Terry,



I remember reading an article from an old issue of Reptile and Amphibian magazine, the little Reader's Digest-size magazine that was published back in the 90s. Anyway, I'm not sure of the date but I'm guessing it was mid to later 90s and the article was written by a guy who had received a Blue Beauty in a shipment of other snakes from a breeder. He was intrigued and so put the word out to other importers to keep their eyes open for this species of snake. Eventually he acquired a breeding pair, however I think the article was written before he'd actually had success in breeding them.



This article and a comment you made brings up another point. We don't know exactly where the stock is coming from that has formed the basis of the captive-bred population. Obviously, they are not a difficult snake to breed however we don't know how big the orginal pool of imports was. Are these snakes still being imported as adults? Of all the cb specimens available are they from a very few original imports or has there been a lot of out-crossing with newer imports? The opens up a whole other can of worms about keeping a genetically viable population of the various asian ratsnakes before we start seeing unfavorable mutations like the bug eyes of the leucistic Texas ratsnakes, or the fact that a major portion of all amelanistic cornsnakes trace back to a single pair.
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Matt Campbell

Animal Keeper, Small Mammal/Reptile House

Lincoln Park Zoo Chicago, Illinois



Assistant Curator

Wildlife Discovery Center at Elawa Farm

Lake Forest, Illinois

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