What are the Endangered Species in Maryland?

Where Can I Get Information on Keeping Local Non-Endangered Wild Species Captive?

• I've heard from several different people that you can keep certain species captive legally without permits, and I've heard from several others that you can't. So I've tried to look into the laws for my state, and I can't seem to find a reliable source of information that would give me a solid answer. By wild species, my primary interests are with invertebrates and and herps. I'm not asking if I can go out, catch a deer, and keep it in my backyard. As for the reason of my interest, I'm an undergrad student and I've developed a particular fondness for a certain local species of snake that apparently hasn't had much research done on it specifically. I've found an article in the Journal of Herpetology regarding ecological studies on the species, but it was in a different state and it was about 40 years ago. Anyway, I'm potentially interested in doing some independent research on this species. But in order to look into certain ecological aspects, such as diet, I'd need a few captive specimens (Such captive specimens are NOT what I'm referring to for this question, if I do eventually take part in such a project, I'm aware I will probably need permits or agreements with certain groups for my data to be valid). So in order to prepare for such a project, I've done an array of research and whatnot, but something I'm largely curious about is whether or not being in captivity will largely affect their habits. That got me into the curiosity of whether or not I could do my own little informal "experiment" to see how they respond to captivity. But of course, don't want to do anything illegal. To summarize, I'm curious as to where I can get information about keeping a non-threatened species of wild snake temporarily captive in the state of Maryland. Any ideas?

• Answer:

  That is what it looks like. You can keep four wild caught ringneck snakes in captivity without a permit but you will need to apply for a permit if you breed, trade or sell them. BTW, you can get a lot of information on diet by dissecting preserved specimens. If your university has a natural history museum, you can talk to the persons in charge and ask them if you can study the diet of the ringneck snake that are in their collection. Chances are that they will allow you to do so. If nothing has been published on the diet of this snake, then your results may even be publishable, especially if you can show a correlation between size of the snake and diet or between locality/habitat and diet. You may have a null hypothesis that habitat and diet are not correlated, but if you find that there are dietary differences between snakes living in different types of habitats and/or elevations/latitudes, then the results may be of interest to science.