....because many Pits are so variable throughout their ranges, especially Bullsnakes, this to me is what makes locality breeding so interesting. For example,as discussed sometime ago, west TX Pituophis are quite variable and the taxonomic status of the various local populations are rather dubious due the apparent large zone of intergradation betwwen sayi and affinis. To me some of the most interesting looking animals of many species comes from the intergrade zones. In my own county for example, I've found an interesting population of eastern kings that are close to an intergade zone that are very unusual in appearance. The study on Balck Pines and their relationship with S. Pines should be an interesting one. It would be interesting to see a simliar study on N. Pines and S. Pines. Getting back to La Pines though, if one looks through the various forums, this one and other field herping ones, you will see La Pines from the wild that are quit variable from various parts of their range or even within a specific locale, so I think it would be difficult for someone to say this La Pine looks suspecious because it doesn't look "right". Well...what does "right" look like? That is even a difficult question to answer for the experts concerning La Pines.

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