Quote Originally Posted by Skiploder View Post
It's a bit humbling to see how many Aussie keepers keep and catalog their animals - in terms of localities. People in this Country do it with pines, gophers, bulls, kings and other native animals. There is an amazing diversity sometimes going simply from county to county and it's an excellent way to celebrate and keep true that diversity.

Unfortunately in some circles we stifle that diversity for the sake of aesthetics. True black tailed cribos can often be found in various central american localities with browned out tails. Well, some arbiter somewhere decided a pretty cribo doth not a brown tail make - so they are deemed an inferior animal, not true to some imaginary standard.

How many people on this dedicated forum know what differences lie between ball pythons that hail from different localities in Africa? I'd guess a miniscule number seeing as color morphs rule the roost. But stop for a sec and imagine how neat cataloging the subtle differences in geographical variants and breeding true to those localities would be.

I can't count the number of woma localities, stimson's localities and the like. Then you come here and people are claiming locality specific animals without any proof of origin. Years ago when many Australian species first became available, we had no idea where the animals were coming from. Now years and years later, people can all of a sudden pin-point their origin. No knock on you - just a somewhat jaded observation of marketing techniques in this hobby.
I take absolutely no offense to the observation, rather I welcome it with an open mind and learn something completely new about the reptile hobby . I completely agree with you that it's a shame that most breeders here in the states don't keep or have records on the origins of their reptiles that have been imported (either legally or illegally). As both a huge reptile enthusiast and biology teacher, I would love to learn about these overlooked subtle differences between different locales in varying species much like the example you gave with the black tailed cribos ,womas, stimson's python, or ball pythons. It would make a great lecture or presentation to teach people about geographic isolation, genetics, and subspecies. I also completely agree that establishing true breeding lines of these animals would be extremely interesting to see how each locales unique traits would vary them from others of the same species rather than seeing the current reptile market mind set of color morphs in their animals. With knowledge like that on specific species locales, it would definitely prove to be a rare and valuable skill set in possibly identifying future or current species locales in collections and clarifying any questions people may have about the origins and locales of their reptiles. Though given the market here in the states and interbreeding of different locales in varying species, I could see how it be almost nearly impossible to pin point their origins without the proper paperwork and records to prove it.
Thank you again for all the info!