With recent rumors about USARK's internal conflicts on their position on "giving up" certain animals like venomous or large constrictors, it made me think about the "mainstreaming" of herps as I call it.
Twenty years ago when I first go into the herp hobby there was very little talk about color or patterns morphs for this or that. What there was in any good shop and in the hobby in general was VARIETY. IN the store where I worked on weekends we carried iguanas, monitors,burms, retic, boas almost every colubrid you could think of all kinds of small lizards frogs etc. and there was definitely a "stamp collection" mentality with most of the herpers I knew.
Of course things have changed immensely with captive breeding and color morphs virtually owning the hobby now. Now I have nothing against herpers who specialize in one of two species, in fact I have the utmost respect for their ability to focus.
However it seems like species who are mass produced now pretty much own the hobby as a whole, there's probably 15-20 species that dominate the reptile hobby and perhaps this is a good thing, in that it tends to help at least a bit with negative perceptions the public has of reptiles especially as pets. However there also seems to be less variety with species now and the variety has basically moved to color morphs.......just a rant.
