I
have seen many changes in the reptile hobby over
the years, but the one that sticks out in my mind
more than any other was the introduction of morphs.
As the first morphs began to enter the Australian
market, it became clear that the hobby was becoming
divided; you either loved the ‘new and improved’
animals or you were more than happy with the colour
forms that evolution had blessed us with. I was to be
found in the latter group – the ‘purists’. Like many
others in this camp, my mind was made up; no one
should be altering our native animals in such dramatic
fashion. The mere thought of putting two different
subspecies together for breeding purposes would send
me into a cold sweat!
For nearly 10 years I looked at morphs as nothing more
than monstrosities and scoffed with self-righteous
disbelief whenever I heard the word ‘Jag’ mentioned
aloud. However, about eight years ago that was all
about to change, and by crikey change it did! Today my
collection consists of over 100 animals and about two-
thirds of them are morphs.
So what happened? How could someone that was
completely devoted to the keeping and breeding of
animals that needed to be found under the same rock in
order to be paired and bred together become so
comprehensively converted? Allow me to set the
stage....
One day I had a clutch of Diamond Pythons (Morelia
spilota spilota) hatching; these were Gosford locality
animals and I was excitedly setting them up in their new
tubs. I looked through the clutch and found one I liked. I
placed it in the first tub in the rack as a ‘keeper’ and
proceeded to do the same with two more individuals.
Then I started to think about what I had done - how I
had ‘selected’ what I deemed to be the best out of the
clutch. This began a compounding thought process as I
Left: Axanthic Jaguar Carpet Python.
All images by Andy Horlor.