Posted by David Sewell on April 19, 2012 at 7:36 AM
As a professional herpetologist, I get a lot of stick from certain colleagues about the behaviour of some photographers. Nothing new there you might think, I am sure many others get the same.
You may be interested to read this article:
http://visionwild.wordpress.com/2012/03/12/derbyshire-micro-chipped-adder-found-in-bradgate-park/
This concerns photographers who were allegedly holding a photographic workshop on reptiles, and imported adders from a site in Derbyshire, later letting the animals go in Bradgate Park itself. When it was pointed out that herpetologists do not need microchips to recognise individual adders (we recognise individuals by their head patterns), the article was hastily withdrawn and re-written into its current format.
I am not going to comment on this case, it may be no more than somebody wanting to give photographers a (literal) bad press. However, I do want to emphasise that if anybody does remove reptiles or amphibians from a site for photographic purposes, which is not illegal for most species, they should be released at the precise point of capture. There is evidence that animals released at a strange (to them) location have a radically higher mortality level than animals set free in a familiar place. You should think long and hard before setting an animal loose on a different part of the site it was caught on, let alone on a strange county.
I am sure most people reading this post would do that anyway, but with bad press flying around I thought it worth re-stating the point.
David
Posted by David Taylor on April 19, 2012 at 11:05 AM
Never even seen an adder in the wild, although I have helped to create habitat on NT property in Cheshire. Keep up the good work in helping to further our knowledge of such creatures, David.
Posted by John Robinson on April 19, 2012 at 11:32 AM
An important point very well brought to notice.
JR
Discussion
2 repliesYou may be interested to read this article:
http://visionwild.wordpress.com/2012/03/12/derbyshire-micro-chipped-adder-found-in-bradgate-park/
This concerns photographers who were allegedly holding a photographic workshop on reptiles, and imported adders from a site in Derbyshire, later letting the animals go in Bradgate Park itself. When it was pointed out that herpetologists do not need microchips to recognise individual adders (we recognise individuals by their head patterns), the article was hastily withdrawn and re-written into its current format.
I am not going to comment on this case, it may be no more than somebody wanting to give photographers a (literal) bad press. However, I do want to emphasise that if anybody does remove reptiles or amphibians from a site for photographic purposes, which is not illegal for most species, they should be released at the precise point of capture. There is evidence that animals released at a strange (to them) location have a radically higher mortality level than animals set free in a familiar place. You should think long and hard before setting an animal loose on a different part of the site it was caught on, let alone on a strange county.
I am sure most people reading this post would do that anyway, but with bad press flying around I thought it worth re-stating the point.
David
JR