At the Oklahoma IHS many years ago, they had a hybrid discussion panel. The moderator was Dr. Joesph Collins(a noted taxo) The proponent was me(hahahahahahaha the only one) The opponents were the rest of the zoo and private world.



The discussion was a mess, as the opponents when on babbling in tougue. I did not get a single word in. Then Dr. Collins, stopped the proceedings and explained. I do not care that Mr. Retes is crossing a pyro to a blairi, or a ruthevens to a mex mex, as long has he labels them correctly, but that would be true for any of you.(his concern was with animals offered to preserved collections) My concern, said Dr. Collins, is when you fellas cross an individual from one end of its range to one from the other or of unknown locality and put them in collections as one or the other. At that time, most reptiles in zoos were from importers with no real collection data. Yet zoos were writing papers and preserving specimens, and citing localities.(still goes on to this day)



He also said, I see no use for what Mr. Retes is doing at this time, but who knows what the future will bring. I can tell what a cross(the ones FR is doing) looks like, but I cannot tell when the animals appear to be the same, but are not.



So in his mind, anything that is not from a common locality is a cross. A hybrid is the same if the parents are considered different species(at the time)



Just more conversation, FR

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