Posted by:
Phil Peak
at Mon Jul 4 15:57:18 2005 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by Phil Peak ]
I think you do bring up a good point. I would think that it is common place for locality buffs to collect or buy a pair of snakes from a given place and then immediately upon the first clutch of eggs hold back those hatchlings with the best pattern, highest contrast etc.. This may make these animals still locality specific but with each succesive generation they are to some degree evolving along a separate trajectory than their wild brethren. Without natural selection snakes are no longer what they were or what they were meant to be. This is one of the dilemnas that is faced by hobbyist and it is impossible to reconcile. I don't know if I like the term pure when applied to snakes. Locale specific animals are what they are however. No more, no less. Simply animals whose genetic material is derived from a specific place of origin. If I was to use the term pure I would use it only to describe specimens that were found in the field. Locality snakes is the best that we can hope since we can not duplicate evolution within the confines of a sweater box. It may not be a perfect system but to me it is far more interesting to work with those animals than it is to cross locales to come up with the latest designer hobbyist morph. I respect each keepers right to keep what they want and look down at no one for doing what makes them happy. I prefer snakes that are as close to possible to how they occur in the natural world. This to some degree is still an obtainable goal especially if new genetic material is introduced from the same locale on occasion. I would not view these snakes as mutts. The genetic material that they have is what has been obtained over thousands of generations in the wild. Though the natural selection process ends in captivity the genetics are still there. And that's what makes each population unique in its own way. All is not lost by breeding one snake collected on one end of the corn field to one that was found beside the barn. Thousands of years of evolution is not lost on one chance encounter, even if that chance encounter occurs in a rubbermaid. Phil
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RE: About "pure" and crosses and hybrids and other such Stuff - Phil Peak, Mon Jul 4 15:57:18 2005