Balls in the wild

I'm assuming many of the morphs we see today aren't found in the wild but are a result of captive breeding and mixing different morphs. I'm curious as to what morphs are actually found in the wild besides normal ball pythons.

I have a spider ball python and I have no idea about genetics but I'm curious as to if spider balls are found in the wild or are a result of breeders playing around with different morphs. If someone could give me an example of what wild ball python morphs that are typically found around Africa that would be very interesting!


Thanks

Every single base morph was originally found in the wild.

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in the wild, visual morphs are really very rare, but every now and then one pops up. these are typically sold for extremely high prices directly to the breeder that can pay the most.

and most of the base morphs have been found in the wild. some morphs also randomly show up when breeding, but thats really rare, almost all morphs can be traced back to africa.

Pythonfriend is right. I've seen videos where Brian from BHB is talking about the original lesser that was imported from the wild, and of course his original sunset ball was imported for $70,000. Most base morphs were imported, though some did pop up in captivity. The blackhead is one morph I can think of off that originated as a dinker project.

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Originally Posted by andythespider

I'm assuming many of the morphs we see today aren't found in the wild but are a result of captive breeding and mixing different morphs. I'm curious as to what morphs are actually found in the wild besides normal ball pythons.

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All single gened/base morphed animals were from the wild.

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I have a spider ball python and I have no idea about genetics but I'm curious as to if spider balls are found in the wild or are a result of breeders playing around with different morphs. If someone could give me an example of what wild ball python morphs that are typically found around Africa that would be very interesting!


Thanks

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The first spider ever was a wild caught import. All spiders today are descendants of that imported wild caught spider. To my knowledge, no other spider has ever been seen in the wild.

The only things that are a result of 'breeders playing around' are multi-gened animals.

other morphs where i heared that they were imported from africa would be banana, coral glow, hypo, albino, spider, pastel, calico, piebald, and pinstripe. some of them several times by different people, like the different lines of hypo and pastel.

and what also popped up in captivity would be the goldblush thing, first in the form of goldblush mojave but now i think it has been isolated.

and lets not forget this one, but its still unproven, it also happened randomly when breeding:

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...ing-of-Dinkers

The origins of the goldblush gene is completely unknown. The original female was purchased off of craigslist by Brian Gundy and was paired with a mojave. Blackhead was imported from africa all you have to do is go do some reading on ralph davis' site to see that. Dinker is a term used for an unproven mutation either from the wild or from a random occurrence from a pairing. There are then breedings to prove the genetics and if proven will then be a morph if not proven then it was random and not genetic. Every single proven morph was once a dinker that was caught in africa.

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Seconding Pythonfriend's point, although there are heaps of morphs that spring up from the wild population saying that they all come from the wild isn't completely correct... still, most of them definitely come out of Africa.

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Originally Posted by MisterKyte

Seconding Pythonfriend's point, although there are heaps of morphs that spring up from the wild population saying that they all come from the wild isn't completely correct... still, most of them definitely come out of Africa.

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Please let me know of one proven morph that did not come from the wild.

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Originally Posted by T&C Exotics

The origins of the goldblush gene is completely unknown. The original female was purchased off of craigslist by Brian Gundy and was paired with a mojave. Blackhead was imported from africa all you have to do is go do some reading on ralph davis' site to see that. Dinker is a term used for an unproven mutation either from the wild or from a random occurrence from a pairing. There are then breedings to prove the genetics and if proven will then be a morph if not proven then it was random and not genetic. Every single proven morph was once a dinker that was caught in africa.

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well, then i guess that will change if that king of dinkers proves out :)

but with tens of millions of wild BPs, and tens of thousands of captive hatched / farm bred hatchlings that are exported, its not surprising that most (or all?) morphs are coming from the wild and/or the large breeding farms.

BTW, i remembered this old video, it shows a whole lot of semi-wild BPs in Benin, starting at 7:30 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dv6EmX7dYLg

Well farmed snakes aren't actually always straight out of the wild, there's equal parts collection of gravid females and captive breeding from what I understand, so I've assumed that some of the morphs that originate from farms in West Africa likely have captive heritage. Exporters wouldn't be able to meet demand for BPs from outside of Africa without severely damaging the wild populations if they didn't also have come kind of captive breeding program set up.

All genes come from africa. but not all identified or isolated there :D

I've heard several times before of hypos being wild caught and imported so I find it safe to assume this gene likely flows through some wild populations, most likely in a heterozygous form with an occasional recessive. I've also read somewhere in some threads from several years ago, I believe on this forum but possibly elsewhere as well, that there is some sort of belt of land where most of the (WC) pastels were found and several have popped up there, likely inferring that pastels occur in the wild population in that location.