Last update: 17 August, 2002
Some of you may know that I run the Website from Costa Rica. Unless you have actually tried doing something like this, you are unlikely to be able to imagine the problems that are to encountered. At this exact moment in time (Sunday, 12th November 2000, 08.15) I am aware that the Website is in a state of disrepair. Some of the page titles are missing, likewise some of the buttons. This is due not to my total incompetence, but to the joys of having Radiografica Costarricense S.A. (RACSA) as my ISP. I have no option but to use them, as they have a monopoly here. Normally, it takes me between 30 and 50 attempts just to get on line. Allowing one minute for each attempt, can you imagine how much time over two years I've spent sitting here just waiting to get connected! Then I run the risk of being disconnected after anywhere between 15 seconds and two hours. If I happen to be uploading the latest version of the Web at that time (as I was yesterday), it can have horrendous results for yourselves as many hyperlinks can be lost. It normally takes around 15 to 25 minutes to upload, depending on what I have been doing and the speed of the connection. If I get disconnected, I might not be able to get back on line for days in order to correct the errors. Such is my present predicament. |
I have already had 40 attempts to connect, without success.
I apologise to those people who send me adverts to put onto the Web. I do try to get them on as soon as they arrive in my email, but due to the above set of circumstances sometimes it is not possible. Please bear with me.
This state of affairs will soon be coming to an end. I return to UK in the middle of December and, although I've called BT names in the past, at least they have a system that works. RACSA are trying to run before they can walk. They have introduced a new 'Cable Modem' system which, I thought, would solve my problems. Sure-fire connections at the speed of light. So they said. It didn't work, was worse than before, and I got my 300 dollars back.
Costa Rica has Dendrobatid frogs, miles of rainforest, terrible roads and lousy plumbing. Can't wait to get back home!
John
Skillcorn
November 2000
San Jose, Costa Rica
In all the months that this website has been in existence, not a single letter from our 1,500 site visitors so far (let alone BDG members) has made its way to this page. I wonder why. In order to stimulate some reaction and correspondence on several subjects, perhaps what is needed is for someone to start the ball rolling with suggestions of topics which might be thought-provoking.
A while ago now, mainly to facilitate the delivery of the Newsletter, I created a database of the membership with some surprising results. These are available for your examination on this website so I won't bore you with most of the details. It did, however, make me wonder why some people had become members of the BDG. Many had no species listed against their name. Of those who did have frogs listed, it was very difficult to ascertain whether or not they were breeding from their stock.
Once a person acquires an animal, regardless of what it is, that person has the power of life or death over it. I, like many of our members, am concerned that we should be attempting to breed from the frogs we keep. I know from experience what a time-consuming task this can be when only one species is being bred properly. Can the average person really keep and breed eight or more species?
Stamp collectors exist in all walks of life, and not just in the philatelic sense. I have belonged to other (similar) organizations which possess members who are just that. They search out the rare species not because they want to breed from them, but simply in order to possess them. Money is no object. Rather like having a living work of art hanging on a wall somewhere.
It is my opinion that they deprive the serious breeder of vital opportunities to stabilise captive breeding groups.
Of those people who do manage to keep and breed from their animals, there is a school of thought that they are not contributing one jot to the conservation of these animals in the wild. They work in isolation from everyone else with no knowledge whatsoever of their animals' status in the wild, nor of knowing how big or small the gene pool might be outside the natural habitat. But is this so important?
Since the dawn of time, animals and plants have evolved and become extinct, long before Man came on the scene. Is it therefore inevitable that some species even now will follow this path, regardless of what we might do to stop it? Was the Giant Panda already well on the way down this slippery slope even before Man began to affect its habitat?
However - conservation, if I might remind you, is one of the aims of the BDG. We must at least be seen to be attempting to turn the tide.
And what of the animals so produced? I have met members who, being so enthusiastic that I try and breed a particular frog they themselves have had success with, have literally forced breeding stock upon me - for free.
This is a commendable attitude and one sadly lacking in today's society.
Yet others, succeeding somehow in getting hold of the 'first imports' of a particular species, and possessing the skills and knowledge to breed from them, have sold on their offspring for the highest prices possible. Do 'conservation' and 'the quick buck' need to be so apparently inseparable?
How does the BDG come into this? It is a means by which we can, as a group, at least share a common concern - even though we may be able to make little impact - over the wild status of the frogs. We are amassing information, little by little, on breeding requirements and new techniques. We are discussing and passing on in our Newsletters those methods which succeed and those which do not.
It is not all doom and gloom, but we will not achieve anything as individuals. That is why the group is so important. That is why the group needs new, enthusiastic and skilled members who will freely give of their time to contribute not only to these pages but to the Newsletter itself. We can help each other to be successful.
John Skillcorn
April 2000