Python regius – The Ball (Royal) Python

Ball or Royal Pythons, are indigenous to the forests of Central and Western Africa. They are semi-arboreal snakes, which means they can be found on both the ground and in trees. They are non-venomous.

Monty, WBS's Ball Python (photo: Dawn Griffard)

The name “Royal Python” derives from the fact that rulers in Africa would often wear the python as jewelry!

Ball Pythons are particularly revered by the Igbo people of southeastern Nigeria.  Because it lives and travels close to the ground, it is considered to be symbolic of the Earth.  Ball pythons are given free range in Igbo villages and can wander through the streets and in and out of homes at will.  They can be carefully relocated by gently picking them up and placing them back in the forest, but if one is accidently killed, the people will build a small coffin and perform a traditional funeral for the unfortunate creature.

Ball Pythons have flat heads and a square snout.  They possess 100-150 teeth that curve inward, which allows them to catch and hold onto their prey.

Adults usually do not grow longer than 5-6 feet – females growing bigger than males.

Normal color Ball Pythons are black and brown, with black striping on the head and large irregular brown blotches on the body called “lobes”.  Many purposely-bred color mutations of Ball Pythons exist in the pet trade, some of which can be rare, and therefore very expensive.

“Pits” on the fronts of the snake’s face, formed by special scales, allow the snake to sense changes in heat in the environment as finite as 3/1000^th of a degree, which allow them to hunt almost completely by feeling the body heat of their prey.  However, Ball Pythons can also see extremely well in near darkness.  Both of these features together make them formidable hunters.

Both males and females have claw-like “anal spurs” on either side of their vent at the base of their tails.  These are thought to be evolutionary remainders of hind legs.

In captivity, the Ball Python makes an excellent companion.  They are generally mellow, almost shy snakes that will often be content to be held and will often curl up on your hand or in your lap.  In fact, the name “Ball Python” comes from the way they ball up – with their heads neatly tucked safely in the middle – when they are feeling shy or threatened.

 

Like all reptiles, Ball Pythons are ectothermic, or cold-blooded.  This means that the animal must depend on its environment to regulate its body temperature.  For instance, if the snake feels too cold, it will seek out a warm spot where it can bask in the sun.  If it feels too warm, it will retreat to a cool burrow.  Ball Pythons require a daytime basking area of around 90 degrees, and an ambient warm temperature of 85-90 degrees.  When too warm, they will retreat to a cool area, but never cooler than 75 degrees.

Like most snakes, Ball Pythons are opportunistic feeders, and will try to eat a good meal about once a week.  In the wild, Ball Pythons will eat small mammals, other snakes, birds, frogs and lizards.  In captivity, they are usually fed rodents – as they are easily accessible.  They are constrictors; which means they wrap around their prey and squeeze it until it has suffocated.  They will then proceed to slowly swallow the prey until it reaches their stomach.

Depending on the snake’s age, size and how much it eats, he or she will shed 2-6 times a year.  Young snakes shed more often than older snakes; smaller ones more than larger.  The process of shedding takes about 7-10 days.  The shedding process happens when the snake’s body begins to grow a new layer of skin under the existing one.  That new layer begins to separate from the old and a very thin layer of fluid forms between the two layers.  When shedding is about to occur, the belly may become pink and the skin’s overall color will dull.  This is called being “opaque”.  A perfect shed will come off the snake as one complete piece.  If it does not come off as one piece, the snake’s environmental humidity is probably not ideal.  Humidity is important in creating and maintaining that fluid layer between the two layers of skin for the entire length of time the shedding process takes.

Ball Pythons are oviparous – which means they lay eggs.  Females will lay 3-11 large, leathery eggs, which she will incubate underground.  She will maintain heat for the eggs by shivering her body.  The eggs will hatch after 55-60 days.

Contrary to popular belief, snakes are not animals to be feared.  They are beautiful animals that can possess calm, sweet personalities.  They are fascinating to watch and make entertaining pets.

