What is proper field herping conduct?

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Re: What is proper field herping conduct?

Postby Mario Schweiger » Mon Dec 07, 2009 1:25 pm

A lot of questions - and also lots of opinions till now!

So I will start with this:
Jeroen wrote:
Do you catch any snake, even if it's the 24th ammodytes of the day?

Depends on!
I mean, is it a "just for fun" fieldtrip or are you doing some scientific research.

"just for fun" fieldtrips:
Here I mostly catch one or only some (different colors/markings, different age - juvenils are different from adults, a.s.o.) to have some pictures from the locality/area.
In most cases I make only a GPS waypoint - for my own data and maybe someone will need it for distribution maps or so.

"scientific" fieldtrips:
Here its completely different.
For example, if you want to get data on population density and homerange of a species, in many cases you have to grab each individual you spot.
Maybe not so important in vipers (but also here it might be difficult), but e.g. in Natrix tessellata (a project of us). You HAVE to grab it and look to its belly markings. Take a picture and GPS waypoint. Its the only way to know - have we seen it before, and when, has it changed its locality.

I think, its very important, how you grab a snake!
When I pick up a viper, I do it slowly and gently.
Less than 10% of all the ammodytes and aspis (but not berus) have tried to bite.
After taking pictures and releasing them, sometimes I found them basking again 15 to 20 minutes later again.

But I had a very sad and bad experience too.
In 2006 we catched an, about 130 cms long Dolichophis caspius in Montenegro in the early morning (around 8:00 a.m. CEST).
Yes it looks a bit skinny and it was very easy to grab it.
After taking some pictures and releasing it - we found it dead (without any injury) the next morning, only 10 metres from the place we released it.
Was it stress?
Or was it a sick animal?
http://www.vipersgarden.at/CG06.php

More answers and opinions later!

Mario
Mario (Admin)

Please visit also my personal Herp-site vipersgarden.at
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Re: What is proper field herping conduct?

Postby Jeroen Speybroeck » Mon Dec 07, 2009 4:41 pm

Careful, Michael, you're mentioning a little bit specific site details in this last post...
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Re: What is proper field herping conduct?

Postby Daniel Bohle » Mon Dec 07, 2009 4:58 pm

I don´t see any problems with that informatin and I will send you a few interesting links that are much more dangerous!
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Re: What is proper field herping conduct?

Postby Jeroen Speybroeck » Mon Dec 07, 2009 5:03 pm

Daniel Bohle wrote:I don´t see any problems with that informatin and I will send you a few interesting links that are much more dangerous!


Each web page repeating the name of a specific herp site, is one to many for me. I know there are already many sites referring to the same places, but the less, the better.

I guess now you will hit me with some links to my own page ;-).
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Re: What is proper field herping conduct?

Postby Jeroen Speybroeck » Mon Dec 07, 2009 5:04 pm

Anyway, it's not my call. I think I've said enough for a couple of months...
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Re: What is proper field herping conduct?

Postby Peter Oefinger » Mon Dec 07, 2009 5:16 pm

Hi there,
in addition to the discussion on the – for sure very important – question of snake-catching some more aspects:
1. It makes a difference, if a species is widespread or very local: If every European herper wants to see Chamaeleo africanus in Greece this might cause problems. Therefore we should be extremely careful handling such species.
2. A more universal knowledge about the local nature could be helpful. If one strictly focuses on herptiles ignoring all other species this could a have negative impact on the local ecosystem (for example walking on rare plants). Furthermore, herping is more fun, if we recognize the non-herpeto nature.
3. One should keep in mind the benefit of the field-reports: Today, there can be found brilliant pictures of nearly all European herptile species in the internet. Hence, only catching as much herptile species as possible, photographing them and afterwards release them will usually result in a boring report. But if one will find some interesting behaviour or a new aspect of a species, the report will be interesting.
;)
Regards
Peter
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Re: What is proper field herping conduct?

Postby Vlad Cioflec » Tue Dec 08, 2009 11:12 am

Hi guys,

I` ve answered this on EFHC, but my reply did not appear...

So, here we go again, with a shorter version:

``So, what's your opinion on good or not? ``

I say catch the snake, get some cool shots, let it go. This shouldn`t take more than 5 minutes or so.


``What would the impact be of catching a snake on the survival of that animal? ``

No impact at all, if you keep the photo session short and simple.

``Do you catch any snake, even if it's the 24th ammodytes of the day?``

I get bored with seeing the same species over and over again, so i ignore the ones i got pictures of, and concentrate on finding other species for the diversity in the report.

``How do you feel about entering private property while herping?``

Ask nicely for permission, and only snakehunt if it is granted. Otherwise , do not risk your life.

``And nature reserves?``

Those are some good places to herp indeed.

``And what about the legal aspects of catching?``

yeah, what about them!?! Never heard of such things. :mrgreen:

Catch or do not cath, do as you please. Just stay safe, and replace natural and artificial cover as you found it.

Later,
Vlad
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Re: What is proper field herping conduct?

Postby Jeroen Speybroeck » Tue Dec 08, 2009 11:26 am

Peter Oefinger wrote:only catching as much herptile species as possible, photographing them and afterwards release them will usually result in a boring report. But if one will find some interesting behaviour or a new aspect of a species, the report will be interesting.


I absolutely agree, but I like my boring reports :D .
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Re: What is proper field herping conduct?

Postby Jürgen Gebhart » Tue Dec 08, 2009 1:23 pm

Peter, I’m really sorry if I bored you with my small reports and pics.
I wounder if will go out next year again, I strongly think about stopping fieldherping right now!! ;)

83 Days = 01.03.2010 :cry: :cry: :cry:
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Re: What is proper field herping conduct?

Postby Ilian Velikov » Tue Dec 08, 2009 2:05 pm

Yes,Peter has a good point! It's really great to see some interesting behaiour photos in reports....but Jurgen also has a good point! One can rarely catch such a moment in a photo and that doesn't mean that we should not make reports if we managed to make only 'boring' photos! I like my boring reports,too! ;)
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