PYTHONS: CHARACTERISTICS, HUNTING, PREY

PYTHONS

royal python

Pythons are among the largest and longest snakes in the world. They are relatively common is some parts of Africa and Asia and islands in Indonesia and the Philippines. The largest pythons weigh over 150 kilograms, reach lengths of six meters and are as thick as a linebacker's thigh.

Pythons are Old World animals. They are found in Asia, Africa and Australia. Their New World equivalents are boa constrictors and anacondas (a kind of boa). They are found in Central and South America. Some smaller species are found on some Pacific islands and Africa.

Humans rarely see well-camouflaged pythons. “Someone could tell you there are 10 pythons in this area, and you could walk all day and not see them,” Brian Smith, a wildlife biologist, told the Washington Post. Still in many areas they endangered because they need large undisturbed areas to hunt and a good supply of prey and if they are seen they are relatively easy for hunters to catch because of their large size and sluggishness. Some species provide a useful service to humans by controlling populations of rodents that eat crops and otherwise are pests.

Websites and Resources on Snakes: Snake World snakesworld.info ; National Geographic snake pictures National Geographic ; Snake Species List snaketracks.com ; Herpetology Database artedi.nrm.se/nrmherps ; Big Snakes reptileknowledge.com ; Snake Taxonomy at Life is Short but Snakes are Long snakesarelong.blogspot.com; Websites and Resources on Animals: Animal Diversity Web animaldiversity.org ; BBC Earth bbcearth.com; A-Z-Animals.com a-z-animals.com; Live Science Animals livescience.com; Animal Info animalinfo.org ; World Wildlife Fund (WWF) worldwildlife.org the world’s largest independent conservation body; National Geographic National Geographic ; Endangered Animals (IUCN Red List of Threatened Species) iucnredlist.org

Biggest and Heaviest Pythons

The reticulated python (Malayopython reticulatus) of Southeast Asia is the longest snake in the world, according to the Natural History Museum. On average, it reaches 6.25 meters, (20.5 feet) and weighs around 158 kilograms (350 pounds). One measuring 6.95 meters (22.8 feet) is the longest, reliably-measured wild reticulated python. Larger sizes have been reported, some claims reach up to over 10 meters (33 feet) in length, but these are considered controversial or unreliable.

A captive reticulated python named "Medusa" was reported to measure 7.67 meters (25.2 feet) and weighed 158.8 kilograms (350 pounds). The longest snake ever recorded was a 10-meter (32-foot, 9-inch) python — longer than the height of a giraffe — killed on the island of Celebes (Sulawesi, Indonesia) in 1912. In 2008, a seven meter reticulated python named Fluffy, kept at the Columbus, Ohio zoo, was said to be the largest snake in captivity. The python was as thick as a telephone pole. According to Wikipedia at the time of her death in 1999, a Burmese python named "Baby" was the heaviest snake recorded in the world at the time. She weighed at 182.8 kilograms (403 pounds) and was 5.74 meters (18 feet 10 inches) in length.

Constricting Snakes

Snakes like boa constrictors and pythons seize their prey with their mouths, and wrap their coils around it so the prey can no longer expand its chest and breath. It was often thought that these snakes kill through suffocation, crushing or choking. But often something more than mere suffocation is also going on. A suffocated rat, for example, usually dies in four minutes. A rat killed by a constricting snake dies in one minute. Studies indicate that snakes disrupt the circulation of their victims, doubling their victims’ blood pressure so that heart can not pump sufficient blood to the brain, lungs and other tissues, killing with a heart attack or stroke.

Constriction is the term used to describe the suffocation methods of suffocating snakes. Although some species of venomous and mildly venomous snakes use constriction to subdue their prey, snakes that employ the technique venom. In many cases the suffocating snake strikes at its prey and holds on, pulling the prey into its coils. In the case of very large prey, the attacking snake pulls itself onto the prey and wraps one or two loops around the prey, forming a constriction coil. The snake monitors the prey's heartbeat to ascertain it is dead. [Source: Wikipedia]

Contrary to myth, suffocating snake do not generally crush their prey, or break their bones. However, wild anacondas have been observed to cause broken bones in large prey. Also contrary to common belief, the snake does not suffocate the victim. A study of boa constrictors showed that constriction halts blood flow and prevents oxygen from reaching vital organs such as the heart and brain, leading to unconsciousness within seconds and cardiac arrest shortly thereafter In addition, many species of snakes have been shown to constrict with pressures higher than those needed to induce cardiac arrest.

Based in part on observations of oral and nasal hemorrhaging in prey, constriction pressures are also thought to interfere with neural processing by forcing blood towards the brain. This means that constriction can work by different mechanisms at varying pressures. It likely interferes with breathing at low pressures, can interrupt blood flow and overwhelm the prey's usual blood pressure and circulation at moderate pressures, and can interfere with neural processing and damage tissues at high pressures. During constriction when the prey's heart is impeded, arterial pressure drops while venous pressure increases, and blood vessels begin to close. The heart is not strong enough to pump against the pressure and blood flow stops. Internal organs with high metabolic rates, including the brain, liver, and heart, begin to stop functioning and die due to ischemia, a loss of oxygen and glucose.

Python Characteristics

python skeleton

Pythons are among the most primitive of snakes. They don't have any eyelids and they don't produce venom but have very sharp teeth,. They are members of the boa and python family, which are characterized by their flexible jaws, the presence of vestigial hind limbs and a pelvic girdle, and a functional left lung (and sometime a right lung).

The skulls of pythons and boas are heavier and their jaws are more rigid than advanced snakes such as the colubrids, elapids and vipers. They also have retained several anatomical features from their limbed ancestors. These including a back-limb (pelvic) girdle and, in most cases, remains of back limbs in the form of small back claws or spurs.

