- Joined
- Nov 17, 2012
- Messages
- 3,331
diamondbp said:Terry Im not sure if your comments were addressed toward me or Gerard lol
These turtles have been in my collection over 15 years and the male western painted turtles does have other female western he mates with. But my male southern escaped last year and it seems like this particular southern female allowed the western to mate with her.
Some of your comments were confusing to me but I'm thinking that might be because you weren't addressing me.
I'll just say this. I think people get to bent out of shape over stuff like hybrids/morphs etc. If someone was breeding these turtles to purposely release into the wild, I would see cause for concern, but if these turtles stay in captivity and don't have the ability to reproduce then what could they possibly hurt? I think people overlook the several recent decades of turtles being released into nonnative areas across the globe by the thousands and yet get worked up over a small group of hybrids/morphs/ or whichever.
So In my opinion, people are free to do what they want to do. I just HOPE that they are responsible about it. As for me I never intended on producing these mixes but I don't think it should draw concern.
And as far as the DNA point, they are both still painted turtles and the same species to me regardless of what the books say. If a group of westerns naturally made there way further south over the next few decades and started intergrading with the southern population people would probably think it was interesting and neat. I'm also sure people wouldn't blink an eye if a rio grande red ear was breed with a yellow bellied slider in captivity, but then again it seems everyone has their own opinion.