The hybrid versus pure locality "debate" is nothing more than personal opinion. For the pet market, locality hybrids designed to increase color or to get more "domestic" calmer leachies is probably the way things will end up. Unless there are enough groups of locality specific leachies in the country to keep the genetic diversity, these will end up imbred (but still pure locality). Which is better; imbred locality pure or hybrid diverse genetics? Personal choice, imo.
Even with enough locality specific leachies to keep the genetic diversity of each locality, leachies in capitivity are mostly in the pet trade. I think they are comparable to boas in the pet trade. There are quite a few people that are diligent about keeping localities "pure" and so the locality types remain fairly well represented in the hobby. The majority of boas sold however are color morphs such as albino, hypos, etc. Again, it boils down to what you like and personal choice. I for one have a hard time telling what locaility a leachie is without the breeder telling me so. I have a few pure localities including Ana, Ami and GT. I also have a pure PI and pure Ana that I breed together to get some very colorful hybrid babies (these sell very well as they have really nice whites and pinks). I see some general differences in localities (see Reptiles mag with Steve Cemelli's article showing all the different localities), but not enough to make me say you must or should keep only locality specific leachies. I tried to get locality types that were "typical" of the locality and I keep these as "pure' pairings. My favorites? My GTs because they are big puppy dogs and the size is just awesome. My next favorite are the hybrids from the PI/Ana crossing.
Keep what you like just make certain when you sell a hybrid that you make it clear to the buyer that the animal is a hybrid. Don't sell mixes as pure, it's unethical. I think this is what people worry about and if you want pure locality type you need to trust the breeder. If you want a pet no real worries as long as you like the leachie. My hybrids sell very well, better than my ana or ami pure locality but not quite as well as my GTs. So, the market seems to be big geckos and colorful geckos. That is why you are seeing so many breeders advertising GT/island mixes. Trying to get size and color. So far I haven't seen the best colors get into the larger leachies, but I'm sure it will eventually.
Regards,
John
