Forums36
Topics40,900
Posts557,088
Members18,452
|
Most Online3,612 Jan 10th, 2023
|
|
14 members (dg84s, ewest, Fishingadventure, Shorthose, Sunil, Freg, IND1371, Augie, Groundhog7, Brandon Larson, Dave Davidson1, PRCS, Theo Gallus, BillyE),
790
guests, and
302
robots. |
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 7,615 Likes: 5
Ambassador Field Correspondent Lunker
|
OP
Ambassador Field Correspondent Lunker
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 7,615 Likes: 5 |
WELLINGTON, New Zealand
Airport Stops Man With 44 Lizards In Pants
German Reptile Collector Jailed For 14 Weeks In New Zealand
A German reptile collector has been jailed for 14 weeks and must pay a 5,000 New Zealand dollar ($3,540) fine for plundering New Zealand's wild gecko and skink populations, a judge has ruled.
Hans Kurt Kubus, 58, is to be deported to Germany as soon as he is released from prison, Judge Colin Doherty ordered Tuesday.
Kubus was caught by wildlife officials at Christchurch International Airport on South Island in December, about to board an overseas flight with 44 geckos and skinks in a hand-sewn package concealed in his underwear.
He admitted trading in exploited species without a permit and hunting absolutely protected wildlife without authority, pleading guilty to two charges under the Wildlife Act and five under the Trade in Endangered Species Act.
Department of Conservation prosecutor Mike Bodie told Christchurch District Court that Kubus could have faced potential maximum penalties of 500,000 dollars and six months in prison.
Bodie told Doherty that the department sought a deterrent sentence for "the most serious case of its kind detected in New Zealand for a decade or more."
The geckos may have been worth 2,000 euros ($2,800) each on the European market, he noted.
"Internationally, this type of trade is prevalent and is on the increase worldwide and can be lucrative," he said.
Customs records showed that Kubus had also been to New Zealand in 2001, 2004, 2008, and 2009. In 2008, he had been with a Swiss reptile dealer.
Doherty said Kubus had come to New Zealand and set about poaching the animals in a premeditated way which would have had an impact on particular colonies.
There was a potential for Kubus to end up with far more animals than he could have housed in his own collection and the rest would have been sold.
"I don't think you necessarily came here to steal to sell, but I am sure the fact that you might have had excess was figured into your thinking," said the judge, describing the offending as "pretty close to the worst case."
JHAP ~~~~~~~~~~ "My mind is a raging torrent, flooded with rivulets of thought cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives." ...Hedley Lamarr (that's Hedley not Hedy)
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 7,615 Likes: 5
Ambassador Field Correspondent Lunker
|
OP
Ambassador Field Correspondent Lunker
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 7,615 Likes: 5 |
I have it on good authority that when the "wildlife officials" stopped Mr. Kubas they shouted at him... FREEZE!
Is that a gecko in your pants or are you just happy to see us? Hopefully, I won't get moderated for that.
Last edited by Theo Gallus; 01/27/10 11:14 AM. Reason: Just don't bring up Richard Geer
JHAP ~~~~~~~~~~ "My mind is a raging torrent, flooded with rivulets of thought cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives." ...Hedley Lamarr (that's Hedley not Hedy)
|
|
|
|
Joined: May 2004
Posts: 13,939 Likes: 268
Moderator Lunker
|
Moderator Lunker
Joined: May 2004
Posts: 13,939 Likes: 268 |
With 44 geckos, he is saving like 660% off his car insurance!
"Live like you'll die tomorrow, but manage your grass like you'll live forever." -S. M. Stirling
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 5,713 Likes: 35
Administrator Lunker
|
Administrator Lunker
Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 5,713 Likes: 35 |
Reminds me of Gordon Gekko.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 20,043 Likes: 1
Hall of Fame Lunker
|
Hall of Fame Lunker
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 20,043 Likes: 1 |
When reptile collector Hans Kurt Kubus was asked why he did it, his reply was, "I've got a really problem with the Geico commercials and figured sweet revenge was to eliminate the threatened Geckos. Here he is in a recent photo:
Last edited by Cecil Baird1; 01/28/10 06:42 PM.
