CITES bans P. imperator imports.

I don't know if this is 100% true or not, but my wholesaler called me, an forwarded me a link about the ban of emperors from Togo and Benin. here is a link if you would like to check it out:

http://www.fws.gov/le/publicbulletin/05-03-2013-Public-Bulletin-on-Trade-Suspensions.pdf

It is from the US fish and wildlife site.
Remember this impacts only wild caught specimens, not captive bred. Will this have a real impact on the hobby?

Thats a bummer.. atleast I have my breeding groups of Emps now... I was wondering when this was going to happen because every I would read everywhere their numbers were declining in the wild...

Hopefully a positive effect on the hobby. I have two points to make on this. 1. most emps end up in the hands of newbs or crappy petshop owners that put them on sand so will we see a decline? Probably only in petshops, not so much the hobby.

2. This is the time to start breeding emps people. There are a lot of the in circulation at the moment we need to encourage people to breed more CB emps.

I think it's a good thing, and about time.
The backlash often is the illegal trade of protected animals

There are already to many species of animal hunted or taken from the wild to near extinction.

The breeding of Emperor scorpions has been successful for many years and even the most freshest of keepers can attempt a breeding project. In my opinion, there is no need for import of wild specimens anymore. This will also further stimulate breeding programmes in captivity so we can build a healthy CB community without further destruction of their habitat and/or collecting these beautiful scorpions from the wild.

Dont worry Abyss I plan on breeding just Emps have (2) groups of 1.3 and getting all the ones at my local pet shops this week since these will prob be the last they will be getting. I am just going to focus all my attention on breeding emperors and my pixie frogs...

I agree 100% with Shakudo. I too am going to be cleaning out local stores, as well as my wholesaler if I can. Have had luck with emps before, and the ones I have now, both as pets and for sale are CB. and have been for a long time.

Forget the pixies FOCUS ON THE EMPS

I'm kidding of course.

LMAO... Cant forget the pixies bro!!! but just focusing on 2 species not that bad...

I have 6 extra set ups for groups of 1.3 if anyone has any they want to get rid of...

If it is true that they have banned the importation i am actually quite pleased. Not due to the fact that i might be harder to find emperors at stores but because so many are taken from the wild and imported it must have a very drastic effect on the sp numbers in the wild. There is a stable population in captivity of this sp so im not to worried about it.
IM HAPPY

I think it's a win-win. The wild population can recover, while the importance and awareness of captive breeding is spread around. More people will start breeding these in captivity, creating an influx of captive bred specimens, although prices may rise a little.

Hmm. That's interesting. I am guessing, that is the start to the domino effect as where a complete ban will be implemented. That has encouraged me to start back breeding emps. I do quite miss them. Off to the local pet shops I go!

Kale wrote:

Hmm. That's interesting. I am guessing, that is the start to the domino effect as where a complete ban will be implemented. That has encouraged me to start back breeding emps. I do quite miss them. Off to the local pet shops I go!

Well tonight I just ordered a 50 lot (mixed males & females) and 12 lot of gravid WC with cities papers from before this all went into affect!!!!

I'll do my part. Just found this in with my female/male tank. She has had the babies off her back for almost 4 weeks now. I'm a CB emp factory.

Congrats yames!!!! I got one of them the other night as well! Lets keep these CB emps going!

I'm not sure if I'm in the wrong for resurrecting this three month old thread .. Much apologies if I am . My question is :
does this ban effect ALL Pandinus species ?
and are P. imperator being exported out of other countries ? Or do they only come out of Togo and Benin ?
Thanks !

I only ask because species such as P. cavimanus could be effected indefinitely ?

From what I understand, but I may be wrong, it's pretty much anything coming out of Togo and Benin. They are still imported in from other places, but as those were the main places, they're harder to get. Many of us are doing captives, though, keeping them alive in the trade.