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    Biology of Breeding: Considerations for Maximizing Genetic Diversity of Breeding Groups

    When a person joins the hobby of reptile keeping and makes the decision to breed animals of any species, they silently make the acknowledgement that they are going to be playing god with the species they choose to reproduce. Not only accelerating evolution through artificial selection, but also picking and choosing which ecological and evolutionary forces, or lack thereof affect their breeding populations. More

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    Leopard Geckos: A Hobby Developing to an Artistic Science

    Eublepharis macularius, the leopard gecko, is an animal we have all come to know and love. They are easy to care for and make great pets, but what has become so eye catching about them is the vast diversity of their appearance. Through the many decades of captive breeding of these animals, several traits have randomly mutated and popped out, such as the three strains of albinism (Tremper, Bell, and Rainwater.) Other traits have affected the visual appearance of the eye or the pigmentation patterns on the body. For years now, these traits have been mislabeled as ‘genes’ due to seemingly following simple inheritance patterns (aside from polygenic traits.) The truth is, we have no idea what these traits are. The fact that they are inherited consistently and reproducibly, however, does mean they are part of the genetic material of the animal. More