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locality animals

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Posted by: draybar at Mon Oct 12 17:05:09 2009   [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by draybar ]  
   

I don't want to piss anyone off or start a flame war.
A nice "strong" discussion is good but I'm really not trying to start anything
just thinking out loud.
I posted this on the cornsnake forum this morning and thought I would fix my typos and post it here.

There are so many statements, guarantees, arguments, whatever you want to call them about this locale or that locale and my animals are only "this" or my animals are only "that".
I was just wondering if any of the staunch locale people actually know the true range of a corn snake, rat snake or king snake in it's entire lifetime? Or better yet do we/they know the range that three or four generations may cover?
how about okeetees or subocs or alternas
Some say it can only be called an okeetee if it was found within the boundries of the hunt club or has lineage traceble to the boundries of the hunt club, while some expand these boundries to the borders of Jasper county.
Then you have locality animals like Doug Gap Road subocs, or highway 727 alternas (these are the actual roads but you know what I mean).
Going back to my questions before...do they know the exact lifetime range of these animals to be able to "guarantee" these animals are actually FROM these locales, not just found there?
Big difference as far as I'm concerened.
I personally don't like to narrow it down beyond state lines and this is only used as an indication as to where they are found not as a indication of their lineage.
Let's take the okeetees for example.
Ok, for arguments sake, let's say the "okeetee line" is the border of the hunt club. There is a corn snake born twenty miles from the hunt club, it breeds with another corn that was born outside of the hunt club and their babies spread out from the hatch site. Say one of these babies begins to grow and move out into it's own territory and "wonders" within the hunt club borders. It just so happens that "Herper Joe" is hunting the hunt club and sees this snake as it has just entered the hunt club boundries, he catches this corn and says "hey, what a nice okeetee I've found, I know it's an okeetee because I just caught it within the hunt club boundries." Problem is, this snakes is no more okeetee then one born several hundred miles away. No actual ancestry tied to the hunt club. It just happened to crawl in.
Same story in reverse. Several clutches of corn snakes are born within the boundries of the hunt club, the parents of these clutches were also born within the hunt club boundries and their parents were as well. Now these hatchlings would be about as okeetee as you could get. Well, like animals do, they spread to find areas with the least amount of competition, some make it, most don't, but let's say one of these makes it and finds a nice place near the boundries of the hunt club, finds a mate and new hatchlings are produced. This new clutch spreads out and several leave the borders of the hunt club. As they grow they spread a little farther from the hunt club and yep, you guessed it, "Herper Joe" comes by and finds one of these snakes crossing a road five or ten miles from the hunt club boundries. This snake is actually a true okeetee corn snake but because it was caught outside the hunt club boundries it is NOT an okeetee.
Basically my point is simple..unless there is a non-penetrable boundry how can anyone ensure the true locality of a snake just by location of catch.
Did it just cross into the boundries?
Did it just cross out of the boundries?
Were the parents from inside the boundries?
Were the parents from outside the boundries?
Was one from within the boundries and one from outside the boundries?
To me, way too many questions for anyone to ever guarantee locality or to keep locality pure.
That's why I don't worry about which county my Alabama wild caught corns are from. Simply because it can't be proven. I just use Alabama wild caughts to signify where they were found. I have some from a couple of different counties and really don't have a problem breeding them together.
That's like the eastern black kings and black rats I've caught in my area. Some dead center of the county I live in and some on the boundries, just inside the county...and some in nearby counties. I don't classify them as "X" county animals because I can't prove this is where they really are from.
Other people can and have called them "X" county animals and that's their choice, it just doesn't work for me.
anyway just some thoughts




-----
Corn snakes and rat snakes..No one can have just one.
"Resistance is futile"
Jimmy Johnson
(Draybar)
Draybars Snakes

_____


   

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