If pigs could fly bacon would be harder to come by and there would be a lot of damaged trees.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 343
Lunker
|
Lunker
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 343 |
Some thoughts:
I have heard of a trouser snake but not a trouser gecko.
I would like to meet someone willing to pay 2800 bucks for a gecko.
Samuel L Jackson will be appearing in a movie sequel this summer called "Skinks on a Plane"
Does the name Pavlov ring a bell?
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 6,692
Hall of Fame 2015 Lunker
|
Hall of Fame 2015 Lunker
Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 6,692 |
Some thoughts:
I have heard of a trouser snake but not a trouser gecko.
I would like to meet someone willing to pay 2800 bucks for a gecko.
Samuel L Jackson will be appearing in a movie sequel this summer called "Skinks on a Plane" At least he wasn't packing 44 of these.
|
|
|
|
Joined: May 2004
Posts: 13,939 Likes: 268
Moderator Lunker
|
Moderator Lunker
Joined: May 2004
Posts: 13,939 Likes: 268 |
"Live like you'll die tomorrow, but manage your grass like you'll live forever." -S. M. Stirling
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 8,854 Likes: 1
Moderator Ambassador Field Correspondent Lunker
|
Moderator Ambassador Field Correspondent Lunker
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 8,854 Likes: 1 |
Holding a redear sunfish is like running with scissors.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 8,854 Likes: 1
Moderator Ambassador Field Correspondent Lunker
|
Moderator Ambassador Field Correspondent Lunker
Joined: Aug 2004
Posts: 8,854 Likes: 1 |
...and I've already stolen it and used it as if it was my idea.
Holding a redear sunfish is like running with scissors.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 2,365
Lunker
|
Lunker
Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 2,365 |
A small pet shop in town next to my wife's clinic went out of business. The workers in the clinic began to notice small pink geckos in their storage room. Now they're all over town, including my house 3 miles away. I can go out with a flashlight on a summer night and spot 15-20 of them scurrying around on the bricks. Since they're night creatures, they haven't affected the native lizards that I have noticed, but there are so many of them they must be impacting native species in some way. They like my patio door. The light attracts insects, and the insects attract geckos and little green tree frogs.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 10,458 Likes: 2
Ambassador Field Correspondent Hall of Fame Lunker
|
Ambassador Field Correspondent Hall of Fame Lunker
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 10,458 Likes: 2 |
Pretty interesting bobad... I wonder what species of gecko it is and if the fish and wildlife agency for LA knows about the establishment of the exotics yet?
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 7,615 Likes: 5
Ambassador Field Correspondent Lunker
|
OP
Ambassador Field Correspondent Lunker
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 7,615 Likes: 5 |
Interesting Bobad. I'm not sure it they are still there but about 10 years ago there was a colony of Macaws living wild in the Ocean Beach area of San Diego. It was interesting to be walking down the street and see several Macaws fly by. (Oh and for those of you that know the Ocean Beach area of San Diego, pretty much everything "lives wild" there).
JHAP ~~~~~~~~~~ "My mind is a raging torrent, flooded with rivulets of thought cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives." ...Hedley Lamarr (that's Hedley not Hedy)
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 28,414 Likes: 792
Moderator Ambassador Field Correspondent Lunker
|
Moderator Ambassador Field Correspondent Lunker
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 28,414 Likes: 792 |
Jhap: Downtown Carlsbad/South Oceanisde near the coast had a bunch of small parrots living in the palm trees as well. That was in the mid 1990's.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 7,615 Likes: 5
Ambassador Field Correspondent Lunker
|
OP
Ambassador Field Correspondent Lunker
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 7,615 Likes: 5 |
The parrots are probably still there.
Carlsbad is responsible for the largest amount of new housing being built in north coastal San Diego county. Carlsbad's population has increased 65% in the last 20 years from a population of about 63,000 in 1990 to over 104,000 last year. They've squeezed houses in everywhere.