The World Bird Sanctuary's Ball Python, Monty, is looking for an individual or a family to adopt him as part of our Adopt A Bird program (I know—he’s not a bird—but all of our animals are available for adoption.)

Monty is a beautiful specimen of a Ball Python and is a very good snake.  In our sanctuary dominated by birds, he is often overlooked as being an important educational ambassador.  Your $50 adoption fee would help feed, house and care for Monty in the coming year!

To adopt Monty on-line Click Here.  Not comfortable doing purchases on-line?  Then call 636-225-4390 and tell the staff member who answers that you want to do an adoption.

Submitted by Dawn Griffard, World Bird Sanctuary Naturalist 

Fall Snake Count

At the end of September WBS Naturalist, Trina Whitener and I, accompanied by several of our volunteers, participated in a fall snake count.

The data we were hoping to collect is for the Center for Snake Conservation, a non-profit organization based in Colorado.  Their mission is to promote conservation of snakes and their natural ecosystems and implement positive change in human attitudes toward snakes.  The count, which happens in the spring and fall, will give North American citizens the opportunity to lend a hand in snake conservation.

What I mean by snake count is that we walked the WBS property and documented the snakes we found.  The beginning of the day was a tough hike through the hills with only two snakes to show for our efforts.  However, I am glad to report that the remainder of our day met with more success!  We didn’t call it quits until ten o’clock that night, but what a day at work!

Three Toed Box Turtle

We started our day at around 8 A.M. and wanted to focus our efforts on the upper site, or the opened to the public portion of the property.  We devised a plan to spread out in a line and walk the woods, looking under logs and into rocky outcrops for any snakes hiding out there. Well sad to say for the first four hours we still did not have one snake recorded, but I did find a beautiful three toed box turtle basking in the morning rays.

As we approached our property line where it adjoins Lone Elk Park we headed towards the outer road to a rarely used parking lot to see what we could find.  We didn’t find anything until we were heading back to the WBS entrance.  Suddenly, from the side of a large boulder there was a flash of color, but before I could react the snake was gone.  As if on cue, from the other side of the boulder an Eastern Garter Snake darted to the nearest cover!  Two snakes on one boulder!  I had the feeling then that our quest was about to heat up!

In the afternoon we set off to the behind the scenes area of the WBS property.  The lower site is in a valley basin adjacent to the Meramec River—good habitat for any reptile or amphibian.  When we pulled up I suggested that we walk around the buildings while we waited for the rest of our party to arrive. 

Yellow Bellied Racer, a common non-venomous snake in Missouri

The first spot we checked was one of many sheds that had some old tarps on the side. Sure enough, when we moved the first tarp an Eastern Yellow Bellied Racer came roaring out towards the shed!  Once again the snake was gone within a blink of an eye.   Luckily Trina, who is one of our go-to people when it comes to snakes, identified the snake without missing a beat!

Soon after that we checked behind the breeding barn by a bunch of ladders, and out of the corner of my eye there was a tail sticking out of the leaf litter!  I snatched it up and pulled out another racer!  This was the first big snake that we got the opportunity to handle and take some pictures, so it was an extra special find for me.

The last place we checked before the night walk was the hillside behind our Education Training Center.  I pulled out my compass (that’s on my phone) and headed towards the nearest southeastern facing ridge.  This is a known hotspot for snakes on most any mountain, so that’s why I decided to head that way.  There at the top of the ridge was a massive Black Rat Snake sunning its self in the afternoon rays.  I called the others around and warned them to walk slowly towards this beauty.  We circled the snake to cut off any escape routes, and I moved in for the grab.  It was as simple as it sounds to catch the beast! Little did I know until my hands were on the snake that it was still cold, so the snake was very lethargic and easy to handle.  We tried to get our hands on any snake we saw so we could get measurements for the count.

A Copperhead, one of only three venomous snake species found in Missouri

During our night search Trina and I walked the train tracks and found the best catch of the day!  Little did I know that it would be directly under where I was walking! There it was, in all its beauty, an Osage Copperhead!  A great find for an ending to an amazing adventure at WBS!

