Uroplatus ranching

[Uroplatus]

What do you think from a farm breed (ranching) of Uroplatus and or other geckofamilies on Madagascar? Do you mean that it is possible?

-The breed is controlled, the naturally existence is more protected.

-One can introduce breeding projects to also protect in order rarer kinds (kind preservation).
To protect against the constantly growing habitat destruction. See for example the Uroplatus malahelo thread.

-Perhaps then the export from Uroplatus is possible to Europe again in future. Quality goes before quantity, the losses is probably substantially smaller! Offspring successes are better under malagasy conditions.

I think they are a few other PROS and some CONS about this topic. Lets talk about!

 

[Scott F]

I have thought about that myself. There sure would be a market for them. It is being done with a variety of species from different countries, chams, gtps, and blood pythons come to mind. However I do think the supply would fall very short of the demand. The problem is that Uroplatus are very delicate and do not produce as many babies as some other reptiles might.
I think even with this type of system many animals would still be collected illegally and sold as "ranched" to meet the export numbers.

I think a better way may be to cut the import qoutas by half. This way animals would still be available, but at higher price, inhibiting many people that are not truely comitted to breeding them from making an impulse purchase. They would be looked upon as more of an investment, which in turn would provide a reason for those working with them to try and reproduce them to the best of their ability.

Deforestation and loss of habitat is a whole seperate issue of its own that needs to be addressed if Uroplatus are to survive for future generations to marvel upon, which I am guessing is a more eminent and grave problem.

 

[Graham_s]

It's an interesting idea and one that I think could work, provided that the WC export form madagascar is stopped completely and replaced with this method.

I would be happy to be a part of it if anyone wants to set something like this up