Introducing myself

Greatwtehunter

Greatwtehunter

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Jul 1, 2008
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Age
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Location
Roanoke, VA
Country
United States
Display Name
Justin
Well, I guess I should finally give in and introduce myself instead of "lurking around". My name is Justin Reed and I currently reside in VA, which by the way is a great state to herp in I must say. I keep A. maculatum, A. opacum, P. glutinosus, N. v. viridescens, and D. fuscus. I also love to hunt and fish when I am not chasing herps. Thanks for your time.
 
Welcome Justin!

That's quite a user name you have...I can hear the Jaws music playing in my head ;)

Cheers!
 
hunt and fish? :confused:
 
Hello Justin. I'll have to say that I am really bad about greeting new people but I happened to notice that you are in Roanoke (I'm in Radford) so I thought that I would greet a fellow SW Virginian. Welcome to the forum.
Chip
 
Did you catch your salamanders yourself or buy them? I tend to keep only Asian species but I love to get out and observe wild species when I have the time.

Sebastian - I personally am not a hunter and rarely a fisherman however I totally support legal hunting and fishing. Not only is it an ingrained part of the Appalachian sub-culture the revenues obtained from purchasing the various required licenses go a long way in helping maintain many of our state parks and national forests, which of course helps maintain the wildlife. Add to this the fact that we are virtually overun by deer here in VA. They are so overpopulated that they are threatening local plant species, causing many motor vehicle accidents, and are even a common site in neighborhoods.
Chip
 
Chip, we've got a buttload up here too. In fact, if you want to hunt on the wildlife refuge, all you have to do is ask. Anyone requesting a permit gets one. We've got so many deer, they're fearless of people! You can practically walk right up and pet them. We had one in our parking lot this morning, just strollin' through.
 
I have to remain cautious every night when I drive home from work because the route that I take goes through deer central. At least once every two weeks (often more frequent) I have one or two jump out in front of my truck as they cross the road.
Chip
 
I do catch my own, although my wife and kids love to get out and go flipping rocks and logs so keeping anything is more of an after thought. I have been considering on getting a few asiatic species, but I am going to do a little more research first though. Your right about the deer here, I have already hit 2 this year.:mad:
 
Dear all,
Sorry, didn’t mean to start a long strand; my own personal opinion is; I don’t hunt or fish, and if an animal is a problem in an area (i.e. deer numbers causing traffic problems) I believe a qualified professional hunter should cull the animals to accepted levels. This would (amongst other things) hopefully lessen the chance of trophy hunting where larger animals are taken not the weakest etc.

As to the money spent on hunting, it’s common in British debates that people say they won’t give money to help areas unless they can hunt there or to clean up rivers unless they can fish there.
Luckily many people give time or money to charities to maintain areas of natural beauty for the sake of saving the wildlife in an area they may never visit themselves.
In Britain (and probably everywhere) we have the issue of game keepers releasing non native game birds to hunt, while killing native species that may compete. (Sometimes legally sometimes not.) This I really can not see as right in any way.:confused:

In my job I am licensed to use a pump action shotgun and expanding ammunition to shoot animals should the extreme need arise (to save human life), this could also include the culling of invasive non native species (wallabies, Chinese water deer and mara) in areas where they are causing environmental damage to native habitats.

The use of this close range firing and the expanding ammunition should mean there is little or no chance of an animal surviving a hit and suffering for long. (I have the license as a requirement for work, not for any other reason. I haven’t had to use the gun to kill anything yet and hope I never have to).
To get and keep my license I have to regularly practice in front of trained instructors and run high stress scenarios in front of high ranking police officers and my senior employers. It is not particularly fun and definitely not sport.

Again, this is my opinion, and I hope Justin will take it as such (as he has a gun);)

(Although I don’t want to make even more mail that isn’t about keeping our critters, does anyone have any info about the use of salamanders for bait? Is it just some species, some areas etc?)

Be happy and sorry for tying up soo much space :blush:

Sebastian
 
Sebastian, everyone is allowed their own opinion.

However, hunting is an acceptable way for states to make revenue. In addition to this revenue generated, hunting keeps populations in check. Without hunting, we would literally be up to our elbows in deer. They would be everywhere. By hunting them, we ease the stresses on the herd (starvation, disease transmission), and ease the stresses on the human population (hitting them with cars, economic loss from crop damage).

I believe hunting is better than not. If you're out just blasting away animals, they will lay and rot, and go to waste. If you hunt them and consume them, you are feeding your family. While some people hunt for trophy, many people hunt for food. Personally, female deer taste better than males, as the testosterone from rut makes the meat taste funny.

And any hunter worth their salt doesn't allow an animal to suffer.
 
Sebastian,
What kind of work do you do where you might have to kill a wallabie? Anyway, I can only back up Kaysie's statements. While we do have a few ignorant rednecks around that serve as bad apples all in all the vast majority of hunters that I know are very responsible.

Justin/Kaysie,
I am extremely busy right now with an infant in the house as well as other responsibilities but perhaps later in the fall or maybe next spring we could plan a somewhat local, unofficial, caudata.org field herping day.
Chip
 
Chip, would be lovely. You guys should come up here and look for Cheat Mountain sals!
 
Sebastian,
I don't mind your opinion one bit. The city I live in has hired a "professional sharpsooters" for the last 3 years I believe and there has been no significant reduction in deer numbers. Also you might be interested in a program we have thats called Hunters for the Hungry. Hunters can donate all or part of their deer to the program which feeds needy families all over the state. Last year they were able to give 1.4 million servings to needy families.

Chip,
I am game for an outing.
 
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