Reptile & Amphibian Forums

From what I've read (Dick Bartlett) & what I've personally experienced, pure everglades rats are tough to come by in the field. This is due to the encroachment & influence of yellow rats throughout their range.

Since most ratsnakes found in everglades range are intergrades, where do the bright orange everglades on the market come from?

Are the "orangest" wild caught adults selectively bred to produce the "orangest" offspring? Are the everglades on the market a result of selective breeding, rather than being anywhere close to the animals that exist in nature?

There's some debate as to if Everglades are even a valid subspecies. As far as producing snakes with lots of orange, that comes from selective breeding. Even if the snakes being bred were intergrades, by selectively breeding them over several generations you could emphasize traits a like color and pattern well beyond what is seen in the wild.

Hobbyists have been breeding Everglades Rats for a few decades. It's quite likely that there are "pure" lines in captivity, even if they aren't any left in the wild.

Tim

Tim, Glades rats have always been interesting to me and certainly a snake subspecies/morph/locality I never really understood much about. There seems to be much debate as to their valididty. Still, IMO there is no mistaking "good" Glades from even the brightest yellows, from hatchlings to adult. I have a yearling female S. Florida yellow who is yellowing up nicely with nice orange eyes. Still, she is much darker than other Glades I have had in the past. The male I have was advertised as Glades, but I am having reservations. The denotation of him being Glades was based on the range his parents originated from, and I suspect he is just a really nice orangish yellow rat LOL!!! Thankfully several folks have strived to keep good locality animals with line bred traits going to ensure you can still find "Glades".

The former status of rat snakes in that region is not well documented. The original description of Everglades Rat Snakes did not call for solid red tongues or super orange coloration that hobbyists seem to regard as markers of purity. It basically described the South Florida Yellow Rat Snakes as we know them today. From what I've found, which includes hundreds of rat snakes from south of Lake Okeechobee, is that there are dingy looking Yellow Rats, hot looking Glades Rats, and everything in between.

A lot of old collectors will say that the situation with Yellow/Everglades Rat Snakes is the same as it has always been, and that yellow and orange phenotypes have always been found alongside each other. Some say Yellow Rat Snakes have invaded Everglades Rat Snake territory. Both claims are anecdotal, and no one has any proof to back up either claim. Personally, I would side with the situation being the same as it has always been.

Nick, good reply. Ironic; Daniel and I were just talking about this very subject last week. We'll have to bounce this one around in Daytona.