Conservation news 483 and the manufacture of drugs. Various approaches are being Ptyas korros and , P. mucosa allocated to the adopted to conserve horseshoe crabs. The Ocean Park Sidoarjo-based CV Karya Albadi Reptil Mulia. These quotas Conservation Foundation and City University of Hong are considerably larger than previous quotas of up to , Kong have been running a juvenile horseshoe crab rearing for P. mucosa and , for P. korros. Both companies are programme in Hong Kong since , to promote the large-scale exporters of dried geckos and snakes to East importance of horseshoe crab conservation among second- Asia, and there are no indications that either of them have ary school students and the public. Scientists and conserva- ever been involved in the trade of live animals or that they tionists in Taiwan have been promoting an integrated are experienced in breeding reptiles. Auliya (, conservation strategy, encompassing research, artificial Conservation Status and Impact of Trade in the Oriental breeding and field release, public education and establish- Rat Snake in Java, TRAFFIC, Petaling Jaya) gives a detailed ment of a protected area for horseshoe crabs. In mainland account of the trade in rat snakes in Central and East Java, China, artificial breeding and field release of juvenile horse- confirming the absence of their trade for pets in or from shoe crabs have been carried out to enhance wild popula- Java, and including data on reproduction, growth rates, tions. In the FFI China Programme initiated a project and prices. These data allow us to evaluate whether captive to promote participatory monitoring of juvenile horseshoe breeding of rat snakes is economical. crabs in Beibu Gulf and strengthen the conservation net- Rat snakes are predominantly terrestrial and on Java can work within China, of which the workshop was part. be found in a range of habitats, and are abundant in agricul- With support from all attendees, from institutions and tural areas such as rice fields. The snakes are collected in organizations, a regional Horseshoe Crab Conservation large numbers either opportunistically by farm workers or Consortium was born. The Consortium has a mission to by professional harvesters, and passed on to middlemen () promote the conservation status of horseshoe crabs, () who sell them to large-scale traders. International trade in reduce illegal utilization and trade of horseshoe crabs and P. mucosa is regulated through CITES, with . % of the promote their sustainable use, () promote the establish- trade comprising skins and meat. After having been banned ment of protected areas for horseshoe crabs and enhance from exporting P. mucosa for years, Indonesia now sets an effective management and habitat restoration, () develop annual export quota of , wild-caught individuals for research and conservation capacity and strengthen sharing P. mucosa (, to be exported for their skins, as of information, and () raise the awareness of the govern- pets) and , wild-caught individuals for P. korros ment, public and other stakeholders regarding the conserva- (, skins, , pets) but captive-bred individuals can tion of horseshoe crabs. The Consortium set up four be traded above and beyond this quota. working groups to promote efforts for population monitor- A rat snake’s value increases with size, with the maximum ing and Red List assessment, artificial breeding and field values attached to skins of cm length and live snakes release to enhance wild populations, public education, and of g or more; at these sizes rat snakes have retail values wise use of horseshoe crabs for societal needs. The aims of for Indonesian exporters of USD .–. when sold the Consortium are intended to extend beyond China and to alive and USD . when the skin and meat are sold facilitate collaboration among scientists and conservation separately. practitioners from other Asian countries that host horse- Oriental rat snake females become sexually mature in shoe crab populations. months, gestation and incubation last months, and mean clutch size on Java is eggs. Males and females WUYING LIN Fauna & Flora International China Programme, have slightly different growth rates but they reach their eco- Beijing, China. E-mail [email protected] nomically optimal size in – months. If under optimal conditions females can produce two clutches per year, all CHANG-PO CHEN Taiwan Wetland Society and Academia eggs hatch and there is no mortality of the young, then Sinica to produce , rat snakes per year one has to maintain a breeding stock of almost , adult females. PAUL SHIN IUCN SSC Horseshoe Crab Specialist Group and Given the low price rat snakes command and their City University of Hong Kong apparent abundance, especially in Central and East Java, it cannot be economical to breed rat snakes for commercial Bogus captive breeding of oriental rat snakes purposes. Maintaining breeding stock, taking care of eggs and feeding young for over a year, only to be able to sell In March the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry an- them on for , USD , suggests that wild-caught individuals nounced they had given permission to two East Javan com- are probably being exported as captive-bred to circumvent panies to export captive-bred rat snakes specifically as pets, the quota system for wild-caught individuals. I urge the with an annual quota of , Ptyas mucosa allocated to the Indonesian CITES Scientific Authority, which sets these Kediri-based UD Bina Usaha Mandiri and , quotas, to reconsider its decisions and for importers to © 2014 Fauna & Flora International, Oryx, 48(4), 481–485 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.35.93, on 25 Sep 2021 at 06:31:58, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0030605314000544 484 Conservation news carefully check whether or not animals (or their parts) de- zoo. The Forest Department debated relocation of the indi- clared as captive-bred have indeed been bred under con- viduals but this was not pursued. trolled conditions. Both of the tigers involved in these incidents had been photographed previously multiple times. The tiger in VINCENT NIJMAN School of Social Sciences and Law, Bandipur had been photographed over the last years and Department of Anthropology and Geography, Oxford was probably an old individual past its prime. The tiger in Brookes University, Oxford, UK Nagarahole was – years old and had only been photo- E-mail [email protected] graphed in the previous year. The distances between the lo- cations of previous photographs and the location of conflict – Photographic database informs management of were km for the tiger in Bandipur and km for the tiger conflict tigers in Nagarahole. The observation of the Nagarahole indi- vidual with another male in two photographs suggests The increasing interface between people and wildlife contri- that this individual was dispersing from its natal home butes to human–wildlife conflict in many conservation range to establish a breeding territory. landscapes. In India animals suspected to be involved in Nagarahole and Bandipur National Parks have high tiger conflict are often captured and translocated to different lo- densities (– tigers per km )withc.% of the popu- cations or zoological parks. A key concern in the capture of lation lost annually to mortality and emigration. It is likely so-called problem animals has been the identification of in- that the Nagarahole individual was emigrating from the dividuals involved in conflict. The Wildlife Conservation reserve. The infrequency of dispersal events, particularly in Society (WCS) India Program, in collaboration with human-dominated landscapes such as the Malenad Tiger research partners, has aided government officials in this Landscape, suggests that the removal of the Nagarahole matter through its research on tigers in the Malenad Tiger tiger, a potential long-distance disperser, may have detri- Landscape, south-west India. As part of a research pro- mental effects on the long-term population viability of tigers gramme initiated in , WCS India has formulated a in this landscape. In contrast, the removal of the Bandipur protocol for individual identification of tigers, based on tiger will probably have negligible effects on the population, their stripe patterns. Using pattern-matching software that although any relocation into an existing tiger population aids quick and reliable identification of tigers from photo- would be likely to cause further conflict (Athreya et al., graphs (Hiby et al., , Biology Letters, , –), a , Conservation Biology, , –). Mitigation of conflict photographic database has been developed, with . indi- is frequently ad hoc, with management authorities pressur- vidually identified tigers from protected areas totalling ized into quick but often ineffective action. In these two con- . , km , and elsewhere, in India. Ancillary informa- trasting examples, alternative actions could have had very tion on home ranges, activity patterns and sociobiology of different consequences. In areas where data on the age, conflict-tigers provides a unique opportunity for informed reproductive status and ranging patterns of conflict management of the species. This long-term, ongoing animals are available, this information should be used to study is funded by the Department of Science and direct conflict mitigation strategies such that they are max- Technology and the Department of Biotechnology of the imally effective whilst