Importing from Colombia

[crb_22601]

Do you ever think they will import frogs legally from Colombia in the next 10 years?

[Julio]

the way things look now, i really doubt that.

[JoshH]

I'm still hoping someone will get ahold of some lehmanni and bring them out.....

[Julio]

Originally Posted by JoshH

I'm still hoping someone will get ahold of some lehmanni and bring them out.....

be careful what you say or do.....

[JoshH]

Originally Posted by Julio

be careful what you say or do.....

I mean legally of course. There's has to be a few people out there that have them from when they were imported, most likely in Europe. And I believe that having groups of species in the hands of experienced hobbyiest and not just in their small wild populations in beneficial. I'm not saying they should become available to everyone, just that a few groups need to get into the right hands for protection. If certain Atelopus were being bred in captivity right now then they might not be going extinct.....

[bbrock]

The Colombians who have been working on amphibian conservation in their home country, are also involved in captive breeding, and know the lehmanni situation best, have been unanimous in their opinion that they should not be exported for the pet trade. I would support their opinion. There is nothing to be gained for conservation by removing animals from critically imperiled populations to put them into private hands.

[frogfarm]

But there is already cb greenhouses of lehmanni down there. I here this from a good source. They have the papers to farm them locally bbut can`t get the permits federally to export? or something like that. Of course it`s not good to take animals from a crically endangered species but we have to step in at some point, isn`t that what twi/asn is about, intervention by hobbyists and zoos to save amphiban populations? These are the worlds creatures and having all our eggs in one basket, so to speak, is never a good idea. Plus I really want to work w/ them and I know i can increase their #`s. I brought escudos pop from 6 individuals to 30+(24 offspring) in under a year and cayo de aguas from 4 to 23 in under 6 months. I don`t mean to toot my own horn but in the right hands these greenhouse lehmanni could produce a good captive stock if not exported in #`s and hi priced to make it worthwhile for columbia and into the right breeding programs. It`s just all happening too slow for my hopes. There are good things in the works though. People are pushing cb programs and hopefully someday before their gone we`ll get another chance.

[Kase]

I definitely agree with you aaron. There needs to be some program to get lehmanni in the right hands. I'm not encouraging flooding the market with imports - that would be a disaster! Having these frogs with the right people could eventually lead to an amazing frog being established in the hobby.

[MonarchzMan]

Eh, I guess I'd disagree. At some point, yes, I'd like to see Lehmanni in this country in the right peoples' hands, but right now? Not a chance. There needs to be captive breeding programs there to up the populations first before spare frogs can and should be sent here. Shipping animals is very stressful on them, and for a critically endangered frog that could easily die due to the stress of shipping, it wouldn't be worth it. And then once here, there are no guarantees that they'll be as easy to breed in captivity as some pumilio are. I mean, look at Blue Jeans. People have all sorts of difficulty breeding them, whereas other pumilio morphs are much easier.

[frogfarm]

If they are already endangered in the wild why put more individuals into an already unstable population? cb could outcompete in the shortrun and offset the already unstable, by, I`d imagine habitat degradation, population and crash it. If there are already cb offspring in greenhouse production they should go to an area not so threatened by coca production and gov`t instability to offset the hi demand which probably moreso threatenss the species. I know ed has said that smuggling of auratus still occurs but hi prices will have peoplle searching them out. If they are hard to find and the price is $200ea or less maybe it will take off some of the hardcore smugglers from risking going there.