Collecting Gravid Females.

[infernalis]

we couldn't release captive bred into the wild because they wouldn't know how to survive

I once thought that way, as I mentioned earlier on in this thread, seen first hand that this is not true.

Xena has a pearly pink belly, not extremely rare, yet unusual enough that after raising 20+ some odd babies from her I noticed that every single one was born with the same pearly pink belly.

They were released last year at the beginning of September. 3 weeks later I found the first example, crawling across a pathway, I picked it up and immediately recognized it as one of Xena's litter, and the thing is this little snake had a very full tummy from goring itself on the plentiful slug supply, and without me rationing out the food, for once was able to eat its fill.

The second and third encounters were this spring, both were healthy (except one had some battle scars) and seemingly doing well.

One was also found severed in half by a bird who only ate the top 50 percent and dropped what was left in the creek, needless to say, I was bummed out a little, had to accept that nature is as nature does.

Natural instincts are very powerful, even when an animal that has been domesticated for centuries is forced back into the wild, many will revert back to the original wild state very quickly.

One example is "coy-dogs" some idiot throws a dog out of a car in the woods, Rover has been a family pet his whole life, suddenly will join a pack of coyotes and breed with them.

[Stefan-A]

Natural instincts are very powerful, even when an animal that has been domesticated for centuries is forced back into the wild, many will revert back to the original wild state very quickly.

Not quite the original state. They do retain a great deal of the original behavior patterns and instincts, but some of those instincts inevitably get lost over the millennia. But I agree with the point you're making.