All good points Will that bring up further discussion points.
- According to the Fife's book, Car Jack was from Addo Elephant Park in South Africa.
- Yes, I do suggest that personality is individual. In the past, this very topic has been heavily debated, to the point where some of us became nasty to each other. I try to avoid getting in as deep as I did before, but suffice it to say that I don't believe personality to be a distinguishing factor. I brought it up in an earlier post because there are those who do, and they have a basis for that opinion. I just don't agree with the conclusions.
- I would be interested in this as well.
- Yes, very good point. I try to say (as often as I remember to), if you have to ask what type you have, you likely have the babcocki type. Supposedly, there are very few breeders in the US that have separated their breeding populations by export location. And fewer still that have imported from a location South Africa. So really, unless you buy from one of these sources, you probably have a babcocki. This import and export stuff is beyond my knowledge. I think Tom or someone else could offer a little more insight on this point.
- Hopefully I understand you well enough on this point, but I don't think it's a matter of poor taxonomy as it is inadequate record keeping and maybe even careless breeding. From what I understand, leopards were pooled in certain export locations from a variety of localities before being sent to the US. From there, it seems they were scattered all around with no respect for their import location or without any knowledge that there might be physical variations between them. Again, this is not my area of expertise so perhaps I'm way off.
For what it's worth, here's a list of case studies I like that are specific to leopard tortoises: http://www.tortoiseforum.org/thread-58336.html
There is a particular one about tortoise farming in Tanzania that is the basis for some of my comments about the mixing of leopard tortoises at export locations.
- According to the Fife's book, Car Jack was from Addo Elephant Park in South Africa.
- Yes, I do suggest that personality is individual. In the past, this very topic has been heavily debated, to the point where some of us became nasty to each other. I try to avoid getting in as deep as I did before, but suffice it to say that I don't believe personality to be a distinguishing factor. I brought it up in an earlier post because there are those who do, and they have a basis for that opinion. I just don't agree with the conclusions.
- I would be interested in this as well.
- Yes, very good point. I try to say (as often as I remember to), if you have to ask what type you have, you likely have the babcocki type. Supposedly, there are very few breeders in the US that have separated their breeding populations by export location. And fewer still that have imported from a location South Africa. So really, unless you buy from one of these sources, you probably have a babcocki. This import and export stuff is beyond my knowledge. I think Tom or someone else could offer a little more insight on this point.
- Hopefully I understand you well enough on this point, but I don't think it's a matter of poor taxonomy as it is inadequate record keeping and maybe even careless breeding. From what I understand, leopards were pooled in certain export locations from a variety of localities before being sent to the US. From there, it seems they were scattered all around with no respect for their import location or without any knowledge that there might be physical variations between them. Again, this is not my area of expertise so perhaps I'm way off.
For what it's worth, here's a list of case studies I like that are specific to leopard tortoises: http://www.tortoiseforum.org/thread-58336.html
There is a particular one about tortoise farming in Tanzania that is the basis for some of my comments about the mixing of leopard tortoises at export locations.
