousthoopfatwhaeitUiSnglasshtipymeeanrt.alIotnei.s estimated that over oconllneacttivtehseitro
categoryofnon-CITESreptilesin- officer who is allowing a lot of specimens.Theyaskedthenatives
cludes hundreds ofthousands of CITES animals out, and doesn't to bring back any turtle they
animals,ofunknownspecies,each want to attract attention, might caught when they would go
year. Entire families of lizards justfudge his country'snumbers upriver.Theproblemwasthatthe
suchasskinks,agamasandgeckos (Groombridge 1994). natives like to eat Carettochelys
are only listed by their common One common gap that both andsogavethescientistsonlythe
familyname.Andthencertainrep- these databases share is that badtastingturtles(Pritchard1993).
tiles,likeGraptemysandApalone there is no record keeping ofthe Now does this mean that
arelistedonlybygenus.(Thesitu- animals' ages (Anderson 1994). these numbers are useless? No.
ation for these two genera im- When it comes to reptiles, espe- Even ifthe numbers are incom-
provedlastyearwiththeaddition cially turtles, this is very impor- pletetheyareuseful.Mostherpe-
ofseveral species forboth). This tant information since collection tologistsbelievethenumbersare
forcedthewildlifeofficerentering ofadultsdoesmoreharmtoawild waytoolow, (Enge 1994)describ-
the datato list numerous species populations than of hatchlings ingliveanimalshipmentsthatare
andsubspeciestogether,thuslos- (Congdon 1994). smuggled through customs with
ingvaluabledata. Documentsare Counting is also a problem invoices listing the boxes' con-
mostoftenwrong.Therightthing whenkeepingtrackofwildpopu- tents as light bulbs and so they
would be to open each crate and lations. Examplesexistofpopula- areneverseenbyWildlifeofficers
count each animal, something tionstudieswhichhaveprovenin- (Luiijf1993).
whichfewFish& Wildlife Inspec- accuratebecausetheydidn'ttake And like the canary in the
tors have the time to do unless into account the animal's natural mines, LEMIS and WCMC data
theyaresuspiciousofsomewrong- habits. Thisresulted in scientists can act as a warning to trade ac-
doing(Luiijf1994). looking for animals where they tivities, excessive or illegal.
WCMC
The collects the wereleastlikelytofindthem(Gib- Large numbers, even ofjust liz-
numbers submitted by CITES bons 1993). ardsorsoftshells,suddenlybeing
countries ofjust CITES listed We also know that popula- reportedcanindicatetoconserva-
animalswhichhavebeentraded. tions often naturally increase or tionistsandscientiststhatfurther
Thoughthespecieslistingismore decrease tremendously, and only studyoractionisnecessary.
exact, the problem here is that long-termpopulationstudies take Recently, Togo and Ghana
WCMC WCMC
has no enforcement or that into account and more accu- was reporting to an in-
checking ability. It's purely an rately measure a population's credible amountofreptilesbeing
honor system. So a local CITES trend(Gibbons 1993). exported, more than those small
COLUMN
26 Allen Salzberg (Popular)
countries could possibly collect. and reptiles in the wild, an excel- Program Final Performance Report,
This tipped offwildlife officials to lent reference is Measuring and Tallahasse, Florida. 102 pp.
investigate. They discovered that MonitoringBiologicalDiversity: Gibbons, J.W. 1993. Measuring declines
Togo and Ghana was laundering Standard MethodsforAmphib- and natural variation in populations of
animals illegally collected from ians(Heyeretal. 1994).ThoughI turtles: spatial lessons from longterm
other countries (Ventura 1994). look forwardto aneditiononrep- studies. Presentation at Conservation,
But still we have to figure tiles, this book, with its detailed RTeorsttooirsaetsioann,d TaurntdlesMaannaIngteemrneanttionaolf
out how best to estimate amphib- studiesofdifferentcollection and Conference. July, Purchase, New York.
ians and reptiles, both collected recordingtechniques, shouldgive
and traded (these two numbers anyone doing population studies Groombridge, L. 1994. Personal Com-
munications. World Conservation
are usually different because ani- on reptiles help on howto formu-
Monitoring Centre, Cambridge, United
mals do die in transit, or are kept lateauseful, comparable,popula- Kingdom.
for personal use by the collector). tion study.
