importerar ormar själv - South African

Hej,

- I'll need to take this in English - ( As I learn more swedish I'll try communicate more in Swedish ) -

I am originally from South Africa and have quite a few herp friends back home and I am going there in April. I want to know if anyone knows how difficult it is to import snakes into Sweden ( legally ) .

It seems you can legally import up to 6 animals if they are captive born and are travelling with you, is this the case? Anybody interested in Anchieta's dwarf pythons ? ha. Good luck :)  I've only ever seen two and they are a protected species.

I would be keen to come back with horned adders, Many-horned Adders, African Tiger snakes and egg-eaters; see what the guys have been breeding.

Either way I'll spend plenty of time looking for herps and come back with some pics- I'll be in prime horned adder country where there are lots of intersting things.

Andrew

Welcome to Sweden :-)

I belive the number is 5 and from EU, but I'm not sure and I belive the worlds biggerst reptile show is in Hamm, Germany. (someone correct me if I'm wrong)
You can try searching for the snakes there to see if they are in the hobby:
www.terraristik.com/tb/list_classifieds_int.php

I'm not an expert on this, but a quick gooling led me to this website, which is the organ which regulated animal imports in Sweden:
www.jordbruksverket.se/swedishboardofagriculture/engelskasidor/animals/import/petreptilesandamphibians.4.6621c2fb1231eb917e680003157.html

More specifically, I assume this is the most relevant part if importing from South Africa:
"Imports from non-EU countries except Andorra, Faroe Islands, Norway and Switzerland:

You may bring without permit from the Swedish Board of Agriculture reptiles and amphibians provided that you have a maximum of five animals and that they travel with you or your representative.

The animals may only be brought to Sweden through border inspection posts at Stockholm-Arlanda, or Gothenburg-Landvetter. When the animals cross the border, you need to report to the Customs."

Like you said, they also need to be captive bred, since it is illegal to keep wild caught vertebrates in Sweden (with the exception of fish). You would also need to take the CITES-regulations into account (which mainly has to do with how threatend a taxon is).

Ah- OK, Limited to the EU, makes sense. Thanks. A road trip for the next Hamm trade show in three months time might be fun, but I am loving the reptile fairs here in Sweden- Loving the dart frog vibe here - I can definatly get into frogs.

It is quite interesting to see the prices here. Rainbow boas used to be super expensive - something I could only dream of in South Africa, while here they are quite cheap, while all the venomous snakes command high prices even things like South East Asian cobras & black mambas which are really pretty common and easy to breed. I used to catch 2-3 cobras a week in peoples gardens in Cape Town as snake-catcher-guy and release them back on the mountain - they just dont feel like valube snakes or something you would want as a pet. I saw one black mamba sell for 6000 SEK. They make terrible pets - actaully I can't think of a worse pet snake, but it is funny to see black mambas sell for more than emerald tree boas.

Take a look at the post I made previously. The "five-animal-limit" is not strictly just for EU.

So has anyone ever actaully done this? Export permits would have be organised on the South African side, then on the Swedish side would I just need to notify the Airport authorities? What precautions are taken to ensure the snakes are not unloaded and freeze to death before I can pick them up?