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With some species, like burmese pythons - the captive born market has pretty much flooded out the imports. Its just not worth the effort to import them anymore. Other species like green iguanas and ball pythons are "farm raised", which isn't much better than being wild caught, but at least they are still reproducing under somewhat of a human hand and the majority aren't being plucked directly from their native habitat - except to replace breeders in these so-called farms.
Really though, look at some species from Australia, like carpet pythons - what we know as the various subspecies of carpet pythons in the US market is almost ridiculous compared to what the actual Australian species are. The genetic diversity of the species is relatively low, and has most recently (last 10 years or so) been supplimented with wild stock from New Guinea and the like. If it weren't for smugglers, things like Bearded Dragons probably wouldn't even be in the US market right now - at least not in the numbers we see today.
Regulations are important, genetic diversity is also important to maintain a healthy captive stock. Feral animals are another big threat to current importation trends. So there are other factors working against the pet trade, not just the fact that animals are being pulled from the wild in incredible numbers.
Sorry for jumping around... thoughts kind of erratic tonight.
Rav
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