Hi
In my experience, "piccasso" is a designer/marketing name for a cross-local panther. Often colourful, usually not a "pure" breed of panther.
panther crosses are common, and typically worth much less in terms of sales value.
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I know it´s an older post, but just wanted to clarify some things.
Picasso is not a cross between locals, but a natural local.
I think it was back in 2004 that they came into Europe and were sold under the name Picasso, as the exporter (Olaf Pronk) wanted to keep the local a secret.
Some people think that they are from Ambilobe and sirama because they look like them a lot, they both have a yellow body with red and blue stripes when they are excited. Sources say that they largely live on a plantation 60km from Diego Suarez towards Ambilobe, but Olaf denies this. This area is covered with cocoa trees, coffee trees and mango trees. This local could be found in all red with blue stripes.
Many people claim that they have picasso as they think they come from Ambilobe, but that is not the case. Exporters do not want the hassles of walking alle this long way to collect REAL picasso, as people do not bother to pay more for this locale.
In fact, most of the locals that are being sold, are mixed locals, as the "trappers" offen have problems collecting enough pairs, so they just mix up the locales, the the orders matchs. Its really hard to tell the difference between the female locals, so the just switch the females. also, the offen dont bother walking a long way to collect "rare" loacls, so they catch then im the near citys. Saint marie is a good example, the collect them on the coast of the mainland, but sell them as st marie (Nosy boraha).
Here is a link to a few more NATURAL locals ;-)
http://kamaeleoner.dk/kamaeleoner-i-naturen/30-lokalitets-varianter/45-fpardalis.html
Personally, I don´t like when preple mix breed locals, I think people should do the opposite, and start breeding pure locals, and keep it natural and interesting.
are panthers that are of two kinds common?
