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Posted by glenn bartley on January 18, 2003 at 08:17:43:
In Reply to: Opinions on crossing two different subspecies....Must Read! posted by Herpeton on January 17, 2003 at 12:01:51:
If they are able to interbreed and produce viable offspring that can later reproduce themselves, I think it is pretty interesting. I have seen crosses between a corn snake and a gopher snake - well pictures anyhow, and it was a very nice looking snake. Of course, you could not call it by either parent's scientific name, and I imagine it would have to be assigned a name of its own if the offspring produced by such a cross bred true. In that event, the snake would possibly be named after the original keeper who interbred the two species to produce the new one. What often seems to be the case though, is that when interbreeds produce offspring, those offspring are sterile. It would be quite interesting to see if such interbreeding would actually produce a new species that bred true.
In my opinion, such interbreeding of species would likely make the hobby a lot more interesting rather than ruin it. This is sort of akin to producing color morphs that would not likely ever be found in nature, or like producing crosses between subspecies (which does occur in nature - they are called intergrades). I wonder, if in fact, crosses between species ever occurs in nature? If a snake of species A is willing to mate with a snake of species B in captivity, then why wouldn't two snakes of different species do so in nature if they came across one another and both were in the mating frame of mind? I imagine it may not happen to often, but it would certainly be quite possible. After all, no one in a keeper's situation is forcing the snakes to interbreed but rather placing them together at the appropriate time (when both are in breeding condition). What is it, even in captivity, that attracts one species to breed with another, that would not be able to excite the same breeding response in a more natural setting?
As far as your concerns about there being only one species of snake in the future, I have read that most species are not closely related enough to be able to interbreed. So I tend to doubt that such a concern is justified. (Of course, that could be proven wrong and a Blind Snake might be able to breed with a Burmese Python; but time will tell).
Best regards,
Glenn Bartley
