"You and I and many others, Know, percieve to know, recognize, that many of the different localities types are indeed different. We do know this thru practice. Don't we? We know this, because we experience these types in comparable conditions. You know, right next to eachother. We hatch them, raise them, breed them, therefore see the difference."

--*disclaimer* I am not on anyone's 'side', just trying to sort out what is being said here. And, FR likes to debate..*

I am totally confused with this paragraph, Frank.
You say you know that the different localites of varanids are very different because of your direct experience KEEPING them, vs. Mark's experience just examininig them. Uh-huh. May I ask how many different localities you have kept, raised, bred?
Because as your post reads, you imply you have far more expertise than Mark on ALL the localities, simply because you have bred some of them.

The way I see it, is, you are limited as a keeper, to what you can find a pair of, then afford to buy, house and feed. While your experience as a keeper of pair of animals is surely superior to anything an academic can study, it only applies to those particular animals.
So it makes Frank an expert on a certain region of whitethroat. Great. But Mark gets to see and study many many regions of whitethroat. Could it be that Mark has a different perspective of the subject, without being an expert on any in particular? I think you feel studying paper isn't as great as keeping the living thing. Ok, great point...but you are forgetting that neither did you. So why knock his efforts to classify animals that you can't either? (Remember, you aren't a keeper of them all.) Since no one has the resources to keep and study them all, then the current system is all we have.

Though the slaughter of the first specimens is way beyond stupid. Its a living thing, it will be dead someday anyways. Money, again, is the major factor here...
D.

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