Crawling to their deaths

In the last decade, the population of snakes has been decreasing in various parts of the world, as well as the population of freshwater turtles has been severely damaged

Snakes

Snake populations on three continents have been dwindling for the past 15 years. Dwindling is worrying since in addition to other environmental damages, a decrease in the number of snakes in the area will be an incentive for an increase in the amount of rodents. Since rodents are the most significant pest to agricultural areas and food warehouses.

The consequences for the decrease in the number of snakes will be severe. In the publication of the British Royal Society in the Biology Letters monthly, it was stated that out of 17 species of snakes in: France, England, Italy, Nigeria and Australia, the population of 11 species has dwindled sharply (since the 90s).

England's Center for Ecology and Hydrology stated that the reasons for the deterioration are not clear, but the consequences... are severe, snakes are a super predator in many diverse habitats. Their lack will allow the explosion of a population of pests, especially rodents. Rodents eat everything in their mouths and the effect is clear, the authors cautiously suggest that "it is possible that global warming / climate change, as well as habitat loss and environmental pollution are the causes of the sharp decline in snake populations"

freshwater turtles

Like the snakes, the freshwater turtles are becoming extinct according to a group of researchers from Conservation International (CI). More than 20 species are in immediate danger of extinction.

The main reasons for extinction are: collecting (wild) for sale as "pets", hunting for food, loss of habitats due to development of agricultural areas and damming of rivers. Most species of turtles reach sexual maturity at the age of 15, the females lay once a year, most of the hatched eggs or hatchlings are eaten and only a few reach maturity.

That is, although each litter has many eggs, the natural reproduction of the turtles is slow. When the slowness of natural reproduction is loaded with human damage... the species is in danger. Unlike their "brothers" from the sea, the freshwater turtles live in rivers, lakes, streams and even in salt marshes and mangrove areas, in recent decades there has been a sharp decrease in the number of turtles in a number of families.

The high demand for turtles as food - mainly in China, the use of body parts for the production of folk medicine potions, the demand for supplying turtles to luxury restaurants in the West, all of these create much higher demands than breeding farms (that exist today) are capable of producing and the result... a wild hunter.

The "treatment" and regulation of flow channels of rivers harms the nesting and laying sites, the discharge of sewage and changing the flow rate harms the plants that are used as food for turtles, the wild collection of eggs whether for immediate consumption or for sale to breeding farms, the diversion of watercourses for mining, all of these seriously harm the populations the turtles The disappearance of turtles from fresh water bodies is a warning sign of the water condition (like the canary in the mines),

One of the ways to prevent the disappearance of endangered species of turtles is by raising reproductive nuclei with the aim of releasing turtles into the wild. The outstanding example is the "red river giant" Rafetus swinhoei with the soft armor, according to what is known only 4 individuals are still alive.

All four live in breeding farms in China, where the intention is to return many of them to the wild, two additional species of the "crown red" batagur species that are kept in captivity are turtles that were mainly harmed due to collecting them to populate aquariums. In the past they were common in the rivers of Bangladesh, Burma, Nepal and northern India, some of them are now considered extinct and the only chance of their survival is breeding seeds in captivity.

According to the authors, the entire demand for freshwater turtles (and related products) can be met by breeding farms that will be established and together with meeting the demand, they will form breeding nuclei for the return of turtles to the wild.

A successful attempt made by establishing a farm to breed alligators gives hope and a chance to save freshwater turtles.

The snake that does not suffer extinction but causes it to others

The brown tree snake is not in danger, on the contrary the snake whose natural habitat is the rainforests of Australia found its way to the forests of the island of Guam (in the Pacific Ocean), where it has no natural enemies and therefore it reproduces and makes names for the local animals. It is assumed that the invader reached Guam with the help of the many ships that sailed in the area during World War II.

The snake lives in trees and preys on birds, lizards, bats and other small mammals, its main activity at night. Since it is new to the animal world of the island, the animals do not know how to defend themselves against it and the damage to the local population is great, in order to reduce the damage it was decided to poison the snakes, there is a need for a poisoning method (and a poison) that will not harm the "innocent", the poison chosen is Tylenol, in which a high concentration of the active substance acetaminophen, acetaminophen.

Acetaminophen is used as a pain reliever and fever reducer in humans, but when snakes ingest a tiny amount of the substance, blood proteins are damaged and oxygen transport is disrupted, the snake enters a coma and dies in a short time.

In order to focus the activity of the poison and ensure that only the snakes will reach it, it is "served" to the snakes in small mice that are scattered from the air at night, each mouse is attached to a kind of paper kite that causes it to fly into the forest, get tangled in the branches of the trees and remain hanging between the branches, where the snakes are, thus minimizing the possibility Other animals will eat the poison.

Most species of snakes will only eat prey that they themselves preyed on, not so the brown tree snake that also eats carcasses, a feature that allows it to be poisoned with minimal damage to the environment.

Until the use of poison, conservationists developed different methods to eliminate snakes: traps, searching for snakes at night and even using "snake-detecting" dogs, all to no avail, the new approach - controlled poisoning is carried out in forests where movement is difficult and where snake populations are concentrated.

Therefore, there is a chance to reach a situation where the wild reproduction of the brown tree snake will stop. To test the effectiveness of the method, some of the baits are tagged with radio tags, so that it will be possible to track the baits and the snakes that swallowed them.