Facts on Ball Python Snakes

The ball python (Python regius) is a small species of snake that takes its name from its behavior of curling up into a compact ball when danger threatens. The ball python is a native of Africa, living south of the Sahara Desert from western African nations like Senegal eastward to the Nile River. The ball python is a constrictor, hunting and killing its prey by wrapping around it and using its muscular body to suffocate its victim.

Identification

The typical ball python is in the range of 3 to 6 feet in length when mature, with the females usually larger than the males. The newly hatched young are from 9 to 17 inches long. The snake’s head is flat on the top portion and its snout has a square look. The neck narrows and leads to the wider part of its body, the trunk, which the Woodland Park Zoo notes can be twice as wide as the head. The ball python has a short tail. The colors of a ball python include combinations of black, brown, off-white and yellow, with an assortment of spots and stripes covering the body.

Diet

The ball python subsists mainly on a steady diet of rodents that it captures by entering their burrows and killing them there or by ambushing as they pass by. Creatures such as rats, gerbils and a large-eared rodent called a gerboa furnish a ball python with a source of food. The snake will grab the hapless animal with its mouth and then wrap itself around it, squeezing tight until the animal can no longer expand its chest to breathe. After suffocating the prey, the rock python will swallow it head first, unhinging its jaws if necessary to swallow larger meals.

Hatching the Young

All pythons lay eggs, with the rock python using an abandoned animal burrow as a nesting place. After producing from 4 to 10 eggs, the female will stay coiled around them so they stay at the proper temperature to incubate. Occasionally the female will leave to drink water, but she will never stray far from her nest, sometimes remaining for up to 80 days until the eggs finally hatch. According to the San Diego Zoo, pythons will contract their muscles rapidly to create heat to warm the eggs if temperatures drop, a process that leaves the female exhausted.

Features

Ball pythons possess four separate rows of inward-curving teeth located in the upper jaw; these allow the snake to hold onto prey. The ball python has nerves in its jaw that sense the slightest temperature change, which, when combined with the reptile's excellent vision, allow it to hunt for food at night.

Considerations

In captivity, a ball python can live between 20 and 25 years. The species inhabits the dry savannah and grasslands of its range and lives along the borders of forests. Pythons are all accomplished climbers, but do not fling themselves off branches and onto unsuspecting victims, as portrayed in film. The ball python can also swim well when necessary. The ball python is popular as a pet, with many taken from their native habitat and sold as such.

References

• Woodland Park Zoo: Ball Python
• San Diego Zoo: Reptiles: Pythons