wild garters cross breeding in the wild.

[Stefan-A]

Most occurrences of cross-breeding I remember reading about have been between sub-species and therefore intergrades, @s opposed to crosses between species to make hybrids.

Crosses on the subspecies level aren't intergrades, they're hybrids. Intergrades are individuals that demonstrate intergradation, which is a phenomenon within population ecology in which subspecies are connected by populations that share characteristics with both.

[chris-uk]

Where do the intergrades come from?

[Stefan-A]

Where do the intergrades come from?

From zones of intergradation, where this whole wondrous phenomenon takes place.

[-MARWOLAETH-]

I've heard that that infernalis and tetrataenia interbreed often.

[setfree]

Wow! there is a lot of information that I have never known about in this topic. Thanks for all the ideas and comments.

[kibakiba]

You have learned a very valuable lesson. Snakes + balls = blood.

[i_heart_sneakie_snakes]

The 3 snakes I just acquired all came from the same front yard. Two are Fitchi (females) and one is Vagrans (male). I actually thought to myself when I picked them up from the man who caught them in his yard, "I wonder if these could breed in the wild". I would not breed them and they are in separate tanks. But having just thought of this a few days ago, this thread is very interesting to me.

[paulh]

Besides hemipenis shape and ornamentation, there are pheromone and ecological differences. If the ladies do not smell right, the guys don't go for them. And if the guys and ladies don't hang out in the same place, they won't make contact. T. s. parietalis likes bushes and trees. T. radix likes grassy areas.

[Steveo]

Lots of unnatural behaviors come out in captivity and it probably wouldn't be too hard to do some crosses. If you can mix python species, kings and corns, etc., I don't think garters are special and uncrossable. Perhaps a few specific combinations wouldn't work but I'd be very surprised if it didn't work at all. Subspecies of the same species are very likely to be compatible.

Before getting into snakes I did a lot of work with Betta splendens. In the last 10-15 years the asian farmers have crossed a lot of different species from the Betta genus in with B. splendens. B. imbellis was one of the first, which yielded the copper color and the metallic layer. It's hard to buy B.splendens today and be confident that it is genetically pure. I really like the copper color but I refuse to buy obviously crossbred fish.

I hope garters don't end up the same way, but to think it can't happen would be a bit naive.

[Eight]

Agreed. It would be a shame to see garters in the same situation of some of the more "crossed" animals we keep as pets. As a general rule I don't go for hybrids, with the exception of dogs. The only hybrid snake I would agree with would be crossed with a bat, but that's impossible. What I would give for a dragon.