John,
I agree that pre-adult mortality in the wild has got to be very high. For
example, it would take only 4 survivals to breed during the breeding life of
a female of any species to double the population during that period.
A prominent (I'd say) author says that "the maximum number of eggs a female
leopard gecko can produce [over a lifetime] has not been determined but is
probably between 90 and a hundred.", so we're talking about a 4% survival to
breed ratio to double the population during about 11 years, the approximate
active breeding life of a leopard gecko. I think that's right... :)
----- Original Message -----
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Sunday, September 09, 2001 9:34 AM
Subject: Re: [Gecko] HSUS press release
> I've read about half the replies, and I would like to suggest a point that
I
> haven't seen made yet, using my own experiences as data.
>
> I am 51 years old. Dime store turtles were my first herp pets, and I
wasn't
> too successful (remember ant eggs and shallow plastic bowls with palm
> trees?). I had a WC Anole when I was ten; my allowance didn't cover
> mealworms, so I was forced to use crickets and moths, etc., which probably
> explains why the lizard lived almost two years. Flash forward through any
> number of other species (mostly WC, because I caught them), and now I am
> breeding corn snakes and four or five species of lizards.
>
> The mortality among my adults of all species is low (yes, I did report a
> problem with some female leopards a few weeks ago, and I have just had my
> first bearded dragon die), but I have no doubts it is lower than mortality
> rates in the wild. Among the hatchlings, the mortality rates are
> significantly lower. Nature is prolific and wanton; how many eggs and
> hatchlings make it even a few weeks in the wild?
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