And I think many breeders are far too liberal in what they choose to label a jungle.
When jungles commanded a very high price I think buyers were more critical. They weren't going to drop 5k on an animal unless it was clearly different/special. Fast forward to now, lower prices, people arent as critical. Breeders dont have to be as conservative in their labelings... which maximizes profit but at a cost. I think in the end we're going to have a number of people breeding their supposed 'jungles' only to yield a litter of normals that bear a slight resemblance to jungles (via the polygenic makeup of the bloodline). At that point they can conclude that either A. their original animal was not actually a jungle or B. The litter is low expression jungles. If its the latter they would subjectively pick out what they believe to be jungles and sell them as such. Perpetuating a cycle of mis-labeled normals.
So I think that's part of the issue why you see so many 'jungles' that look like normals.
The other part is just that some jungles truly are low expression. I think its possible that a jungle can be so low expression that its almost impossible to even tell. The only way for us to really make a solid determination would be lots of trial and error of breeding supposed jungles with confirmed jungles to produce "super jungles". After many such trials we could more effectively pin down which traits / or degree of traits that truly define a jungle. In the mean time its all subjective. One 'pro' jungle breeder may call an animal a jungle while another 'pro' jungle breeder may not. Unfortunately, due to the nature of mutation, its probably going to stay like that for a good while.
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-Ryan Homsey
TopNotchBoas.com Website
