On Sep 18, 2014, at 9:49 AM, randy oliver <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> The empirical evidence from the studies that I've seen strongly suggest
> that such conservation of the genetic integrity of feral stocks does indeed
> occur, despite massive influx of domesticated stocks.  I've referenced the
> studies in a recent article.


Not to put too fine a point on it, but these studies are looking for genetic markers that differentiate populations. These may or may not be significant, other than as “markers". None of them correlates to behavioral characteristics. 

In fact, I just had a sample tested for Africanization. The bees were the most vicious, most uncontrollable bees I had ever encountered. The lab in Tucson identified them as “European.” 

Point is, we don’t have data on behavioral characteristics of feral stocks vs managed stocks. Further, such data sets would be very hard to build, since one group is managed and the other isn’t, which means that any intrinsic differences would be difficult to tease out.

Peter Loring Borst

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