Laws regarding South African Scorpion Species
- Thread starter Urizen
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Hello,
I dont understand English very good, so I will ask you.
What does that exactly means? Is it legal to export some Parabuthus or Uroplectes from South Africa?
Best regards
I dont understand English very good, so I will ask you.
What does that exactly means? Is it legal to export some Parabuthus or Uroplectes from South Africa?
Best regards
- Joined
- May 2, 2006
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- 301
I find it funny that I keep/kept members of all of the genuses without a permit in the US. (scorpions)Does the South African goverment know what they're talking about or do they just make and enforce laws?
Mike
Mike
laws
Buthidae are unprotected as of the time of the bill being passed. People in south african almost never ever keep buthidae members. Basically they are protecting scorpions which are popular pets. So hence the permit situation.
Importing from your side, is covered by your countries own laws, however the person exporting the scorpion species from this side needs to have the proper permits, which will be hard to obtain, invert permits are handled by our agricultural department, who in turn send you to nature conservation, who in turn send you to agriculture.
It's just a heads up, that you should be careful when getting hold of scorpions specimens from this side.
Buthidae are unprotected as of the time of the bill being passed. People in south african almost never ever keep buthidae members. Basically they are protecting scorpions which are popular pets. So hence the permit situation.
Importing from your side, is covered by your countries own laws, however the person exporting the scorpion species from this side needs to have the proper permits, which will be hard to obtain, invert permits are handled by our agricultural department, who in turn send you to nature conservation, who in turn send you to agriculture.
It's just a heads up, that you should be careful when getting hold of scorpions specimens from this side.
These laws have been passed for various reasons, in recent years, people have been collecting without restraint either to export, for TVs shows, or pet shops, there is a Hadogeonus Spp. that has also started to become endangered due to its small distrubution and subsequent habit destruction. I also believe, and this is 100% my own personal point of view that there is partial teritory problems between acedemics and enthuesiats.
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I know little of what happens in South Africa. But I know there are some awsome scorpions that do have a small distrubutaion range. It would be nice if they could get the scorpion genuses down the species. H. paucidens and trogldytes have large large distrubution ranges, while some other Hadogenes species are a very small area.
Mike
Mike
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I think its great that they have passed these laws. Many of the genera mentioned are heavily overly collected and are also some of the most slowly reproducing species with the lowest population densities. It will make Opistophthalmus much rarer in the hobby, hopefully people will try to concentrate on breeding them rather then just buying adults.
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A friend of mine has bred Opistophthalmus Pugnax pretty easily. I have heard from a reliable source that they do better at breeding in captivity. So the demand for adults is quite unreasonable.
And you're right the hadogenus spp. do generally have long gestation periods. I have seen them in far too many petshops with H.Troglodytes kept in completely the wrong enviromental setups. I explained to the owner of one, as to why you can't keep it on just 2inches of aquarium gravel with no hide or water source, and a UV light. His reply was that if it died, there were plenty more. :?
The biggest question though, will land developers hold to these laws and become accountable for fines etc. when breaking them?
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Urizen, is there any chance you could have your friend explain about breeding Opistophthalmus sp? I'd be very interested in breeding the genus, but I've never heard any first experiences on breeding them. All that I've heard is that females tend to burrow, while males tend to roam looking for females. I was going to try to breed them, but my male passed away.
Mike
Mike
Hadogenes spp - All species Flat Rock Scorpions
Opisthacanthus spp - All species Creeping Scorpions
Opistophthalmus spp - All species Burrowing Scorpions
Pterinochilus spp - All species Golden Baboon Spiders
Ceratogyrus spp - All species Horned Baboon Spiders
...are protected...
WHAT???
Opisthacanthus spp - All species Creeping Scorpions
Opistophthalmus spp - All species Burrowing Scorpions
Pterinochilus spp - All species Golden Baboon Spiders
Ceratogyrus spp - All species Horned Baboon Spiders
...are protected...
WHAT???
I defienently agree with all of that. I know we are all hobbyiest but without conservation our hobby could dissappear. I'm sure some of the problem is the money involved with collection and selling inverts. Put yourself in that position, you live in a country expirerencing poverty, and someone will pay you to walk around your home land to collect bugs, do you A) not do it and starve or B) do it and be paid. I'm not exactly comfortable with my knowedlge of Africa but that does give a slight idea on how good oppurtunities turn ugly and destructive.
We're not that poverty stricten here in S.A. However I have heard stories from a reliable source, that on numerous occasions local people are employed for something ridiculous like 50c (our money) per scorpion, by illegal exporters. It is definantly a money issue rather than an enthuesit problem.
indeed, but I for the most part I think they are readily available, although most of them are adults, I'm sure captive breeding is being done and if it isn't it should be...Might be waiting a while when it comes to Hadogenes
Yes, thats what I mean.... Poverish is a for a lack of a better word, like I said, I know little about Africa, but it is blatant that an exported would recruit the services of locals, who of course would have little problem getting rid of they're "pests". Most do consider them pests there, or no?
Most definantly they do! Some local cultures have spiritual beliefs in relation to scorpions, but money more often than not takes first place. See it's a catch22, people get interest in a creature as a pet, this helps to create awareneess, but it also thenn starts a market, which includes the problem of supply and demand, and it ends up helping to detract from awareness.