Re: DBT Conservation? + Commercial Trade
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DBTerrapin / Forums / Diamondback Terrapins / Re: DBT Conservation? + Commercial Trade
The following is some data from as a yet unpublished survey of chelonians offered for sale by commercial turtle breeders/dealers within the U.S. during the year 2000, which may prove of some interest. To date, the pricelists of a total of 65 dealers have been reviewed, with occurences of each species (in the case of DTs subspecies) recorded along with other relavant information. I have also seen some of these animals or know some of the breeders personally and am fairly confident that at least half have been legitimately produced in captivity. As for the others, particularly adult sized specimens, who knows. JPL Species/Subspecies # Dealers Price Hatchling Price Adult Malaclemys terrapin littoralis 2 $65 N/A Texas Diamondback Terrapin Malaclemys terrapin macrospilota 2 $100-$125 N/A Ornate Diamondback Terrapin Malaclemys terrapin terrapin 7 $35-$75 $70 Northern Diamondback Terrapin
Interesting data, John – thanks for sharing that with us. However, I am inclined to comment on 2 things. One, that M.t. littoralis has also been priced up to $150 for lighter colored ones. And two, that the ones they ID as M.t. macrospilota is not really that, but an ornately colored M.t. terrapin or M.t. centrata. As far as I know, no one is breeding macrospilota on a commercial scale yet. Chun — In diamondbackterrapins@egroups.com, John Levell