Post by ness on Dec 7, 2008 14:53:59 GMT
I can't remember where I have seen this on here, but I'm quite sure I have, so I hope the following is useful.......
Someone was raising the point of whether or not it's a good idea to release indiginous species into the wild...
Here is a copy of a post I have put up on other forums..
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Most of us know that we should NEVER release Giant African Land Snails into the wild. This is because, should any of them become hardy enough to survive the winter, they would almost certainly start to displace our native snails, as well as create a huge pest problem. This is not scare-mongering, this has happened with GALS released into warmer countries, they've become terrible pests and have greeatly upset the natural local eco-systems.
But what about species already found and accepted in the UK? The Helix species aspersa and pomatia , although not strictly native species, have long since been accepted as part of our wildlife and eco-system. In fact pomatia are now protected by law from intentional harm and from taking out of their habitat.
The question has been raised on other forums as to whether or not it's advisable or acceptable to release unwanted offspring of pomatia, or intentionally breed for the purpose of increasing wild populations such captive-bred offspring. Please don't!
This is some information I received on the matter from Mr Matthew Chatfield who is an experienced wild-life ranger, and who runs the Ranger's Blog naturenet.net/blogs/index.php/2008/12/07/p669#more669 as part of Naturenet. I asked this question as a side-note whilst enquiring about something else, as I see the question come up from time to time an on the face of it, it may appear logical or harmless...
As for releases, no, please no! That's one of the main issues with captive-breeding and releases of all sorts. Please don't release any captive-bred species of any sort into the wild. It can cause problems of various sorts, but the main one in the case of your snails might be to affect the genetic make-up of the wild British snails by introducing individuals from abroad or even from elsewhere in the UK. This might make them less well-adapted to the conditions here in Britain on the edge of their range. Another reason is that almost certainly the numbers of snails are limited by habitat, not by a shortage of snails. If H pomatia is like other snails it will lay a great many eggs, and you'll know that most do not survive for one reason or another. So adding extra snails into the system as adults (or even as young) will only mean that a higher number will perish: the final numbers will be dictated not by snail supply by the habitat and how many can be supported there.
Someone was raising the point of whether or not it's a good idea to release indiginous species into the wild...
Here is a copy of a post I have put up on other forums..
-------------
Most of us know that we should NEVER release Giant African Land Snails into the wild. This is because, should any of them become hardy enough to survive the winter, they would almost certainly start to displace our native snails, as well as create a huge pest problem. This is not scare-mongering, this has happened with GALS released into warmer countries, they've become terrible pests and have greeatly upset the natural local eco-systems.
But what about species already found and accepted in the UK? The Helix species aspersa and pomatia , although not strictly native species, have long since been accepted as part of our wildlife and eco-system. In fact pomatia are now protected by law from intentional harm and from taking out of their habitat.
The question has been raised on other forums as to whether or not it's advisable or acceptable to release unwanted offspring of pomatia, or intentionally breed for the purpose of increasing wild populations such captive-bred offspring. Please don't!
This is some information I received on the matter from Mr Matthew Chatfield who is an experienced wild-life ranger, and who runs the Ranger's Blog naturenet.net/blogs/index.php/2008/12/07/p669#more669 as part of Naturenet. I asked this question as a side-note whilst enquiring about something else, as I see the question come up from time to time an on the face of it, it may appear logical or harmless...
As for releases, no, please no! That's one of the main issues with captive-breeding and releases of all sorts. Please don't release any captive-bred species of any sort into the wild. It can cause problems of various sorts, but the main one in the case of your snails might be to affect the genetic make-up of the wild British snails by introducing individuals from abroad or even from elsewhere in the UK. This might make them less well-adapted to the conditions here in Britain on the edge of their range. Another reason is that almost certainly the numbers of snails are limited by habitat, not by a shortage of snails. If H pomatia is like other snails it will lay a great many eggs, and you'll know that most do not survive for one reason or another. So adding extra snails into the system as adults (or even as young) will only mean that a higher number will perish: the final numbers will be dictated not by snail supply by the habitat and how many can be supported there.
