[Steven Busch]

Silver eyes just in a pair and single male. These came in with the shipment or Cameron Highland cats. There has been a lot of negative information put out regarding wild caughts. We received 56 Cameron Highlands and 4 Jahor silver eyes. There were zero DOA's. All appear healthy, most actually have plump fat tails. Many have beautiful colors and markings. If it is done correctly animals can make the transition from wild to captivity with little trouble and trauma. Some of these will be added to our captive breeding program. Several breeders import so they can have control over this process after dealing with the frustration of mass import techniques. They do it themselves to have control over the collection and methods of shipment. This is why Marcus as well as us got involved in importing. We got tired of getting breeding groups of all males or dead or dying animals..

[GypsyKundie]

Those are beautiful!

Are there any negative repercussions on their environment/ecosystem when they are taken from the wild? Are there large numbers of them?

[Steven Busch]

The only negative impact to the environment I can think of is more bugs live. The trouble is land is being cleared faster than we can imagine so palm oil plantations can be planted. This destroys their habitat. There does not appear to be large numbers of silver-eyes. They seem to be found in pockets of areas. This is why only a few come in at a time. Is there a large population waiting to be found??????

This being said we also receive amphibians from Malaysia. There is one species that would trickle in at about a dozen a year said to be very rare. Recently they are being found in numbers and can be brought in at 50 per month.

[tanala]

Originally Posted by Steven Busch

This being said we also receive amphibians from Malaysia. There is one species that would trickle in at about a dozen a year said to be very rare. Recently they are being found in numbers and can be brought in at 50 per month.

what species of frog are you referring to?

[Steven Busch]

Nyctixalus Pictus with a picture. Now for the frogs the opposite is also occurring. Some species are getting harder and harder to find that were once plentiful. Over collection is not the problem. Habitat destruction and other forces of nature are destroying populations to a point that if not bred in captivity they will certainly become extinct. Three species from Malaysia that come to mind are Rhacophorus Nigropalmatus, Rhacophorus pardalis, and Pedostibes hoseii. We actually have bred in captivity 2 of these species and are close at getting the 3rd to breed.

Talking recently with a herpetologist his comment was it is impossible to actually know how many of a species that are nocturnal or fossorial there actually are until a massive concentrated effort is put forward on a single species. He cited a skink in Oregon thought to be extinct or on the verge of extinction until someone figured out how and where to look for it.

Now I am in no way implying the silver-eyes are being collected in great numbers or that they have found an area of large quantities. At this point nobody knows how many exist in the wild.

[tanala]

ok this is off topic but whar are your experiences so far with the N. pictus, i mean husbandry etc.
They are really nice frogs. You mentioned 3 species that might become ectinct, are there evidences for this?
regards

[Steven Busch]

Since this is my thread I do not care if it goes off topic...I am not going to complain.


The 3 species mentioned Rhacophorus Nigropalmatus, Rhacophorus pardalis, and Pedostibes hoseii are getting harder and harder to find in the wild. The pardalis a few years ago was able to be collected at 100 or more per month with no trouble. Now we are lucky to find 3 to 5 per month. The spotted toad used to have 400 to 500 arrive in the spring...now maybe 50. The field collectors are even making comments about "no more". We are pushing from our end to the Malaysian govt to put quotas on these 3 species of 50 per year. We are also pushing them to direct the quotas towards proven breeding operations, not just a mass importer where they will probably end up dying.

As to the pictus we have about 5 groups setup in various setups. We are still searching for what is missing regarding captive breeding. We have groups of 8 to 9 months with little or no subsequent death. We have found a way to ship were we loose 1 or 2 out of 50 where before we could loose 50 percent.

[tanala]

hello Steven,
thanks for sharing info!
Good luck with the N.pictus. Its such a nice species of frog. I think nobody has bred it until now? All i know is that they seem to breed in tree holes and clutch size is small.
regards

[MegophryidaeMan]

That single male has amazing eyes, Steve! Wow!

I have seen pics of silver eyes before, but that is really a cool looking gecko!

[Steven Busch]

Thanks Chad...he is nice.