The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Simply: You can't save what Heyer, W. R., Donnelly, M.A., McDiar-
mid, R.W., Hayek, L.C., and Eraser,
needs to be encouraged to im- you don'tknowyou have. M.S. 1994. Measuring and Monitoring
proveLEMISsoitreflectsthebio- Biological Diversity: StandardMethods
logical and natural history of the forAmphibians. Smithsonian Institution
References
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scohuinptmeedn.tAsnhdoualndybaeniompaelnetdraadnedd Amnundiecrastoino,n.MaSreyp.te1m99b4e.r.PeIrnsdoneaplenCdoemn-t cLouinitjrfo,llWin.g1to9r9t3o.isTehteradreo.leProefseCnItaTtEioSniant
Researcher, Roanoke, Virginia.
should be on that system. Herpe- Conservation, Restoration, Management
tologists and conservationists American Pet Products Manufacturers ofTortoises and Turtles and Interna-
tional Conference. July, Purchase, New
needtoconducttheirownsurveys Association. 1994. 199U National Pet
York.
ofwhatis being sold in petshops. Owners Survey, pp. 180-197. American
Pet Products Manufacturers Asso-
As for counting amphibians ciation, Scarsdale, New York. Pritehard, Dr. P.C.H. 1993. Personal
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ida Audubon Society, Casseberry,
American Veterinary Medical Asso-
1 ciation. 1992. The Veterinary Service Florida.
1% Marketfor Companion Animals, 1992,
pp. 103-106. Center for Information Ventura, J. 1994. Personal Communica-
tion. Supervisory Wildlife Inspector,
Management, AmericanVeterinary Med-
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Port of
ical Association, Scaumburg, Illinois. New York, John F. Kennedy Airport.
120 pp.
Bright, E. 1994. An analysis ofU.S. Fish Warwick, C. 1994. Personal Commun-
^ & Wildlife reptile and amphibian num- ications. People's Trust for Endangered
m * '*• ii»jps bers in their LEMIS system. Unpub- Species, Surrey, England.
rj
; ; lished manuscript.
^^T§£ Conant, R. and Collins, J.T. 1991. A Allen Salzberg's interests in environ-
$ FiiaenlsdEaGsutiedren/tCoeRnetprtailleNsoratnhdAAmmeprhiicba-. hmeenstaawlhiisssfuiersstbweigladntubratclek.iMnr.19S6a5lzabfetregr
s 3rd Edition. Peterson Field Guide has written numerous articles on the
Series. Houghton Mifflin Company, environmentfor magazines including
> Boston. 450 pp. Health, Outside, and The New York
Times. Recently, he completed a report
S Congdon, J.D., Dunham, A.E., and Van titled The Preliminary Report: Live
* mLaotbuernitSyelasn,dRd.eCm.og1r9a9p3h.icDseloafyBeldansdeixnuga'sl tFhreesUhnwiatteedrSTtuarttelsef&orTtohretoUisSeHTuramdaenien
1 turtles (Emydoidea blandingii): Impli- Society and Humane Society Interna-
A typical storage set up for small snakes cations for conservation and manage- tional. He is presently working on up-
at a Florida dealer. A common marketing ment on longlived organisms. Conser- dating and expanding that report to
techniqueofanimaldealersistounder-list vation Biology (2): 387-399. include all reptiles. With his wife, Anita
the amount ofanimals available in their Baskin Salzberg, he has cowritten a
mail order catalogs—by as much as 90 %. Enge, K.M. 1994. Herptile Use and children's book on turtlesfor "all those
Thiscreatestheillusion ofrarityandthus TradeinFlorida. FloridaGameand Fresh kids like me back in 65."
boosts demand forthe animal. Water Commission Nongame Wildlife