New Black and White Eastern Garter Morph Found!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Albert Clark]

First, I want to apologize to Eddie for speaking on his behalf and to Jeff for derailing his thread. Maybe I should have stayed out of it but I didn't.
Knowing the State(PA) this snake originated from is an important piece of evidence to the common sense response. PA has two native garter snakes T. s. sirtalis (Eastern garter snake) and Thamnophis brachystoma (Short-Headed Garter Snake) the latter being in very small isolated populations. The fact that the State is a hot bed for Eastern morphs over the years and that similar morphs like the "Granite" have been found there is important also. This by itself says a lot about the unlikelihood that the snake in question could a hybrid. There have been many hybrids posted to this page over the years and they all have one thing in common. They look like plain and simply a wash of the two snakes that produced them. Then I look at the experience and knowledge of the people responding to help put the evidence together.
With all of this I understand the common sense response and would have come to the same conclusion. I mean no offense in my response.

So, you still validate the "common sense" comment knowing full well a lot of people, including myself is and was not privy to the facts you just laid out! There are a lot of people who don't even know what a hybrid is and some cant even spell the word. Taking that into consideration I don't know how Eddie and you can generalize and refer to the intelligent question of recognizing hybrids in w/c's as being "common sense". Anyway, we all see things differently and I am done with this thread. Thanks for the explanation, those facts are relatively new to me and I'm sure other members and visitors to the page about how state location plays a role in hybridization? I think the original question can be answered when I "continue my reading" and research. No pun intended.