Reptile & Amphibian Forums

If doms and codoms reproduce at such a high rate in captivity(50-100% offspring showing the trait) would it not make sence that there are large wild populations.

I can see why the recessives wouldn't be so, but most of the co doms and doms patterns aren't that wild as to mess up the camoflage.

Or are these animals from more remote areas that aren't imported from as much?

Chuck

That's a darn good question! I have a friend who goes to Togo twice a year who has been told by the "upper class" that they(ball pythons) are a sacred animal and should not be touched. Could it be that they see that we are willing to spend our money on frivolous material items. Hmmm....

Not that I have room to talk with my closet full of normals, hets, double hets, and morphs.......

Quinton

I can't speak as to the place(s) of origin of the various dominant mutants.

You can pretty much assume that any mutant gene originates in one individual. The only way for any mutant gene to rapidly grow percentagewise in a population is for it to have a selective advantage over the normal gene. If the mutant has no selective advantage over normal, its percentage in the population would remain more or less the same over time. Because in each generation, the same percent of mutants and normals would die off before reaching breeding age. With recessive mutant genes, some infiltrate the normal-looking population when hets are produced. This is not true for dominant and codominant mutations.

In the captive population, the price tag provides the selective advantage for various dominant mutants. Because people will work much harder to reproduce a snake when babies gross $1000 each than when babies gross $25 each.

Paul Hollander