White NorthernThe White Northern Blue Tongue morph was first bred by John Robert Coward in 2006 and first entered the market in 2009. The White Northern morph is very interesting due to the large variation in colour from jet white to grey with slight banding. There is some conjecture about this morph and what it should be called, some call it Hypo and others call it White Northern. It is best to stick to the original name which is White Northern. This morph has also been crossed with the Anery to make Alabasters and the T+. Above highlights the variation within the morph both individuals bred by Joe Ball. As babies White Northerns often have faint patterning like the one shown below which is owned by Jake Peterson.
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AneryThere are two localities that the Anery gene is found in captivity, the Prince Regent and the Darwins. The Prince Regents (now labelled Kimberleys) rose from Joe Ball breeding projects and the Darwin Anery gene was founded by Beckie Drescher in WA. She bred them from a group of pet shop Darwin's. She is one of few that own the Darwin Anerys because of WA import and export laws. Above is a Kimberley Anery owned by Josh Fastuca and below is a group of both Het Darwin Anerys and visuals produced by Beckie Drescher. The Anery gene itself strips red and orange colouration from the animals resulting in grey, white and black pattering mostly as well as some yellows. This is clearly evident in the image below.
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T+ The Australian T+ gene originated in a Northern Blue Tongue Skink pit in Rockhampton QLD. First produced by Dave Mitchell, the T+ gene was then bought by Joe Ball as a "dinker" project where he later proved them out to be recessive. This project is fairly recent and is starting to really take off now with more interest in it as time goes on. The gene itself is similar to a normal Albino (T-) however instead of taking all dark pigment out it leaves these purple and grey hues called Tyrosinase. The above picture highlights the variation in the morph itself, both are T+ but one is a lot darker than others. Below is some of the lightest T+ blueys produced so far. These stunning blueys are owned by Joe Ball.
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AlabasterThe Alabaster was first bred by Karen Russell, which combines the Black Eyed Anery and the White Northern to make an almost Black Eyed Leucistic looking animal. Much like the White Northerns, Alabasters have quite a large variation however most turn out pearl white with jet black eyes. Below is the first group of Alabasters bred by Karen Russell.
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PatchworkHere are some of the Patchwork Northern Blue Tongues which were produced by Joe Ball. Essentially, the Patchwork appears comparable to that of a White Sided or Pied like morph whereby a pink tongue and patches of white to pink colouration appear along the side of the animal and the nose. The animal on the bottom is that of a T+ Patchwork while the individual on top is that of just a homozygous Patchwork.
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T+ White Northern
A recent addition to the Northern Blue Tongue morphs is that of the T+ White Northern combination, adding further depth to the Pure intermedia morph complex, the following animal was bred by Joe Ball and is owned by Chris Kupper. This individual shows quite a surprising phenotype with heavy banding and orange tones.
The Possibilities are Endless!!
As you can see there is some Double Homozygous (Visual) Morphs and Triple Homozygous Morphs or even Quadruple Homozygous Morphs yet to be produced. The Anery T+ is yet to be produced however there are many taking large in-roads to get to this point. The Triple Homozygous is on its way as people have already bred Triple Het animals that should be bred this season or next with some exiting times ahead. The Patchwork has brought with it a whole new game for the morphs and potential combinations as well. Yet to truely be played with is the locality and polygenic sides of morphs. Whether this is breeding Kununurra into T+ to make high percentage Kununurra T+ or line bred Alabasters to have more spotting or more pearl white. The future has some exciting times ahead for Northern Blue Tongues for sure!!!