Quote Originally Posted by d_virginiana View Post
Actually, humans are pretty genetically diverse. We have a HUGE population base and thousands of morphological and genetic differences. 95% of that 98% we all share is also shared with chimpanzees. This is because most of the genome of any animal is made up of either large segments of 'junk' DNA (this can act as a sort of mutation safeguard; if DNA is damaged in a non-coding region like this, it won't affect the organism's viability) or conserved genes. Conserved genes are things that pertain to basic body formation (4 appendages, 2 eyes, organ systems, ect.) and protein production that is the same or similar in almost all vertebrates. Not trying to sound argumentative, but there really is no comparison between human genetic diversity and the issues facing the European Tetra stock right now.



Again, sorry for nit-picking, but that doesn't make a lot of sense. Yes, like Stefan said, there are certainly problems that have arisen from irresponsible people breeding unhealthy Tetras just because there is a market for them. Adding 'new blood' to the line, even just bringing in some unrelated snakes would go a long way toward solving these problems. Regardless of how responsible a breeder is in culling unfit offspring, if you start out with a compromised gene pool you will eventually end with results like the ones Wayne showed. The likelihood of ANY animal you come across being completely free of ANY genetic mutation is incredibly low. It's just that most of these mutations are rare or underexpressed and do not end up being passed on to future generations in a form that will lead to noticeable expression of these 'bad' genes. If you're working with a very small group for many generations, this becomes almost impossible to avoid.
That's why you don't see problems like that in other Thamnophis species like Sirtalis. There is such a large number present and on the market (or in someone's back yard) that it's simple for breeders to bring in new genes, often without even having to compromise the appearance and desirability of the offspring.
I don't think we are as far off as you seem to believe. First you did not understand what my reference to the human genome. We are actually virtually identical to chimpanzees, my use of 98% in my original post was referring to the small portion of sequences we don't share with other primates, but this is a garter forum not an anthropology forum so I will close that point by saying that your right when you say that you can't really compare humans to captive garters, however I believe you can make parallels to illustrate the processes that are going on; the very processes you describe in your final paragraph. I don't want to discount the importance of gene flow, but I don't think we are giving the natural selection process enough love. I don't want to speak for Stefan but what I got out of his posts was that there are multiple factors causing the dilemma the European tetras are facing, yet whenever it comes up the only solution that seems to be brought up is crossbreeding with infernalis when there may be a better, with less human control, solution that may work.

I don't know enough about the stock in Europe to say we should let nature take its course and all will be well, but if it is too far gone is the point to preserve a cool looking designer snake or is it to preserve the integrity (definitions of this differ greatly, I realize that) of a species?

-Thomas