>   We have tens of millions of feral pigeons in the US  as well as the
rest of the world, many of which have lived in the wild for 100 generations
or more and most are no place close to wild type.

Most every island species was founded from only a few individuals.  So by
your definition, dodo's -- since they descended from "wild type" winged
pigeons -- would not be considered as "wild type"?
And once humans invaded North America and eliminated any individuals of any
animal population that didn't recognize and avoid them, would the surviving
populations of those species that we see today not be considered as
ancestral "wild type"?

I'm freshly returned from the British Isles, where many beekeepers prefer
to keep "wild type" *A. m. meliffera* "black bees."  One could argue that
they are not "wild type" since *ligustica *and *carnica* alleles have been
introduced into the landscape.
\But the phenotypes of those races don't appear to survive well without
human assistance in the cold, wet landscape (e.g., their drones and queens
require higher mating temperatures), and yellow bees are rarely found
living in the wild.
In my opinion, in those areas of the Isles where no beekeepers keep
introduced stock, and their colonies interbreed freely with the
"free-living" population of local bees, that population could be considered
as *today's* "wild type," even though some "foreign" nuclear DNA alleles may
have introgressed into the gene pool.

My point is that the genetics of any "wild type" breeding population are
continually evolving.  For taxonomists this makes them a moving target upon
which can only hang a classification label upon this year's breeding
population, since each subsequent generation will likely be slightly
genetically different (I'm aware that some species, such as tadpole shrimp
and centipedes, haven't changed much phenotypically over time).

From my point of view, any breeding population that has gone through
numerous reproductive cycles independent of human influence could be
referred to as "wild type."


Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
530 277 4450
ScientificBeekeeping.com

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