Submitted by Adam Triska, World Bird Sanctuary Field Studies Coordinator

Odd Admission

Teri Schroer, WBS’s Director of Education, took the call.  I was busy doing office things when she came in and said, “Jeff.  You need talk to the person on line 1.”  After just one sentence from the voice on the other end, I knew why Teri put her through to me.  “Do you help snakes?”  I am a snake enthusiast, and have several of my own at my house.  Aside from birds, snakes have some of the most dazzling colors on their bodies in the animal world.  Most are an excellent control on rodent populations.  Rodents eat the same grains humans eat, so snakes help save the world hundreds of millions of dollars per year.

 WBS does not have the expertise to rehabilitate snakes.  Also, we don’t have the permits that would allow us to do it.  Still, I couldn’t just hang up on the woman, and besides, I just needed to know what kind of snake she had.  “My children and I looked it up on the internet, and I think it is a racer of some kind.”  The St. Louis area is home to the Yellow-bellied Racer and Black Racer.  Both can grow to 4-5 feet, are dark on the top and lighter on the underside, have relatively small heads and big eyes.  They feed mostly on cold-blooded animals, like frogs and lizards, but will occasionally eat mice.  They are aptly named because they can crawl incredibly quickly.

 I asked what the problem was.  Carrie Lewis from Imperial, MO said, “I placed a fine mesh netting over my raspberry bushes, and the snake got caught in the net.”  This happens a lot.  There are many different kinds of plastic and nylon netting that are used for many different purposes around the yard.  Snakes can get their heads through the netting, but cannot get the fatter parts of their bodies through, and because a snake’s scales point toward the tail, when the snake tries to back out of the netting, their scales get caught.  Usually the snake struggles, which makes its predicament worse.

 WBS Assistant Director Jeff Meshach, Carrie Lewis and two of her children, and Odd, the Black Rat Snake

 We at WBS will try to help anyone that calls with an animal problem.  Since Missouri does allow a resident to possess as many as 5 native snakes as personal pets, I told Carrie to bring the snake in.  I would personally care for it.

Carrie, her 4 children, and the snake arrived about 2 hours later.  I took the snake out of the pillowcase they transported it in.  Yes, it was a Racer (or so I first thought), and it was thoroughly tangled in the netting and had struggled so much there were wounds where the netting got tightest on its body.  Its body was dry and rough to the touch, and it was limp and not moving.  I thought it was dead, but slowly it started to move as I held it.  I asked Carrie and her children to stay in our rehabilitation hospital waiting room and watch through the window.  Dana Lambert, one of WBS’s Trainer/Naturalists, happened to be in Rehab, and I quickly recruited her help.  She and I gingerly removed all the netting and spread an antibiotic cream on the wounds.  I took Carrie’s phone number and told her I would keep her informed, and if and when the snake got better, I would give it back to her and she could release it back to the wild.

I set up an aquarium in my office and placed the snake in it.  I had a water bowl in with it, but the snake seemed too weak to get up and over the bowl’s edge, so I placed the snake’s head and neck in the water.  The snake immediately started to drink…a very good sign!

Katrina Whitener, another WBS Trainer/naturalist and a fellow snake enthusiast, came into my office 2 days later.  She took one look at the snake and proclaimed, “This is a Black Rat Snake and not a Racer.”  I couldn’t believe I made such a mistake, but sure enough, it was a Black Rat Snake.  The snake was so dehydrated when I first saw it that its features were distorted.  With its rehydration its features and color became more pronounced, and now it was easy to tell it was a Black Rat Snake.  Black Rat Snakes constrict their prey to kill it before swallowing it whole, eat warm-blooded prey, and are a great natural rodent control.

I gave the snake another day to drink and rehydrate, then I placed a dead mouse in its aquarium.  WBS feeds mice to many of its birds, so it was no problem to find one for my patient.  The snake immediately ate the mouse, but as I feared, when the mouse got to the wounded part of the body on its way to the stomach, it stopped.  It took about an hour, but finally the mouse lump moved past the wounded section and came to rest in its stomach.  I tried feeding the snake another mouse, but it wouldn’t have anything to do with it.  A snake of this size (about 40 inches long) could easily eat 3 adult mice in one feeding, but Odd (for obvious reasons) seemed quite sore from struggling over just one mouse.  Still, eating was a huge step toward healing, so I was happy.

