tiger help

[rosanna123]

i have read that tiger snails are endangered in the wild, if this is the case then when mine breed i would like to keep a percentage and send the rest to be put back into the wild, does anyone know if this is aloud and how i would go about doing this

[snailybailey]

Hi,
Although its a lovely idea, I dont think it would actually be a very viable thing to do to be honest.
Firstly, there's the travelling of the snails, its a long way for them to travel, and you risk them dying in transit.
Then you would have to find a contact in Africa to be able to collect the snails the other end, and release them somewhere safe for you.
You would also need to be very careful and read up on laws and regs about releasing snails into the wild in another country - although they are native to that place they weren't actually bred there.
Lastly, the reason they are endangered is due to the locals eating them, as well as damage to naturl habitat etc, and this will continue to happen.
Sorry to sound so negative but I just don't think it would be feasable to do. x

[crossless]

Condition changes are sometimes hard to snails. Some small bacteria in some animals forum other countries could be deadly to some animals that they aren't use to it that could risk population too.

[coyote]

I think it's a great idea to try to replenish the population in its natural habitat. But due to habitat loss that might not be possible, unless you know about habitat-protection programs being put into place.

A lot of zoos have breeding programs for endangered species, which they swap out and share with other zoos to maintain genetic variety in their breeding stock. As sad as it is to say, maybe the only way to protect tiger snail populations will be in private breeding programs and not in it native areas.

[fabrizio]

I agree... and in the meanwhile, by careful, coordinated and intelligent breeding programs, a working net of dedicated "pet-snails" keepers/breeders could be really effective in immediately and really preventing any species from going extinct.

That could work even much better than zoos, if given some centralized coordination (and the Internet could allow that quite easily): "simple" snail-lovers as we are, do exist in the hundreds, perhaps in the thousands out there, and provided they can ever resort to some guidance, and communicate among themselves (even by specimen exchanging for reproduction, in order to avoid too much inbreeding).their role (our role, actually) could really make a difference.
A forum like this (and others) could be a good starting point.

Think of ambitious scientific projects (as Seti@home, folding@home etc), made possible only because a centralised "hub" relies upon the collaboration from thousands of "laymen", out there...

-A working structure as the above said has still to be built, of course; but it depends largely upon ourselves; and, once done, that alone could already give some really valuable, fully praiseworthy results.

[Schnäggli]

In all honestly, I don't believe this is something quite feasible. Yes, in theory is a nice dream. But in practice I think you are neglecting the legal complications of transferring a large amount of captive bred animals to another continent and releasing them into the wild. Even if for a noble cause, this is technically smuggling and bound to be very problematic to be carried out.

Not to mention that it wouldn't be in the best interest of the snails themselves, either. It's an excruciatingly long trip from England to Africa. Who will transport them and how? And even if they arrive safely, will captive bred snails be sufficiently healthy and physically robust to survive in the wild? What if by breeding with wild specimens, they actually weaken the local snails's genetic pool?

I think a better solution to the problem would be to start breeding programs in situ, i.e. in areas in Africa where the wild specimens are threatened. Wild specimens could be caught there, bred in captivity in the same area and then the next generation could be released into the wild to repopulate the area.

This is how biologists and conservation experts work.

If you want my advice, dig through a collection of National Geographic magazines until you find the name of the most important conservation expert that deals with mollusks (even better, gastropods). Google his/her name until you find his/her contact information somewhere (academic websites, facebook, linkedin, whatever) then contact said expert and explain your wish to help threatened population of wild African land snails.

This is the best professional advice I can give you.

[Tigu]

I didn't find any facts that tiger snail is really endangered species? Google didn't help! Here is a list of endangered snails and there is no achatina-species at all?

[brunni]

I agree with Tigu, there's no reports of tigers being endangered. In West Africa wc tigers are still a common feature in most village/town markets ( during the rainy season ) and an increasing number of locals are engaged in snail farming.