![]() In the wild, their diet consists mostly of small mammals, such as African soft-furred rats, shrews, gerbils, and striped mice and birds. In captivity, they are considered good pets, with their relatively small size and placid nature making them easy to handle. Favored retreats include mammal burrows and other underground hiding places, where they also aestivate. In this state, it can literally be rolled around. This terrestrial species is known for its defense strategy that involves coiling into a tight ball when threatened, with its head and neck tucked away in the middle. Males tend to display more semi-arboreal behaviours, whilst females tend towards terrestrial behaviours. The ball python, however, has not been known to reproduce in the wild outside of its native range and no reproducing wild populations are known in Florida.īall pythons prefer grasslands, savannas, and sparsely wooded areas, but have been shown to adapt to all types of environments. The ball python bears a strong physical resemblance to the Burmese python, whose adaptive abilities have caused it to become classified as an invasive species in places such as the Florida Everglades. No type locality was given in the original description. They are found in west Sub Saharan Africa from Senegal, Mali, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Benin, and Nigeria through Cameroon, Chad, and the Central African Republic to Sudan and Uganda. However, those in the pet industries have, through selective breeding, developed many morphs ( genetic mutations) with altered colors and patterns. The belly is a white or cream that may include scattered black markings. The color pattern is typically black or dark brown with light brown or gold sides and dorsal blotches. ] When probing to determine sex, males typically measure eight to ten subcaudal scales, and females typically measure two to four subcaudal scales. Although males tend to have larger spurs, this is not definitive, and sex is best determined by manual eversion of the male hemipenes or inserting a probe into the cloaca to check the presence of an inverted hemipenis (if male). The scales are smooth and both sexes have anal spurs on either side of the vent. Their build is stocky, while the head is relatively small. Males typically grow to around 90–107 cm (3.0–3.5 ft). Females tend to be slightly bigger than males, maturing around 122–137 cm (4.0–4.5 ft). Maximum adult length of this species is 182 cm (6.0 ft). A common belief is that the name "royal python" (from the Latin regius) comes from the legend that rulers in Africa, especially Cleopatra, would wear the python as jewelry. The name "ball python" refers to the animal's tendency to curl into a ball when stressed or frightened. This is the smallest of the African pythons and is popular in the pet trade, largely due to its small size and typically docile temperament. Like all other pythons, it is a nonvenomous constrictor. The ball python (Python regius), also known as the royal python, is a python species found in sub-Saharan Africa.
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