Looking for information on U.S salamander Pet trade

[Nowicki418]

Well I live in Michigan. I am aware of the laws regarding native species and the time of year/limitations to that are allowed for keeping wild specimens. But browsing through Caudata.org it seems like a lot of people are getting more exotic and different species. I've never seen a caudate for sale anywhere other than a reptile show. I think you have to order them online but that raises a lot of questions on its own.

How does live shipping work? How do you know which species are allowed and which are not? Where do you even purchase these animals?

Ordering live animals seems risky me. How are you guys doing this in a safe way?

 

[Jennewt]

Check out the ad section on this site. The ads here are captive-bred-only (except for animals being given away). I'm not going to tell you where to find ads for wild-caught amphibians, but there are plenty of them out there. If they are selling adult animals, they are almost certainly wild-caught animals.

You should investigate what the restrictions might be in Michigan. As far as I know, they are not a particularly restrictive state, but there may be some rules related to protection of native species.

If shipping is done knowledgeably with overnight delivery, it can be safe with high probability. In the case of CB amphibians, the animals being shipped are usually juveniles, and can be replaced in the rare case that they die on the way. Shipping live animals is legal with the US postal service at the present time.

 

[Nowicki418]

Well I do know that MI has restrictions on some of the native species. For example the Marbled Salamander is listed as "threatened", yet I have seen lots of care sheets for them so I know they are often kept as pets, just not here. Anyway I'm not really looking to buy I'm just curious from exploring this site. Can't get anything new untill after the first year of college unless it shares a tank with the tiger salamanders.

How is it possible that people sell wild caught salamanders? I'm unaware that you can get a commercial liscense for them. Capturing and breeding a few to get things started is reasonable, but harvesting adults?

 

[dragonwalker]

In reply to why wild animals are caught firstly is ease, rather than having to 'bother' to raise them, but more importantly there are many amphibian species that have proven extremely difficult, if not impossible, to breed in captivity. I know that Toledo Zoo has been trying to breed A. maculatum without success, although I have heard on here that a private owner has done it in outside trenches (?). They have also only just bred A. opacum for the first time recently (as far as I know).

This is why the work that private breeders do can be just as valuable as the work that zoos do. I was a keeper and you are often at the mercy of what management cares about, so the fact that private owners can contribute by research husbandry techniques etc. is SO important.