Cole, most of that is correct. Let me add some more information for you. The San Antonio Zoo didn't collect any of the founding stock themselves. It was collected by Fred Antonio and George Van Horn.



A year and a half ago, Paul Polzin and I decided to get as much information on gaigeae in the hobby today as we could. What we found was that Fred Antonio and George Van Horn collected what they thought was a mussurana in the mid 1980's between Limon and Siquirres at the locality of Blanco, Costa Rica (very near Liverpool just west of Puerto Limon). That adult female laid eleven eggs for them, which hatched on Sept. 14, 1985, and all were of course tri-colored.



One pair of those babies was obtained by Alan Kardon of the San Antonio Zoo. Additionally, Tom Crutchfield had imported a 4' wild-caught male that was almost totally jet black and big-bodied, around December 1984 from somewhere in Costa Rica. Tom had told me then it came from a collector in Costa Rica who had permits to collect it and a male stuarti that Tom also had for sale at the time. The San Antonio Zoo also obtained this 4' male snake. So we now know that all 2.1 of the San Antonio Zoo founder gaigeae stock were Costa Rican animals, and ones that all get black very quickly.



The Central Florida Zoo line can be traced primarily to some of those original eleven hatchlings from Blanco, as well as possibly a few others that Fred Antonio and George Van Horn collected later in the 1980's from the Turrialba/Siquirres region in Costa Rica. And from my understanding, the Mark Bell line is a mix of Central Florida Zoo stock with San Antonio Zoo stock. So actually, the San Antonio Zoo line and the Central Florida Zoo lines seem to be closely related, and for the most part, are locality animals.



So it seems that all of the gaigeae in the hobby today are from Costa Rican origin, although different localities within the highlands of Costa Rica. In addition to the locality of Providencia (San Jose province) that Jeff and Dell are working with and Shannon's stock from Guayacan/Siquirres (Limon province), there also is locality stock out there from Miramar in the Puntarenas province.



Thanks,

Scott

[ Hide Replies ]

• Original Collection Site for Black Milks - Ameron, Sun Dec 27 11:34:22 2009
• RE: Original Collection Site for Black Milks - Jeff Schofield, Sun Dec 27 13:02:37 2009
• yes, San Antonio Zoo........ - DMong, Sun Dec 27 13:45:32 2009
• Thanks, You Two, Quite Helpful - Ameron, Sun Dec 27 13:53:52 2009
• RE: Original Collection Site for Black M - terryd, Sun Dec 27 20:12:08 2009
• Ameron - Sunherp, Mon Dec 28 09:19:00 2009
• RE: Ameron - sballard, Mon Dec 28 11:05:49 2009
• Awesome Scott!...... - DMong, Mon Dec 28 11:23:27 2009
• Excellent! - Sunherp, Mon Dec 28 11:29:10 2009
• Thanks Doug and Cole......... - sballard, Tue Dec 29 11:30:33 2009
• Very good Cole! - DMong, Mon Dec 28 11:12:33 2009
• Thanks, Doug! But... - Sunherp, Mon Dec 28 11:32:23 2009
• RE: Thanks, Doug! But... - DMong, Mon Dec 28 12:46:33 2009
• Bonanza!!! Thanks for GREAT Info, All - Ameron, Mon Dec 28 13:30:07 2009