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Originally Posted by Wetts11
Im no expert but I feel strongly about the subject...
As far as frogs varrying from "different ends" of a "continuous" population, I think this is a bunch of rubbish! All over the world in all walks of life "continuous" populations yield offspring that is so similar they cannot be seperated if you look at the "big" picture. Why should frogs be any different?
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Well, how about for starters they are frogs and as such have a completely different genetic makeup and completely different natural history than say humans or dogs. As far as frogs varying on different ends of a continuous population... not rubbish, in fact there are several people who can chime in with many examples of frogs that vary from yellow specimens on one end of say a river, to red specimens on the other end of the river.
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Originally Posted by Wetts11
So seperation in my eyes is more or less amuzing. As previously stated we as hobbiests and dare I say consumers prefer certain colorations and sizes and strips. As mentioned with arautus we are so focused on not mixing blood lines that we infact seperate species!
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Well, auratus is a species in and of itself so not quite sure I follow you... Yes we do in fact separate species, are you advocating the interbreeding of species? Say a leucomelas X auratus hybrid, is that what you would like to see?
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Originally Posted by Wetts11
Are we not weeding out the variation in wild populations to fit them to our preferences? Much like we have done with dogs and various other forms of pets?
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Possibly, but mostly when we don't have reliable or complete information on where an animal came from. Couple that with the fact that interbreeding is part of the natural history of dart frogs and there is little harm in doing so.
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Originally Posted by Wetts11
From what I have seen and what I have been tought I stick to the fact that we as humans do what we do, and we do it well. We insist on destroying natural walks of life and bending them to our needs or desires. So when you talk about seperating based on boldness or based on coloration or size, are you simply not trying to breed an entire "blond hair, blue eyes" population? The fact is you are merely selecting traits you desire and breeding them in hopes that they will remain true. Which in my OPINION is taking the "natural effect, survival or the fittest" out of the equation.
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Nope, not trying to breed a "superior race" of frogs, just trying to keep the animals close to how they are found in the wild. As far as "natural effect, survival of the fittest", the fact that we have these animals in tanks pretty much rules that out.
