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I've seen a lot, if
not most, of the panthers that came in labeled as "Ambilobe"
first hand and there is a pretty wide range of color
variations, very much like Ambanja panthers. These include
different shades of red, wine, raspberry, and blues bars-
some solid, some blending from one color to another. Body
color ranges from green to bright yellow with variations of
red to orange stripes on the legs and tail. Yellow seems to
be the one link that ties all of these variations together,
so I consider that a "base" color. If a difference were to
be made that distinguished one locale from another, I would
think it would be the addition of the bright red/orange
color to the tail, lower half of the flanks and head. From a
physical appearance, this would suggest a separation of
regions that do not intermix for some reason, like a
mountain range or other natural barrier that prohibits
contact, or maybe just distance. One thing that continues to
drive this debate is that both of these variations were
collected in the same area, at the same time, and came in
together in the same shipments.
When consulting a map
of the area, Sirama is about 10 to 12 miles north/northwest
of Ambilobe, within the same 0 to 500 foot elevation range.
There isn't a mountain or other barrier that can be
ascertained from a map to prevent the two "locales" from
interacting.
Staying within that
same approximate distance from Ambilobe and/or Sirama,
there's also a few other towns - Ampanakana, Beramanja, and
Ambodibonara that are shown. It seems probable that any
panthers found in these "locales" would also share the same
color variations or traits.
I think that while the
photos Bill Love referred to as Sirama are "locale" specific
down to identifying a sugar plantation town, they are still
within what's preceived as the scope of Ambilobe, the city
with the national airport, the hospital, the development. I
think it's because we tend to include "suburbs" as part of a
"region" under a "common" city name that being geranlly
specific to an area would suite this morph better then being
specificaly specific to each place the collectors went on
each trip. The "Greater Orlando Area" encompasses many
smaller cities, towns and sub-divisions, and it's far eaiser
to tell someone you live in Orlando than explaining where
Altamonte Springs is, even though it's just a few mile away
from the city limits. It's a case of "close enough" that
everyone can relate too.
Let's say Bill Love
goes to Ampanakana in the future and returns with photos of
very similar animals, some of which look identical to photos
we've seen of both Olaf's Picasso and Ambilobes from
everyone else for example. Do we start this debate all over
again and add more confusion for the sake of a 12 mile hike
to another small town? I think the focus should be put on
what defines a locale, ANY locale, and apply that principal
to this morph and be done with it. I also think that this
morph wasn't imported long enough and in high enough volume
to be able to do that yet. Each shipment had a new color
combination and I'm sure there's variations out there that
are even more stunning than what we've seen so far. I'm not
sure it's possible to do anything other than speculate and
wait for the ban to lift so more data can be obtained to
make any real definative headway here.
The debate with the
Picasso as a "locale" will never be completely satisfied for
those that are diehards for pinpointing locales to within a
few feet by GPS until Olaf points to a spot on a map. =0)
With that information, the "locale" would finally be
confirmed (to what definition, I don't know) but in the end
it makes little difference anyway since the Picasso part of
this equation is a trademark name chosen by Olaf to
represent panthers that only he supplies, just like Sandfire
and Blizzard Lizard are trademarks. We are used to seeing
those names offered for sale by many different people
because they've had generations of breeding and years of
selling to the public to make that happen. This is the start
of a new name and the supply was severed by the ban before
it ever had a chance to get into the market. Frustrating for
everyone involved...
Visit our Breeder page to view the many
variations this locale produces.
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