Media
release – Three species of snake exterminated from New Guinea!
In a period when
scientists are discovering new species in New Guinea at a staggering rate, it
has come as a shock this week to see that two “species” of large python from
New Guinea have been completely exterminated.
The blame for the
wipe-out is accepted by just one man.
His name is Raymond Hoser.
Known generally as
“Australia’s Snakeman”, Hoser noted that he didn’t actually kill any snakes to
wipe out the species, nor did he destroy any habitat.
Late last year an
amateur snake keeper, Wulf Schleip from Germany, published a so-called
“scientific paper” on the D’Albert’s python (Leiopython albertisi),
splitting it into several species and naming three new ones. At the time his paper was published he said
he had mtDNA evidence to support his position.
In the absence of
this evidence, doubts were raised as to whether or not these “species” actually
existed. After all, scientists have
been studying New Guinea’s pythons for decades and several major studies have
been published on them within the last decade. Surely it wouldn’t be possible
to miss so many species of snakes?
However as shown by
Hoser in a paper published this week in Australasian Journal of Herpetology,
it turned out the key claims by Schleip were fraudulent.
The only mtDNA
evidence Schleip had was that separating another well-known and totally
different species, the Hoser’s Python (Leiopython hoserae) from southern
New Guinea, which had been known as different for decades and been named long
before Schleip started dabbling with the snakes. That snake is black in colour and from southern New Guinea,
whereas all northern “white-lipped pythons” (Leiopython) are brown.
Three separate studies in the previous 8 years had already confirmed the differences between the black (south) and brown (north) white-lipped pythons, meaning that Schleip hadn’t actually produced anything new.
Hence the “species”
named last year as Leiopython huonensis, Leiopython bennettorum
and Leiopython fredparkeri are now again shown to be merely Leiopython
albertisi, with all being stock-standard D’Albert’s Pythons.
Hoser said “in this
age of wildlife wipeouts and the like, the last thing we need is the creation
of alleged species that don’t exist”.
Hoser said “Schleip
had effectively named species on the basis of differences as minor as hair
colour in humans.”
So-called “taxonomic
exaggeration” has been a problem for some years as wannabe scientists
exaggerate the importance of differences in order to claim naming rights on new
species. Taxonomic exaggeration was
recently condemned in the prestigious science journal “Nature”.
Working with Schleip
in the false creation of these new species was a convicted reptile smuggler by
the name of David John Williams, recently fined $7,500 in the Cairns
Magistrates Court for animal cruelty and smuggling offences. Last year, Williams was also disqualified
from a competition run by Accor Holiday Inns Hotels for vote rigging in his
favour to the tune of thousands of votes.
In 2000 he was also shown to be guilty of another scientific fraud, in
that case involving two species of snakes, including one from southern New
Guinea.
Also involved with
Schleip was a Welshman by the name of Wolfgang Wuster, recently shown to have
committed plagiarisation several times over the previous decade.
In the scientific
community the act of plagiarization is regarded as the greatest of sins. It is when a person bootlegs someone else’s
earlier work and rehashes it as their own and without crediting the original
source. It is effectively theft.
Hoser said that while
in the case of Leiopython albertisi, several so-called species were
found to be one, the reverse is more commonly the case. Other studies with proper DNA,
morphological, biological and geological evidence have yielded several species
of snakes where it had been previously thought there was only one or two. The
same applies for other animals in New Guinea.
Hoser said
“Notwithstanding the Leiopython debacle, the fact is that New Guinea
represents one of the most exciting areas of biodiversity on earth and everyone
should work towards it’s long-term preservation.”
The Hoser paper is
online at:
http://www.smuggled.com/AJHI2.pdf
High resolution
images of D’Albert’s Python Leiopython albertisi (for publication) are
downloadable from:
http://www.smuggled.com/pr51.htm
High resolution of
Hoser’s Python Leiopython hoserae (for publication) are downloadable
from:
http://www.smuggled.com/pr47.htm
Non-urgent email inquiries via the Snakebusters bookings page at:
http://www.snakebusters.com.au/sbsboo1.htm
Urgent inquiries phone:
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia:
(03) 9812 3322 or 0412 777 211