Thamnophis in Europe?

[Stefan-A]

Not meaning to hijack the thread but how and when did Thamnophis get across to Europe? Can they still be exported to Eurpoe with special permits or are you all working from groups that where established there before. Did it spring out of international zoo cooperation, smuggling or what. I'm just curious as to how it happened and do you have access to a fresh gene pool. Other than Thamnophis sirtalis tetrataenia how do you replace what you have and still introduce different genes to the mix.

Linnaeus described some garter species and subspecies in the 1700's, although I don't know if he worked with live specimens or just dead ones. Some may come from zoos and universites, but my guess is that most were brought over from the 1950s onwards.

Importing them shouldn't be much of a problem these days, I'm pretty sure the worst part is getting them out of the Americas. Some species are CITES listed and are more difficult than others. I think one of the parents of my vagrans females, was actually one of Felzer's snakes, but I could be wrong. So there is a certain flow of genes from North America to Europe. edit: "The mother is a wildcaught snake and the father is a baby from Scott Felzer stock." (So spake the breeder I bought them from)