Releasing corns into the wild: DEBATE!

[martin-bernstein]

I've been having a discussion about this with my girl friend who is a botanist with a special interest in native plants. I asked her what she would think if I (or some other snake lover with zero training in conservation and re-intro of species) were to capture two dozen or so corns from south New Jersey or just south of Jersey, and release them in a large, protected Wildlife Conservancy regulated area in North New Jersey or New York. Corns are actually listed as endangered in Jersey and are non existant in New York, due mostly to habitat loss. But they could surely sustain themselves in a protected area. They would be competing against black rats, eastern milks and a few other snakes, so they would not easily over populate, though they may reduce the number of successful native snake species.

What are your thoughts on this?

 

[diamondlil]

I voted absolutely not. To introduce novel pathogens to the snakes already there would be totally irresponsible.

 

[bitsy]

But they could surely sustain themselves in a protected area. They would be competing against black rats, eastern milks and a few other snakes, so they would not easily over populate, though they may reduce the number of successful native snake species.

So in order for Corns to thrive in an area, it would be OK for more than one of the existing snake species to be wiped out there? How is that good?

Definitely not.

 

[ghosthousecorns]

Another no from me. I will go farther and say I don't think any corn should ever be placed in the wild by anybody unless it were a short term captive being released in the same area it was captured...

 

[alan]

Seems to me that if they were going to thrive in a protected area where they probably existed before then they would still be there. Loss of habitat could explain other areas, but if the protected area has eastern rats and milk snakes it could be climate.
Either way I think it would take a study by trained biologists to determine if it was a good idea to even try it. Your trained biologist option has a definite "yes" attached to it, so no option in the poll fits that criteria.

 

[starsevol]

I'm sorry, but...you're kidding, right?

My answer is NO, NO a thousand times NO!!!

 

[smallet]

Although the thought of introducing an endangered species back to it's native habitat seems like a great thing. Mother nature moves on in that area and not knowing the full impact of what something like that may cause could be devastating.

 

[Rishi]

"Reintroduction" is an interesting term here. It implies that they did once live north of their current range and something (typically silly humans) wiped them out. Is this the case? If yes, then perhaps reintroduction by TRAINED biologists MAY be in order. If we're talking about non-native introduction, then no, not now not ever. That's just asking for all kinds of trouble. Besides, it's cold up here