JHAP ~~~~~~~~~~ "My mind is a raging torrent, flooded with rivulets of thought cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives." ...Hedley Lamarr (that's Hedley not Hedy)
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 28,414 Likes: 792
Moderator Ambassador Field Correspondent Lunker
|
Moderator Ambassador Field Correspondent Lunker
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 28,414 Likes: 792 |
I used to by seeds for the garden from Mr. Ledgerwood who lived right off of PCH. He's probably gone now, he was getting up there in age back then. He told me that he bought a bunch of acerage by the Carlsbad Airport and sold it in the '60's for $400.00/acre and thought he made a killing. Little did he know.......
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 7,615 Likes: 5
Ambassador Field Correspondent Lunker
|
OP
Ambassador Field Correspondent Lunker
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 7,615 Likes: 5 |
When I bought my place there was a great woman that lived across the street on the bluff. One day I was talking to her and she told me that her and her husband purchased their two bluff top parcels in the 1940s for $1,200. She said that at the time her and her husband became angry when they found out the neighbor paid $100 less per lot. When she passed away in about 2000 or 2001 her two lots with 100 feet of ocean front (and a tear down house) sold for $1.8 mill. As you can imagine her adult children were quite happy.
So were you around when Carlsbad had the Chicken Shack (with the huge chicken in front)?
JHAP ~~~~~~~~~~ "My mind is a raging torrent, flooded with rivulets of thought cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives." ...Hedley Lamarr (that's Hedley not Hedy)
|
|
|
|
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 343
Lunker
|
Lunker
Joined: Feb 2007
Posts: 343 |
Supposedly the guy they arrested was known on a reptile forum as Fatty McSkinkypants.
Does the name Pavlov ring a bell?
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 28,414 Likes: 792
Moderator Ambassador Field Correspondent Lunker
|
Moderator Ambassador Field Correspondent Lunker
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 28,414 Likes: 792 |
JHAP:
Yep. And I was around when you didn't want to walk around downtown O'side after dark, before Melrose poked thru from North Santa Fe Ave thru to 78, before they built the new Bonsall Bridge over the San Luis Rey River, I ran the Camaro at Carlsbad.... The shut-off area seemed really short and I was only going 140-145. There used to be a HUGE flock of pheasants in the Guahome Lake Park. I'd take one of the Springers over there, get off of the trails and let her off of the leash. The birds were closer to the Old Adobe Ranch house than the cattail infested pond. I had a house on Jeffries Ranch Road.
When I left, Mission was not a divided road past College Blvd. Looking at Google Earth, things have really chaged there!
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 7,615 Likes: 5
Ambassador Field Correspondent Lunker
|
OP
Ambassador Field Correspondent Lunker
Joined: Jul 2006
Posts: 7,615 Likes: 5 |
Wow, definitely a small world Essup.
You should have heard my father talk about San Diego, he was born in San Diego in 1926 and use to hunt quail in Mission Valley (back when the San Diego river was actually a river) right where the Mission and Fashion Valley shopping centers are.
I raced motocross at the Carlsbad motocross track for several years, which as you know was right next to the drag strip.
JHAP ~~~~~~~~~~ "My mind is a raging torrent, flooded with rivulets of thought cascading into a waterfall of creative alternatives." ...Hedley Lamarr (that's Hedley not Hedy)
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 28,414 Likes: 792
Moderator Ambassador Field Correspondent Lunker
|
Moderator Ambassador Field Correspondent Lunker
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 28,414 Likes: 792 |
JHAP:
If you take a tour of Mission San Luis Rey, there is a plaque in there tells of the sailing vessels coming up the San Luis Rey River to the mission from the ocean. Talk about change!! A friend of mine who worked near the river in the '60's told me of the salmon that would enter the river to spawn. When is the last time you heard of a salmon run in San Diego County?
It's a very small world!
|
|
|
Moderated by Bill Cody, Bruce Condello, catmandoo, Chris Steelman, Dave Davidson1, esshup, ewest, FireIsHot, Omaha, Sunil, teehjaeh57
|
|