Posted by:
JKruse
at Wed Jun 18 00:52:28 2008 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by JKruse ]
I worked extensively with campbelli back in the 90's and had some really great lines of them to boot. The variations are great, from the corals to the oranges back in the day, to the wide-white banded to the sockheads, to the Halloweens to the oreos, etc etc etc. I've never experienced another snake having SO many non-recessive mutations that could be reproduced and modified with selective breeding. Sure the hypos and albinos and so on are nice with some milks (for some anyway), but the campbellis in my opinion are quite unique and carry varying phenotypcial appearance to please the masses. Not to mention they carry the ability to triple clutch in a single season, are manageable in size and demeanor, and are an all-around wonderful triangulum to keep and breed. Having said that, my first experience with hybridization came back in 1996 when a VERY prominent milksnake breeder offered a premium to me for the purchase of my Dave Blody orange Pueblan milks that, at the time, were the Maybachs of the Pueblan world. These were to be hybridized with the flavor of the times: the almighty albino ruthveni. Although the dollar amount was significant, i could not help but think of the INTEGRITY of the snakes. I turned this gentleman down several times advocating for what I thought was best BOTH for the integrity of the species and then the good of the hobby as a whole. About two years later i saw what became an "albino alterna" a la ruthveni influence. The nausea of it all.....
Not that I'm condemning you or anyone else for that matter, but think of the integrity of the species. It's twisted enough to consider how we manipulate these animals in captivity; from simulated brumations, to thawed rodents, to unnatural overall environment, to artificial and limited opportunities for thermoregulation, and so on.....we know that this is true fellas, so don't tackle me.  But then to take two DISTINCT species and forcibly reproduce them (YES, forcibly just by the act of introduction) when, in the real world this would never ever occur. So what then is the point? Is it simply an impulse out of herpetological boredome? I don't know, but my opinion is that it SEVERELY fractures the natural integrity of it all. Doug makes a VERY valid point too as it also contaminates the purity of future generations and makes things, to be frank, QUESTIONABLE as to (again) the integrity of a species and the second guessing of what something "could be". I too see it quite often. If the urge is to play mad scientist, why not consider two species or subspecies that NATURALLY intergrade? I've attached a few pics of hard-copy photos taken many years ago of a couple of the many Pueblans that were in my collection. Males tend to be cleaner with campbelli, but I've had exceptions as well. But I really do want to champion and utterly stress that the integrity should be maintained as campbelli themselves, as with any species/ssp, and bred or line-bred purely. When all else fails, ask yourself "What would Jesus do?" (Shia LeBouef -- "Transformers" . Thanks for listening.
Jerry Kruse
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Some pics and a serious thought . . . . - JKruse, Wed Jun 18 00:52:28 2008