The problems that I see involved with the 'wait until it happens again' idea are these:
1. What if it happens again in an animal of the same sex?
2. What if the original animal is dead by the time 'it happens again'?
(this could be a real possibility as most of the unusual 'new' genetic morphs come as wild caught harvested animals and we know the problems that may arise from wild caught specimens including but not limited to over stressed, refusal to eat in captivity, etc)
"It is estimated that wild-caught reptiles experience, on average, a 90% mortality rate between capture and the end of their 1st year of captivity. Fritz Jurgen Obst, the author of Turtles, Tortoises and Terrapins has estimated that 99% of all hatchling turtles …die in the first year. One estimate states that 90% of snakes die within the first 6 months of ownership.
The vast majority of overseas reptile collectors and exporters spend a minimum amount of time caring for their catch. Rarely is food or water given because collectors and dealers know that many reptiles can live for a long time without these basic items…[and] health problems appear weeks or months later, often after the animal is purchased by the end consumer. Turtle veterinarian Barbara Bonner…has stated that virtually all pet turtles are desperately sick when purchased from pet stores.
Wild-caught animals do not adapt successfully to captivity…and most die within a short time after purchase by the average consumer."
Reptiles as Pets, An Examation of the Trade in Live Reptiles in the United States: Joseph Franke, MS & Teresa Telecky, PhD, Humane Society of the United States
3. If it does 'happen again' who's to say the animal will even make it to the market (particularly in the case of harvesting, the creature may never be found)
4. If it actually makes it to the market, what if the person holding the 1st one is either unable to acquire the 2nd one, or a rival breeder acquires it? Neither breeder would be willing to miss out on the 'new cool morph that could be sold for $$$$$$, and that competetiveness would lead to failure to cooperatively breed, or even a crime to acquire it. Case in point--the break in at Bob Clarks that resulted in the theft of his foundling male albino BP as well as his entire stock of albino hets
Bob Clark Captive Bred Reptiles - Albino Ball Python.
5. As with albinism, many other characteristics that make morphs more unique and desirable, are actually a hinderance in their native environment. Such as increasing their visability to predators. So there is the chance that animals with the visable trait will not be available to harvest because they have a harder time with survival in general.
"Traits which are favored by the environment(adaptive) will result in a greater number of organisms produced than those with traits which are not favored by the environment(maladaptive).
**A simple example of this difference in reproductive fitness can be observed in virtually any albino animal. Albino animals are at a disadvantage, as such a trait is not favored by the environment(it is very difficult to hide/disguise oneself from predators as an albino). Albino individuals are typically discovered and killed long before they ever get a chance to reproduce, and pass on their genetic material(albinism) to their offspring. Therefore, albinism does not become established within a population or a species, because natural selection does not favor the trait's success. In the case of snakes or lizards, cryptic coloration is adaptive, as it decreases the chances of predation, and increases the chances of surviving to reproducel. This is why there are no wild populations comprised of albino individuals.
It is important to understand that natural selection works on individuals, not populations or species. Since individuals which are better suited to their environment are the ones who typically survive to reproduce, a population or species thus becomes better suited to its environment, as more individuals possessing the favorable traits are produced, and fewer individuals with non-favorable traits are produced. "
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As it is a business, waiting for 'it to happen again' is not always economically feesable, or even possible. And inbreeding has occured in MANY animals, not just reptiles. Your purebred dog or cat was probably inbred at one point or another when establishing the unique characteristics of its breed.
"Inbreeding is the mating together of closely related cats, for example mother/son, father/daughter, sibling/sibling matings and half-sibling/half-sibling. It is the pairing of animals which are more closely related than the average population. For breeders, it is a useful way of fixing traits in a breed - the pedigrees of some exhibition cats show that many of their forebears are closely related. For example, the name of Fan Tee Cee (shown in the 1960s and 1970s) appeared in more and more Siamese pedigrees, sometimes several times in a single pedigree, as breeders were anxious to make their lines more typey. Superb specimens are always much sought after for stud services or offspring (unless they have already been neutered; cloning may solve that problem in the future) having won the approval of show judges.
To produce cats which closely meet the breed standard, breeders commonly mate together animals which are related and which share desirable characteristics. Over time, sometimes only one or two generations, those characteristics will become homozygous (genetically uniform) and all offspring of the inbred animal will inherit the genes for those characteristics (breed true). Breeders can predict how the offspring will look. "Line-breeding" is not a term used by geneticists, but comes from livestock husbandry. It indicates milder forms of inbreeding. Line-breeding is still a form of inbreeding i.e. breeding within a family line and includes cousin/cousin, aunt/nephew, niece/uncle and grandparent/grandchild. The difference between line-breeding and inbreeding may be defined differently for different species of animals and even for different breeds within the same species. It is complicated by the fact that a cat's half-brother might also be her father!"
Pros and Cons of Inbreeding
"But, all pure breeds of domestic animals are inbred. (Keep in mind that to a scientist “inbreeding” means the breeding of related animals, which would include what we call “linebreeding.”) But how much is too much? Without it, the breeds could never have been developed and would not breed true to type.
However, almost all breeds of purebred dog already have well-established type. There is no mistaking a Chihuahua for a St. Bernard. Or even a Greyhound from a Whippet. Given this, breeders would be well advised to retain as much genetic diversity as possible within the existing breed population in order to avoid or reduce such unwanted health problems as those mentioned above. Along with screening and maintaining detailed health records, another tool available to you is the Coefficient of Inbreeding. Track COIs on your breeding stock. Calculate them on proposed matings, with an eye to keeping the numbers low if they already are or lowering them where possible. "
Australian Shepherd Health & Genetics Institute, Inc.
"It is by no means uncommon in dogs, for instance, to have pedigrees which can be researched in the AKC stud book and the KC Gazette and which go back to foundation dogs born around the turn of the century - perhaps 30 or even 40 generations earlier. With this type of long pedigree, foundation animals may appear a million times or more in the pedigree."
Inbreeding and Linebreeding
Because it WILL happen to prove out a morph, or to repopulate a dwindling species, we must understand how it effects our animals, and using methods above (such as the COI, and outbreeding) we can do it in the SAFEST method possible, and attempt to keep as much diversity in the gene pool as we can. RESPONSIBLE BREEDING is the key here.
"For practical purposes, if two mated individuals have no common ancestor within the last five or six generations, their progeny would be considered outbreds. "
G2911 Inbreeding: Its Meaning, Uses and Effects on Farm Animals, MU Extension
This is the KEY. Of course most animals share one common ancestor and are therefore inbred to begin with. The real point is when does it become a problem, and if care is taken with each breeding to prevent more inbreeding than is necessary, it can be done responsibly.
After all it wasn't so long ago that an article was published saying that humans could all be traced back to one of 7 mothers.
BBC News | SCI/TECH | Europe's seven female founders
So technically we are all related to one another and inbreeding each and every time we have a child. It is a matter of degrees of inbreeding as I have said before.