I waited another week and fed Odd another mouse.  This second mouse was a little bigger than the first, and odd had an even harder time pushing the mouse past the wounds on its body.  I deduced if Odd was going to survive in the wild, it would have to be able to eat full grown mice with me, so I intentionally fed it a large mouse.  After struggling for another hour, Odd pushed the mouse past its wounds and down to its stomach.

The next week Odd shed his skin.  About 5 days before a snake is going to shed its eyes become cloudy.  Snakes do have a clear scale over each eye, so during this 5 day period they cannot see very well and usually stay hidden and inactive until they shed.  Odd’s shed came off its body in pieces rather than one, long shed because of its wounds, but it did shed the skin across the wound.  The wounds were definitely smaller, so I could tell Odd was healing.

The next day I fed odd 2 adult mice.  It ate them both, and both mice slid through the wounded part of the body with no hesitation.  Odd was going to be just fine!

On 28 September Carrie and 2 of her children, Jesse and Jamie, came to pick Odd up, and it was released back to the wild.  Thank you, Carrie, for showing concern and compassion for an animal that most don’t think too fondly of.

Unfortunately snakes still get a bad rap in our society.  Most people cannot identify the many different species we have in Missouri, so many assume any snake they see is a venomous snake, and the snake is killed.  Even venomous snakes are shy and retiring, and except for when they are feeding, the only reason they strike is when they feel the need to defend themselves.  If you leave the snake alone it will go about its business controlling the small rodents that actually do cause us harm.

If you choose to have a snake as a pet, as with any pet, do research so you can provide correct housing, water and food.  Remember, some snakes, like pythons, are great as youngsters, but can grow to well over 10 feet long, weigh hundreds of pounds and will require a lot of expensive food.  Pythons are not native to the United States, so you can’t just release it to the wild if it gets too big.  The snake will be yours for its life, which can be as many as 50 years.  Always remember to choose your pets wisely.

Submitted by World Bird Sanctuary Assistant Director Jeff Meshach

Meet Anna!

Anna's Story

Anna is a female Green Tree Python (morelia viridus) who can be found residing in the World Bird Sanctuary's Nature Center when she is not traveling to schools and other venues to educate the public about the loss of habitat that has put her species on the "near threatened" list.

Anna came to us from a reptile farm in Florida in 2002.  She is easily the most popular snake in our Education Department, both for her serene beauty and her easy-going personality.  The children love her, and frequently request her for their Birdday Party.

Unlike the other reptiles in our Nature Center, when we use Anna in a program we do not usually uncoil her and display her full length.  Green Tree Pythons are arboreal snakes, which means they spend most of their life coiled high in a tree in the jungle.  Their beautiful green coloration is perfect camouflage as they patiently wait to pounce on an unsuspecting tree dwelling rodent or bird.  When you see her in the Nature Center she will almost always be coiled around the branch in her enclosure.  Therefore, we normally display her by removing the entire branch from her enclosure.  She is quite comfortable being carried around on her "special" branch while being admired by audience members.


Anna is just one of the animals at WBS that can be “adopted”. To adopt Anna, just click here, make a donation of $50.00, and specify in your payment notes “Adopt-A-Snake: Anna”.

Every donation helps to feed, house, and provide medical care for the animal of your choice! 


Adopt-A-Bird Parents receive:

*         A personal visit with the animal you adopt!!!!! Call ahead to schedule a time for your personal visit.

*         Certificate of Adoption

*         Color photo of the animal you've adopted

*         Sponsorship Card

*         One year's subscription to Mews News

*         Life History and Natural History of the animal

*         10% Discount off WBS merchandise

*         Invitation to Sponsors-only events like Camera Day

*         Discounts on WBS Special Events

  *       WBS Decal