This little guy hatched a couple days ago.
We talk on here occasionally about whether tangerines always throw tangerines, or tricolors throw tricolors, what happens when you cross tangerine x tricolor, etc.
This male is pertinent to that discussion. Its father is the tangerine albino het/hypo male that's patriarch of my hybino project; about 90% of the male's babies this year were tangerines, when bred x tangerines. This male came out of a clutch of five babies from a tangerine het/albino: Of three albino babies, two were excellent tangerines and there was this tricolor; of a pair of het/albino 50% chance het/hypos, one was tangerine and one was tricolor. So 40% of the babies were tricolors.
The stat is not significant, i wouldn't think, except to illustrate the uneven distribution of characteristics in small samples. But I think tangerine and tricolor are the result of interaction of multiple genes (it's apparent neither is a simple recessive) so it's possible the mother of this clutch, while being as good or better a tangerine than some of the other mothers, MAY not be as rich with the genes necessary for producing tangerine babies. In other words, there can be hidden genes influencing the outcome (tang vs tri-c) as well as the genetic composition that is apparent in a snake phenotypically.
terry
