Reptile Cages & Habitats

The Burmese Python (Python molurus bivittatus) is a very large python native to southern Asia, and common in the exotic pet trade. It is semi-arboreal, but heavy-bodied. more...

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A Burmese Python at Serpent Safari Park in Gurnee, Illinois, USA holds the record for heaviest living snake, with a weight of 182.76 kg (403 lb) at a length of 8.23 m (27 ft) as of 2005. Females are typically larger than males.

Geographic Range and Habitat

The Burmese python is found throughout southeast Asia including Myanmar (formerly called Burma, their namesake), Thailand, Vietnam, China, and Indonesia. Wild populations are considered to be "threatened" and are listed on Appendix II of CITES. All the giant pythons (including the Indian Python, the African Rock Python, and the Reticulated Python) have historically been slaughtered to supply the world leather market, as well as for folk medicines, and captured for the pet trade. In more recent years extensive captive breeding of the Burmese Python has made the importation of wild caught specimens for the pet trade uncommon.

Description

Burmese Pythons are light colored snakes with many dark brown blotches bordered in black down the back. Their perceived attractiveness of their skin pattern contributes to their popularity with both reptile keepers and the leather industry. The pattern is similar in color, but different in actual pattern to the African Rock Python (Python sebae), sometimes resulting in confusion of the two species outside of their natural habitats.

Behavior

Burmese Pythons are diurnal rainforest dwellers. When younger they are equally at home on the ground and in trees, but as they gain girth they tend to restrict most of their movements to the ground. They are also excellent swimmers. Like all diurnal snakes, Burmese Pythons spend the majority of their time basking in the sun to moderate their body temperature, and to aid in digestion of meals.

Burmese Pythons breed in the early spring, with females laying clutches which average 12-36 eggs in March or April. She will remain with the eggs until they hatch, wrapping around them and twitching her muscles in such a way as to raise the ambient temperature around the eggs by several degrees. Once the hatchlings use their egg tooth to cut their way out of their eggs, there is no further maternal care.

Diet

Like all snakes, Burmese Pythons are carnivorous. They will consume a wide variety of prey items, their diet consisting primarily of appropriately sized birds and mammals which they subdue via constriction. They are often found near human habitations due to the presence of rats and other vermin as a food source. However, their equal affinity for domesticated birds and mammals means that they are often treated as a pest. In captivity their diet consists primarily of commercially available, appropriately sized rats, and moving up to larger items such as rabbits and poultry as they grow. Exceptionally large pythons may even require larger food items, such as pigs or goats.

Read more at Wikipedia.org