VPI T+ Albino Jungle
Method of Inheritance: Simple Recessive & Co-dominant
Appearence: Very clean background, high contrast colour, often with pattern aberrancies. Pale ‘Caramel’ background colour with reduced/absence of black pigment, generally replaced with shades of brown.
These stunning Boas are produced by combining the VPI T+ albino gene with the Jungle Boa gene.
VPI T Positive (Tyrosinase Positive) Albinos are an extremely desirable colour morph with a genetic mutation that appears to exhibit an inability to complete the synthesis of melanin but can produce other melanin related pigments such as various shades of brown grey & red. This differs from T- Albinos such as Kahl & Sharp Strain in that areas that would normally be black or brown are typically white.
Newborn Blonde T Positive Albinos (as seen in the pictures below) have little or no dark pigment at all & tend to show grey pigmentation where black would normally be present. As they mature, this grey colour will develop into a dark brown.
The resulting appearance is that of an attractive Pale background colour and reduction of black pigment. Visual T Positive Albinos from this line also have pink tongues.
This line of T+ Albinos were originaly developed by Dave & Tracy Barker of Vida Preciosa International (VPI).
The Jungle Boa morph was originally developed and produced in Sweden by Lars Brandle. He had purchased a very large boa with a zigzag pattern down it's back from a Zoo in Sweden. He bred this animal to a normal boa and produced some jungles and normal looking boas from the first breeding. He then bred one of the jungle males back to its mother and produced some super Jungles and jungles.
Jungles can exhibit an extremely variable degree of stunning pattern aberrancies which become even more defined in Super Jungles.
There is a common misconception that all jungles have an aberrant pattern but this is not the case, in fact there many first class jungles that have 'normal' patterns. There are several characteristics that a jungle Boa may or may not show, these include the following ...
Crisp/high contrast colour & pattern
Vibrant colouration, especially to tail
Bold markings in front of eye
'Eyebrow' shaped markings above the eye
Holes in head spear marking
Broken head spearmarking
Aberrant pattern
Holes in saddles
Rounded edges to saddles
Missing saddle points
Black outline to saddles
Creamy/golden dorsal colour
Very clean dorsal/back
Speckles on sides often forming a line
Red blushing to sides of body
Pinky coloured eyes
Pink patches on tongue
A high expression jungle will not always have a highly aberrant pattern but it would show most of the above characteristics.
Our albino Jungle Boas are a great example of how two separate morphs can be combined to enhance the overall appearance, producing a ‘designer morph’.