Tuesday, June 2, 2015
Protect the Cool Cold Blooded!
Many species of snakes, turtles, a tortoise, and a toad are in danger or threatened in Massachusetts. These reptiles and amphibians are constantly being mishandled. Just because it looks cool doesn't mean you can take it home as a pet and just because it's a snake doesn't mean it's venomous. sorry you wont get a shiny new pair of boots today.
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I know right I see people in Hawaii graving and taking lizards home all the time
ReplyDeleteI had no idea about the amphibians being mishandled I wish there was a way to stop them from being taken and killed. Hopefully kids and adults can be educated on respecting and keeping the reptiles and amphibians safe
ReplyDeleteAccording to the article, some animals are collected because people think they don't belong and try to move them to a better place. To fight this, collection for pets, and killing out of fear, I believe a public education campaign is the right way to go. If the Mass. Government uses the information in the article to education hikers, kids in school, nature groups, visitors, etc about the endangered animals and their preferred living areas, level of toxicity, and other basic facts, I think less animals will be hurt. Ideally, we could eventually bring most if not all the animals off the enlarged list.
ReplyDelete*Correction: endangered
ReplyDeleteI know exactly what you mean when you said people catch reptiles I totally get that like in Hawaii almost every single kid there is obsessed with catching and trap lizards and that's just wrong
ReplyDeleteI hear that they also release their actual reptilian pets too. Snakes never stop growing so people tend to just release them in national parks to fend for themselves when they get to big. It causes the same problem in the reverse way.
DeleteI definitely believe that picking up reptiles and amphibians from there home and take them home as pets is not good. If someone by accident picks it up to quickly or squeezes it to hard the animal might get hurt. People need to leave the creatures alone and let them live.
ReplyDeletethere are specific way to hold snakes too. You can't just pick it up and sling it over your shoulder just like you can't pick up a mouse by it's tail or a dog by the belly. Not only will the reptile/amphibian be hurt but there is a good chance it will attack you.
DeleteEspecially with the numbers of reptiles lowering, the public needs to be educated on how to keep them safe. In the article, I read that groups such as NHESP and MassDOT are working together to make maps of where animals are most densely populated in order to stop road mortality. A possible addition to this could be that they go around to schools, maybe more specifically high schools where students are starting to drive, to show kids how to hold and act around animals in the case that they are in the middle of the road. Lastly, it should also be taught in schools that taking animals out of their habitat is extremely wrong and hurtful to the environment. Hopefully there will be more done about this problem in the near future!
DeleteI definitely believe that picking up reptiles and amphibians from there home and take them home as pets is not good. If someone by accident picks it up to quickly or squeezes it to hard the animal might get hurt. People need to leave the creatures alone and let them live.
ReplyDeleteI definitely believe that picking up reptiles and amphibians from there home and take them home as pets is not good. If someone by accident picks it up to quickly or squeezes it to hard the animal might get hurt. People need to leave the creatures alone and let them live.
ReplyDeleteYou commented three times in a row of the same comment
ReplyDeleteYah I agree. I have seen many times of people seeing something cool like a lizard and taking it home trying to take care of it. They usually end up dying. This must be a probably a problem everywhere because it happens here and in MA. Some special reptiles are endangered and if this keeps happening maybe they can really affect their habitats.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely. The worst thing you can do to a wild animal is take it home. they aren't used to being taken care of just like your family dog isn't used to hunting for it's own meals. they normally die b/c the person who captured them either doesn't give them the right food or doesn't put them in the right habitat. Not to mention if you were thrust into a new weird world you probably wouldn't trust the food you were given.
DeleteReally great point and issue! It's not good that people are using animals for pets or as clothes. These types of animals are not made for this purpose. If someone had an interest in doing what the animal would like, than they would stop adopting these pets or using them for unnecessary purposes.
ReplyDeleteWe should work to protect their habitats as well! The article says that many animals are threatened and endangered due to habitat degradation as well as being captured etc. Education and awareness are good ways to go about fixing this, so we can weed out all of the invasive plants and make sure people don't go building roads where we need to keep animals in existence. Good point!
ReplyDeleteWild animals may be cool to look at but that does not mean they should be taken out of their habitat! This issue is similar to when people feed wild animals human food, it messes up the animal kingdom. If animals were left alone then there would be a lot more of them. Reptiles are especially in danger because of their skin, which some people use to make handbags and such. The more we destroy one species, the more of another species will infest, if you mess with the animal kingdom then it will mess with you. Reptiles eat insects (for the most part) and if we don't have reptiles eating the insects then everybody should start buying more bug spray!
ReplyDeleteJust because they are cool to look at doesn't meant that we should remove them from their habitats. The article says that they are endangered because their environment is threatened. If people are aware of this situation, they can and will help to fix it by protecting the animals and their habitats.
ReplyDelete