Python Ban Moves Forward Despite Questionable Science

PR: Python Ban Moves Forward Despite Questionable Science December 10, 2009 Wilmington, NC- Driven by powerful special interests and much media sensation S. 373 aka ‘The Python Ban’ is likely to move forward despite lack of scientific justification. Pushed by Sponsor Senator Bill Nelson and the Humane Society of the United States S. 373 could devastate the trade in high quality captive bred reptiles in the United States.

Today the Senate Committee on the Environment & Public Works (EPW) will hold a business meeting on S. 373. The Committee Chair is Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and the Ranking Member is Senator James Inhofe (R-OK). The committee will hold a mark up session where they will consider S. 373, to amend title 18, United States Code, to add constrictor snakes of the species Python genera to the Injurious Wildlife list of the Lacey Act. The committee is expected to amend the bill to include the 9 snakes listed on a recent controversial report by the US Geological Survey (USGS). All tolled the bill could stop the import, export and interstate transport of as many as 45 species of Boas and Pythons.

The USGS report being used to justify these extreme measures has been called into question by a group of independent scientists in a letter to the EPW Committee on November 24, 2009. The letter characterized the USGS report as “not a bona-fide scientific paper”. The US Department of the Interior (DOI) and the US Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) stand by the report and have recommended to the committee that all 9 snakes reviewed should be included by amendment to S. 373. The independent scientists, who include professors from University of Florida, Arizona State University, Texas A&M and The National Geographic Society, go further to state, “this document is not suitable as the basis for legislative or regulatory policies, as its content is not based on best science practices”

The United States Association of Reptile Keepers (USARK) made an agreement in principle with Senator Bill Nelson’s office to limit the damage to a 3 billion dollar a year trade in these reptiles, but was informed yesterday that the agreement would not be honored. Senator Nelson has justified his position based on the recommendations made in regards to the USGS report by USFWS and DOI. Andrew Wyatt, president of USARK, commented that “it is a real shame that Senator Nelson has changed his position on this issue”. If the bill passes approximately 4 million boas and pythons already in captivity would be rendered valueless overnight with no provisions for disposition or compensation. Wyatt added, “it could create a situation where millions of people will be in possession of injurious wildlife. It is ludicrous to put so many law abiding citizens in that position and diminish the Lacey Act for the sake of political expediency.”

Passage of S. 373 would result in the loss of thousands of American jobs bankrupting an entire industry. Without strong evidence to support the injurious wildlife listing, USARK calls on the Senate EPW Committee to give an unfavorable rating to S. 373.

Contact: Andrew Wyatt   president@usark.org

Climate threat to Nordic frogs

Climate change is a threat to thousands of frog species all over the world, including the green spotted toad in Sweden and the pool toad in Norway. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) estimates that at least half of the world’s approximately 6,000 species are threatened with extinction.

Global warming leads to the water in which frogs live heating up, evaporating and becoming shallower, so ultraviolet rays find it easier to penetrate their habitats and cause mutations. Various forms of disease spread even more easily as temperatures rise.The Nordic countries are fighting back though, e.g. taking measures to save frogs by improving and restoring their habitats.

The outlook for the future is discussed in the latest fact sheet in the series “Nordens natur – trender mot 2010″ (Nordic Nature – Trends towards 2010). The programme, which is funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers, aims to illustrate trends in biological diversity in the Nordic Region. The title refers to the international target of stemming negative trends in biological diversity by 2010.The series of fact sheets describe Nordic successes as well as instances where it has proven impossible to halt a negative trend.The target group is all those who have an interest in the state and future of biodiversity in the Nordic Region. Subjects covered by previous sheets include cod, currents in the Baltic Sea and the future of the polar bear and sea eagle. The editor-in-chief is based at the Finnish Environmental Administration but the project also has its own websites in Norway and Denmark.

Link to the project website. Click “English” in top right area for English version.

Nordic co-operation on the environment

From Norden.org

Mojave Fringe-toed Lizard, Threatened by Off-road Vehicles,

TUCSON, Ariz.— In response to an April 2006 petition from the Center for Biological Diversity, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced today that the Amargosa River population of the Mojave fringe-toed lizard, Uma scoparia, warrants consideration for protection as an endangered species under the federal Endangered Species Act. The agency will now begin a one-year status review of the species.

“Off-road vehicles come at this highly adapted and unique lizard from all sides — they degrade its habitat, destroy its food source, and trample lizards directly,” said Chris Kassar, a wildlife biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity. “This is a rare and vulnerable creature that simply cannot co-exist with such off-road vehicle excess. The lizard desperately needs the protection of the Endangered Species Act to avoid extinction.”

Although this lizard can evade predators and extreme midday heat by using its fringed toes to swiftly bury itself in the fine sands of the dunes it inhabits, it remains close enough to the surface that it is still vulnerable to death or injury from off-road vehicles’ sand-digging tires. The Amargosa River population of the Mojave fringe-toed lizard occupies three dunes in and adjacent to Death Valley National Park, of which the largest is Dumont Dunes. Scientists determined that the Amargosa population is genetically distinct from other populations of the species, which allows the Fish and Wildlife Service to protect it as a “distinct population segment.”

“The discovery of the Amargosa River population of the Mojave fringe- toed lizard as genetically very distinct was completely unanticipated,” said Dr. Robert W. Murphy, a professor of zoology at the University of Toronto who conducted the genetic studies. “The petition by the Center for Biological Diversity to conserve this important population marks a significant advance for this species’ conservation. And by association other dune-restricted species can be protected as well. I know that Dr. Morafka, who initiated this work, would have been very proud of this outstanding achievement.”

The greatest threat to the lizard is intensive off-road vehicle recreational use, which has killed many individuals directly and destroyed habitat. Dumont Dunes and Ibex Dune together make up 98 percent of the species’ range; the Dumont Dunes ORV Recreation Area, which is managed by the Bureau of Land Management, attracts more than 100,000 off-roaders per year and contains the bulk of the lizard’s habitat. Illegal trespass into Death Valley National Park at Ibex Dune occurs due to spillover from Dumont Dunes. Yet the Bureau of Land Management has taken little action to protect the lizard from this rampant ORV use.

“The Bureau of Land Management is largely responsible for the decline in the species because it’s authorized and accommodated increasing, intensive off-road vehicle use over so much of the species’ range,” said Kassar. “There’s a very real possibility that continued ORV use in Mojave fringe-toed lizard habitat will lead to the extinction of this small and fragile population. Endangered Species Act listing is the best chance this lizard has of survival.”

The finding on the petition to protect the lizard, published in the Federal Register on January 10, 2008, is almost a year and a half overdue. The finding requires the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the federal agency charged with implementing the Endangered Species Act, to solicit public comment, carry out a status review of the species, and issue a proposed rule to protect the species later this year. Final protection would occur within one year thereafter.

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The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 40,000 members dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places.

From Center of Biological Diversity

Linkdirectory for all herptilerelated sites.

I have just launched a Herpetological linkdirectory for all sites with a herpetological content.

ALL sites are handled/submitted manually, to prevent spammers and non-serious sites.

 Welcome to submit your site!