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Stimson’s Python, Antaresia stimsoni (Smith, 1985). Photograph of animals in the pet trade. Stimson’s Python is widely distributed in Australia and often associated with rock out crops near bat roosts and termite mounds. Adults may slightly exceed 1000 mm. Its diet includes frogs, lizards and small mammals (bats). Females lay 7-19 eggs that may hatch between September and January. |
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| The Woma, Aspidites ramsayi (Macleay, 1882). Photograph of a captive in the Northern Territory, Australia. Occurs in West and central Australia. Adults may exceed 2.5 m, but average adults are about 1.5 m.. Womas inhabit arid red sand areas with spinifex grass. Womas feed on lizards, small mammals, and maybe birds that are killed by constriction. Geckos, agamids, monitors and skinks probably compose most of the diet and snakes are rarely eaten. It also hunts prey in their burrows, and kills them by exerting pressure on the animal until it is dead. Womas also caudal lure, using their wriggling tail to attract a lizard or mammal. Clutches of 5-19 eggs have been reported, incubation is 50-64 days. The woma is also known to dig its own burrow. |
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| The Olive Python Liasis olivacea (Gray, 1842). Photograph of a captive raised snake. Olive Pythons range from the western half of the Cape York Peninsula, Queensland westward to the Kimberly Region of Western Australia. Rocky outcrops near streams are often used but it also uses savanna, seasonal forests, and caves. The diet consists of a variety of reptiles, bird, and mammals, with mammals composing about half the items consumed. Adults of the race L. o. olivacea are known to reach 4.5 m in length. However, the poorly known race L. o. barroni (Smith, 1981) attains 6.5 m and weights in the range of 50-60 kg. This subspecies occurs in the Pilbara region of Western Australia and it has been reported from islands in the Dampier Archipelago. |
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| Oenpelli Rock Python, Morelia oenpelliensis (Gow, 1977). Photographed in the Northern Territory, Australia; a captive snake. Oenpelli Rock Pythons inhabit the sandstone areas of the western edge of the Arnhemland Plateau. This large, slender python reaches at least 4.57 m. It uses ravines and gorges with dense vegetation, is active in trees and on rock faces. It feeds on birds and mammals (particularly fruit bats). |
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| The Carpet Python, Morelia spilota (Lacepede, 1804). A captive raised animal. The Carpet Python is widespread in Australia and very polymorphic. Six subspecies have been recognized. The one in the photograph is commonly called the Jungle Carpet Python, M. s. cheynei (Wells and Wellington, 1984). The snake's bold coloration has made it popular among hobbyists and it, and other races of this species, are commonly bred in captivity. This particular race is restricted to southwestern Queensland in the drainage flows of the Atherton Tableland. They inhabit gallery forests. |
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| Green Tree Python, Morelia viridis (Schlegel, 1872). Photographs of captive snakes, top is an adult, bottom is a captive bred neonate. Eastern Indonesian Islands, Papua New Guinea, and the eastern half of the Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, Australia. The Green Tree Python was formerly placed in the genus Chondropython. Maximum adult length is about 2.2 m, but average adult size is usually in the 1.6 to 1.8 m range. Rainforests, monsoon forests, bamboo thickets, forest edge environments and secondary growth forests are used by this highly arboreal snake. Hatchlings are very polymorphic in terms of their color and pattern, and a recent study suggests that changing from red or yellow neonates to green adults provides protection from visually oriented avian predators (Wilson et al. 2006. Biology Letters doi:10.1098/rsbl.2006.0574) |
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| Borneo Blood Python, Python breitensteini Steindachner, 1880. Photograph of an animal in the pet trade. Inhabits southern Thailand and peninsular Malaysia, Sumatra and Borneo (as well as smaller Indonesian Islands). This was long considered a subspecies of P. curtus. Blood pythons are very aquatic and are often found under or in the banks of a stream or river. |
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| Burmese Python, Python bivittatus, formerly P. molurus bivittatus. The Burmese Python ranges from India, and Nepal eastward to southern China and southward into Indochina and some Indonesian Islands. It has been introduced into southern Florida. In southern Florida the species is reproducing and surviving on local birds ands mammals. |
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| The Ball Python, Python regius (Shaw, 1802). Inhabits much of central Africa, from Senegal, Mali, Guinea, Sierra Leone eastward to the Sudan and Uganda. It uses forest-edge, savanna, agroecosystems, and suburban environments. Animal burrow may be utilized for shelters. Villiers reported this snake reaches 2.5 meters, that size seems unlikely since 1.5 meter ball pythons are uncommon. See Pitman, 1974. Guide to the Snakes of Uganda. The diet consists mostly of small mammals. This individual is a wild caught animal in the pet trade. This species is quickly becoming the goldfish of the snake world. It is captive bread for numerous color and pattern morphs. |
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The Reticulated Python, Broghammerus reticulatus (Schneider, 1801). The top photo is a 2 meter snake photographed at Tong Ng Chang Water Fall Park, near Hat Yai, Thailand. It was found at night along a stream. The next two photos were animals in the pet trade. Note the bottom photo illustrates an animal preparing to shed its skin (blue eyes) and the arrangement of forward facing, heat sensing, labial pits. The Reticulated Pythons are the longest documented snake. A specimen known by the name Colossus lived at the Highland park Zoo in Pittsburgh, PA was measured at 28.5 feet. See Murphy and Henderson 1997 Tales of Giant Snakes for a discussion. The Reticulated Python is widely distributed in Southeast Asia, from Myanmar, Thailand, and Indochina to Indonesia and the Philippines. This snake is common in urban environments, and at home in the trees, water, and in burrows. Urban populations feed on domesticated animals, and its diet is very catholic. It will eat almost any vertebrate it can swallow. Large specimens are potentially dangerous to humans and this species is responsible for human deaths. |
| Pythons are a family of the Eastern Hemisphere. There are eight genera and about 25 species. They can be found in Africa, Asia, and Australia. The greatest diversity of species is in Australia. Pythons range in adult size from less than a meter to about 9 meters. All of them lay eggs, and all of them have heat sensing pits on the labial scales that surround the mouth (the exceptions being the two species of Aspidites, which are the most basal lineage of pythons.) Until recently pythons nearest relatives were considered to be the boas. Molecular studies suggest this is not the case, and that the pythons nearest living relative is an odd little snake from Western Mexico and Central America, Loxocemus bicolor, which is placed in its own family, Loxocemidae. And, the sister group to the pythons and Loxocemus are the Xenopeltidae, the Sunbeam Snakes. |