IMBREEDING IMPEYANS LOPHOPHORUS IMPEYANUS HIMALAYAS

We found this Impeyan male in Michigan.  Being curios we wanted to know how the white markings came about.  We wrote and inquired of the WPA and had numerous correspondence related to this phenomenon. The bottom line is, this was caused by in-breeding siblings and parent to siblings over a period of years.  The following was written by John Corder and he said, "the white feathering is caused by in-breeding, this male will pass this on to his progeny. If the female carries the same allele, then the descendents are increasingly likely to show white feathering, probably in increasing amounts. If the female is unrelated or does not carry this allele, then the descendents will be carriers for the white coloration."  We traced the birds to Minnesota and we do know the breeder.  In-breeding should only be done by qualified people, for the sole purpose of keeping a species from extinction.