Not sure the Boiga example is applicable, as it is a species characteristic (the way bug-eyes are characteristic of Namibian house snakes).



If these bug-eyes were evolving for the benefit of the rat snakes, I'm sure all--or at least one?!--of the wild caughts would be in possession of them. I recognize there is [at least sometimes] a difference between what a hobbyist strives for versus nature. I'm not at all expecting "genetics to make a grinding halt from evolving"--but I don't think a case can be made that Texas rats are trying to evolve bug-eyes. The wild caught ones (the examples I've seen, at least) are failing miserably at that goal.

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"I don't truly understand the whole "genetic defect" arguement. There are species of snakes that are just bug-eyed. Boiga for example, most of them are bug-eyed, because they are nocturnal. Would you expect genetics to make a grinding halt from evolving, just to satisfy preferred visual characteristics? If that's the case, then someone needs to start cloning animals that already have those traits. It's genetic diversity that keeps things interesting."

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