Mikester,



As I'm sure you know, Ball Pythons are HEAVILY "farmed" in Africa (Togo, Ghana & Benin) This "farming" is not really farming at all... the African people collect adult females at the end of the breeding season and hold them until their eggs are laid. They incubate these eggs and meanwhile they free most of the adult females back to the wild.



Here is where things get crazy... when these females are released, they are not typically released in the same area that they were captured! Basically churning the "gene pool."



Think about it this way... if a 100% Het Pied female is roaming free in Ghana, breeding and living like royalty (no pun intended)... a normal male breeds her. She is captured, lays her eggs in a Ghanan facilty and is then set free again. If she is not set free in the same location and has the opportunity to lay eggs in the wild then you will have a female 100% Het Pied loose in an area that maybe Het. Pieds have not been in before giving birth to Possible Het babies.



Her babies will be exported to the USA and Europe as normals while truely being 50% Possible Het for Pied. Meanwhile back in Africa the mother is spreading her genes around in an area that she is not from!



It seems that more and more morphs are discovered as the "normal" Ball Python females are "relocated" after every year's hatch! So maybe the solution to MORE and MORE morphs is churning the genetic pot in the wild.



Just a theory that I have been thinking about for a while...



Any thoughts?!?
-----
Sean Bradley

Owner : EbN

www.ExoticsByNature.com

www.BallPythonMorphs.com

www.CornSnakeMorphs.com

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