Pythons have heat-sensitive pits in their upper lips and within the scales. This trait distinguishes them from boas which have them between their scales. The heat-sensitives pits are used to locate prey in the dark.

Python Behavior

Pythons are sluggish except when striking or wrapping their coils around prey. When pythons aren’t hunting they spend their time in their lairs, sometimes burrows of animals such as aardvarks or genets that were once meals. During the dry season, pythons coil up inside their burrows and lie dormant or lay eggs.

Pythons lay eggs and are one of the few snakes that shows parental care. Females coul around the eggs throughout the two to three month incubation period to protect them from predators. The reticulated python sometimes lays 100 eggs. The Burmese python lays between 25 and 60 eggs and rarely leaves them alone except to drink. The Indian python can raise the temperature of the clutch by coiling around it using a method that is not completely understood but seems to involve sustained twitching movements.

Pythons are good swimmers. They can remain submerged for half an hour or lie for hours near the bank, nostrils barely protruding above the water.

Python Feeding

Pythons and boas are constricting snakes that rely on constriction to to kill their prey. With large prey a python will grasp its victims with a large bite at the top of the head and then wraps its coils around the neck or body and squeezes it until it suffers cardiac arrest or suffocate. Some children have been attacked this way. If they prey is killed it is swallowed whole head first.

Pythons use their sharp, backward-curving teeth — four rows in the upper jaw, two in the lower — to grasp prey. In some cases when a boa or python gets its coils around a victim it tightens its grip every time the prey exhales. Even the larger species do not crush their prey to death. Once the prey is dead the snake searches for the head. It swallows this end first and gradually relaxes its hold on the rest of the body.

Some pythons can eat animals as large as themselves. They have been observed swallowing leopards and impala, sometimes stretching their victims as they swallow it. The diameter of their prey is usually the limiting factor. Generally though pythons avoid extremely large prey because they become grotesquely distended and have great difficulty moving and become vulnerable attacks by other predators such as crocodiles or humans. When they are distended like this and need to make a quick escape they can regurgitate their meal.

Pythons on the Hunt

Most pythons are ambush predators. They typically remain motionless in a camouflaged position, and then strike suddenly at passing prey. Pythons typically strike at and bite their prey to get a hold of it. Then then they use their physical strength and speed to quickly coil around the the prey to constrict it and swallow it whole, often starting to swallow it while it is still alive. Attacks on humans, although known to occur, are extremely rare

Pythons move very quietly and often are able to capture prey by sneaking up quietly on it. They mostly eat small birds or mammals which they surprise with their stealth. Larger species can take large prey such as deer and crocodilans.

Pythons hunt both day and night and sense their prey using their facial pits. They seize their victims with their back-curved teeth and vice-like mouths, then wrap the animal in a suffocating embrace, and finally swallow it whole. They sometimes regurgitate the bones of their victims. Pythons are good swimmers. They sometimes enter water to ambush water birds and small mammals.

Python Reproduction

rock python

Boas and pythons reproduce in different ways. Boas with the exception of one species (the Round Island boa) bear live young whereas pythons produce eggs. Relatives of boas include wood snakes, pipe snakes, and file snakes. Relatives of pythons include sunbeam snakes and aquatic file snakes.

After they lay their eggs, python females typically incubate them until they hatch. This is achieved in part by making their muscles "shiver", which raises their body temperature and the temperature of the eggs. Keeping the eggs at a constant temperature is essential for healthy embryo development. During the incubation period, females do not eat and leave only to bask to raise their body temperature.

In the case of Burmese pythons about three to four months after copulation later, the female lays her eggs, each weighing as much as 207 grams (7.3 ounces), often in in a tree hollow or burrow in the ground. At this time the female generally coils around the eggs for incubation. It is very uncommon for a female to leave the eggs during incubation but once the eggs hatch she quickly departs and young have to fend for themselves. Hatchlings use their egg tooth to cut their way out of their eggs. They often remain inside their eggs until they are ready to complete their first shedding of skin, after which they hunt for their first meal.

Species of Pythons

There are around 40 python species in 10 genera, three of which are among the largest snakes in the world. the reticulated python, Indian python and Burmese python.

The Indian python is similar to the Burmese python. It is slightly smaller and a little lighter than the Burmese python. Indian python and Burmese python used to be regarded as subspecies of the same species. Another python species, the blood python, so named because some specimens are infused with orange or red, lives in humid regions of Indonesia and Southeast Asia.

The ball python is the smallest of the African pythons and is popular in the pet trade, largely due to its typically docile temperament. It is also known as royal python or ball python. The name "ball python" refers to the animal's tendency to curl into a ball when stressed or frightened. The name "royal python" (from the Latin regius) is based in part on the story that Cleopatra supposedly wore the snake around her wrist.

The green tree python, is a species of python found in New Guinea, islands in Indonesia, and Cape York Peninsula in Australia. Primarily arboreal, these snakes have a particular way of resting in the branches of trees; they loop a coil or two over the branches in a saddle position and place their head in the middle. This trait is shared with the emerald tree boa of South America. The green python’s diet consists mostly of small mammals, such as rodents, and sometimes reptiles. This snake, like the emerald tree boa, was thought to eat birds; however,

Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons

Text Sources: Animal Diversity Web animaldiversity.org ; National Geographic, Live Science, Natural History magazine, David Attenborough books, New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Smithsonian magazine, Discover magazine, The New Yorker, Time, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Lonely Planet Guides, CNN, BBC, Wikipedia, The Guardian, Top Secret Animal Attack Files website and various books and other publications.

Last updated February 2025