Posted by:
Elaphefan
at Thu Mar 2 18:21:10 2006 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by Elaphefan ]
I see that this has become an issue. I for one have no idea if a true leucistic black rat snake as ever been found. What I have argued for is skepticism about any claim of something out of the ordinary being found. This is not to say that any claimant is being dishonest, but what can and should be questioned is the true origin of the animal that was found. Just because one finds an animal in the "wild", that does not make it a pure breed animal from that location. It could be an animal that was transported and released by some unknown human.
More to the point is that in the case of leucistic E. obsoleta, they all look the same. The five subspecies of obsoleta differ only in color and pattern. If the snake is leucistic, it has no pigment producing skin cells so subspecies cannot be determined by visual examination. Leucistic Texas Rats have been common in the snake trade for some time now. It is because of this fact that one has to very skeptical of all reports of something this rare being a "true" find that had purely natural origins. It is an informal fallacy of logic (Cum hoc ergo propter hoc) to conclude such with true certainty.
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 leucistic texas & black rat origin - Elaphefan, Thu Mar 2 18:21:10 2006
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