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Posted by Dann on April 21, 2003 at 14:12:51:
In Reply to: Hybrids....good? bad? indifferent? posted by oldherper on April 20, 2003 at 08:53:42:
Thumbs down on hybrids…IMO to cross-species or cross- genus in a controlled environment is an irresponsible act brought on by either curiosity or money.
Although I have thought of crossing my Drymarchon corais melanurus x German Shepard, maybe the results could get the newspaper for me and read it to me. JMO....Dann
:Guys (and Gals),
:Sort of an opinion poll here. How do you feel about producing hybridized snakes? By hybridized, I mean cross-species or cross-genus….true hybrids. For instance, Lampropeltis getulus x Lampropeltis triangulum would be cross-species and Lampropeltis triangulum x Elaphe guttata would be cross-genus. I’m not referring to sub-specific intergradation that can occur naturally where ranges overlap. What I mean is crosses that would never occur in nature because of natural “mating boundaries”, such as range separation, differences in mating seasons, etc. Situations where you have to essentially fool the animals to force them into mating by manipulating seasonal changes, pheromones, or whatever to get them to mate. Are we playing “God” or playing “Mother Nature” with this stuff? Should we even be doing this at all, especially for commercial reasons? Or, do you feel that “the sky is the limit” and individuals should just do whatever they want to?
:Since I started this bucket-o-worms, it’s only fair that I should start with my opinion (bear in mind that this is Only my opinion):
:My opinion is that to do this for commercial reasons (that is for the purpose of offering the offspring for sale) is fundamentally wrong. If you are doing it in a research setting, for something like studying the things that keep this from occurring in nature, then it is O.K. The animals that I’ve seen that resulted from these crosses have actually been sort of ugly in my opinion, anyway. The first time I ever heard of anyone doing this sort of this was in the late ‘70’s, I think. It was a cross between Agkistrodon contortrix and Agkistrodon piscivorous, that happened sort of accidentally. I realize that this will never have any effect on the wild populations or anything like that, so there is no effect on nature in a practical sense. It just seems to me that for some reason, some people are getting away from the thing that attracts most of us to this discipline to begin with; a fascination with the beauty of the animals that nature has produced. Now, it seems that some people are manipulating nature for their own amusement (and profit). Are the naturally occurring animals not worthy of our attention any more? Are we going to breed them out of existence in captive populations? How many people are breeding normal coloration corn snakes any more? How many are breeding normal coloration Hondurans any more? Don’t get me wrong, I think that the albino milk snakes and albino corn snakes, etc. are beautiful animals, and they DO occur in nature (probably more than we realize). I have no problems with breeding morphs that occur naturally. I just worry that we are losing interest in the “common” milk snakes, etc. To me, that would be tragic. You know, I’ve never seen any one working on albino Eastern Indigos, or crosses between Yellowtail Cribos and Eastern Indigos, or Texas Indigo x Tiger Rat snake. Why would that be? Is it that the people who breed these animals are “purists”? That they appreciate the animals for what nature made them, and see no need to “engineer” them to make something else of them? Why is it different for milk snakes, corn snakes and kingsnakes? Why do we see a need to “re-engineer” them by crossing them with other species and genera to make something else out of them? Kathy and Bill Love have many different morphs of corn snakes and do a wonderful job with it, but they are still corn snakes. I don’t think they would ever dream of crossing them with a milk snake to see what happens, or if they can find a “hot seller” that way. What IS a “Jurassic” Milk snake anyway? I’ve never seen that one on the species periodical before, nor in any field guide.
