Utilization of Natural History Information in Evidence based Herpetoculture: A Proposed Protocol and Case Study with Hydrodynastes gigas (False Water Cobra).

Zachary J Loughman

doi:10.3390/ani10112021

Abstract

Herpetocultural practices are based on norms driven by economy of space and time for keepers, with little scientific inference backing their practice. In recent years, a subset of herpetoculturalists have promoted evidence-based husbandry that relies on science and experimental design to generate husbandry practice. A theoretical framework and protocol are proposed herein that enables any individual who has access to the internet the ability to use various outlets of natural history information (scientific literature databases, social media sources, and weather websites) and previously published husbandry reports as evidence to drive the creation of novel herpetocultural practice. A case study is provided which compares readily available information on the care of Hydrodynastes gigas (false water cobra), such as online care sheets for the species, with the proposed evidence based herpetocultural protocol founded on natural history information and published care and captive breeding reports. Results were assessed for protocol efficacy and determined that the natural history informed evidence-based approach increased animal welfare and generated new information specific to the natural history of H. gigas.

Highlights

Herpetoculture, the maintenance and breeding of amphibians and reptiles in human care, has a long history in both zoological institutions and the private sector
Four dedicated articles existed specific to H. gigas husbandry in human care prior to evidence based herpetocultural protocol (EBHP) and this species was briefly discussed in several care protocols for colubroids
Development, and verified several husbandry attributes integrated into the H. gigas EBHP

Summary

Introduction

Herpetoculture, the maintenance and breeding of amphibians and reptiles in human care, has a long history in both zoological institutions and the private sector. Animals 2020, 10, 2021 by many to be among the first English-language publications providing guidelines for amphibian and reptile keeping, though several German publications predated Bateman [2]. The Viviarium and Bateman’s writings provided a foundation for what later would be deemed herpetoculture, once captive breeding became a focus. Bateman promoted naturalistic approaches specific to the species in human care. The practice of including nature in vivarium design, today known as naturalistic keeping, would fall out of favor in the future in certain herpetocultural circles. During Bateman’s time, herpetoculture was rarely practiced outside of zoological or academic institutions; that would change in the 200 years

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