The Florida Red-Tail Lineage
In the late 1990's as I was acquiring wild-caught imports, the locality debates among collectors, breeders and novices continued to fuel countless and endless arguments as to the ability to identify the origin of boa c. constrictor solely on the variations of color, pattern, saddle configuration and number. Like Dr. Ross below, I do not subscribe to this theory, mainly because within the confines of my own Florida garage, breeding only pure Suriname Red-Tail stock, my females have thrown numerous color and pattern variations. From the creamy base with large spots on the tail to the darker rose base and "ladder tails" I've seen first-hand the polymorphic characteristics within a single bloodline.
"Boa constrictors are highly polymorphic and these characteristics do not accurately identify a specimen's origin or subspecies. Even local populations of boa constrictors are highly variable." - Richard A. Ross, M.D., M.P.H.
Yes, it is absolutely true that migrations of these animals throughout time can cause them to develop some characteristics that help them adapt to their specific environments, that is what evolution & "survival of the fittest" is, but I have seen the same sorts of character developments and mutations over the years in the Suriname bloodline I've developed in my single locality of Melbourne, Florida. That is why I cannot subscribe to the argument that markings determine where these animals come from.
"My breeding model is actually a celebration of the natural polymorphic beauty of this purebread lineage..."
-Brian Abrahamson
"Brian's sense of humor and passion for these snakes makes this bloodline even more desirable."
-R. L. Miller
Because of this highly debated subject, I adopted my breeding intention and approach early-on as follows:
I do not characterize my founding field-collected breeding stock as “Locality Specific Specimens” beyond the country of which the CITES documentation description stated they were exported from. Meaning…Beyond the description of being field-collected and exported from the country of Suriname, I will not label my specimens as originating or being field collected from any specific village, mountain range, elevation or district. This is mainly because of the "rafting" habit that often occurs when animals have access to moving bodies of water, (like a flooded Amazon basin) in addition to the polymorphic traits of the species as noted above. Even experts who claim to be able to identify the locality through markings, also support a snake's "rafting" & polymorphic possibility, thereby suggesting a contradiction in their own claims.
Over a period of 6 years, I acquired a very diverse collection of unrelated specimens that make up what I feel is a very robust gene pool. This approach would give me the most desirable results by refining the characteristics first by Line-Breeding, In-Breeding and finally Out-Crossing but staying within the subspecies of boa c. constrictor throughout. Purposely trying to remove myself from the ongoing debate, I simply called My bloodline “Florida Redtails.”
My acquisitions began in 1994 rummaging through imports from Tom Crutchfield and Peter Bandre. Then in 1997 a group of newborn juveniles was imported with CITES papers from Suriname by ZOO Botanica Corp. of Miami FL. These were acquired by Peter Bandré of Incredible Pets. The Dam of this litter was said to be in excess of 10ft, boldly patterned with ink black widows peaks. This group of 24 babies was among the most impressive set of animals we had ever seen. The most noticeable trait was their enormous size and the bold pronounced dorsal patterns, huge ink black widows peaks and striped head spears. There were two that were nearly striped dorsally 100%. The whole group was quickly snatched up except for one male, #4 pictured below, that I was lucky enough to acquire. When he was two years old I paired him with an exceptional unrelated imported female that became the roots of our founding bloodline. As far as I know, I was the only one that produced any offspring from this group of animals. I continue to work with this bloodline selectively to produce outstanding investment quality Surinames.
2005 Forum post by Kemper Ruth, supports
Florida Redtail origin... click for large view.
