Posted by:
FR
at Thu May 29 13:29:12 2008 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by FR ]
Actually the uglist and skinnyist ones are from right across from my mouse room. hahahahahaha its true.
The ones with large red blotches are from along the border. They are much different there.
My exact area has a split between normals and "hypos" You know, like the Mt. Hopkins one posted below. I use to wonder why they were so different in one area. Even to a point of when I found them breeding(and I did) or paired up(and I did) they were paired up with ones like themselves. But those numbers were so small, it could have easily been luck.
Since that time, the yellow ones are now rare.
There have also been years where finding a normal gopher was rare. One year, I found something like 15 or 18 stripers to partially stripers, IN A ROW. That was about the second year of our drought.(if that means anything)
The point to this series is, most HERE do not understand wild snakes and the use of the word Phenotype. They call something normal and that becomes the phenotype. Which is very naive.
These animals and all reptiles that I know of, have a fairly wide range of phenotypic patterns and colors. What exactly expresses the width and extremes of their phenotypic range, is another question altogether.
All the animals above and MORE are within the phenotypic range of gophers in my area(within 60 miles). The truth is, a far far greater range then I showed.
The understanding here gets real mucked up. Take the Mt. Hopkins, that animal in no way represents gophers from there. I have seen dozens of dozens from there and yes, you can find individuals like that(if your lucky or persistant) But most from there are NOT like that animal. Cheers
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RE: Whoops missed #10 - FR, Thu May 29 13:29:12 2008
