Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

African rock pythons occur through­out sub-Sa­ha­ran Africa, al­though they avoid the dri­est deserts and the coolest moun­tain el­e­va­tions. Two sub­species are rec­og­nized: Python sebae sebae, north­ern African rock pythons, and Python na­tal­en­sis, south­ern African rock pythons. The north­ern sub­species is found from south of the Sa­hara to north­ern An­gola, and from Sene­gal to Ethiopia and So­ma­lia. The south­ern sub­species is found from Kenya, Zaire and Zam­bia south to the Cape of Good Hope. The two sub­species over­lap in some areas of Kenya and north­ern Tan­za­nia. Some au­thor­i­ties rec­og­nize them as full species, P. sebae and P. na­tal­en­sis. (Areste and Ce­brian, 2003; Branch, 1998; Mur­phy and Hen­der­son, 1997; Spawls, et al., 2002)

• Biogeographic Regions
• ethiopian
  • native

Habi­tat

African rock pythons pre­fer ever­green forests or moist, open sa­van­nahs. These snakes often fre­quent rocky out­crops that can be uti­lized for hid­ing pur­poses, or they may use mam­mal bur­rows in less rocky areas. African rock pythons re­port­edly have a close as­so­ci­a­tion with water and often are found near rivers and lakes. The high­est el­e­va­tion at which an African rock python was ob­served is 2300 me­ters, al­though most pythons are found well below that el­e­va­tion. (Areste and Ce­brian, 2003; Branch, 1998; Mur­phy and Hen­der­son, 1997; Spawls and Branch, 1995)

• Habitat Regions
• temperate
• tropical
• terrestrial

• Terrestrial Biomes
• savanna or grassland
• forest

• Other Habitat Features
• riparian

• Range elevation

  0 to 2300 m

  0.00 to 7545.93 ft

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

The largest snake in Africa, Python sebae av­er­ages 3 to 5 m in length. There are re­ports of much larger African rock pythons, in­clud­ing a record from the Ivory Coast of a 7.5 m spec­i­men, and a ques­tion­able re­port of an­other in­di­vid­ual from the same coun­try reach­ing a length of 9.8 m. Hatch­lings are ap­prox­i­mately 35 to 45 cm in length. As adults, African rock pythons av­er­age 44 to 55 kg in weight, with re­ports of some reach­ing well over 91 kg (200 lbs). (Branch, 1998; Mc­Cur­ley, 2003; Spawls and Branch, 1995; Spawls, et al., 2002)

African rock pythons have a rel­a­tively small, tri­an­gu­lar head that is cov­ered in ir­reg­u­lar scales that are typ­i­cally black­ish to brown­ish-gray in color. The head also has two light-col­ored bands that form a spear­head shape from the snout to the back of the head just above the eyes, as well as a yel­low, in­verted V under each eye. There are two heat-sens­ing pits on the supral­abial scales on the upper lip and four to six more pits on the in­fral­abial scales. The body is yel­low­ish, gray-brown, or gray-green, with dark blotches that form a stair­case-like pat­tern on the back. Belly scales are a white color with black specks pro­duc­ing a salt-and-pep­pery pat­tern. On the tip of the tail, there are two dark bands that are sep­a­rated by a lighter band. Ju­ve­niles are more brightly marked than adults. (Areste and Ce­brian, 2003; Branch, 1998; Spawls and Branch, 1995; Spawls, et al., 2002)

It has been noted that in­di­vid­u­als found in the cen­tral and west­ern parts of Africa are some­what more brightly marked than their north­ern, east­ern and south­ern coun­ter­parts. Of the two sub­species, P. s. sebae, of north­ern and west­ern Africa, is gen­er­ally larger, has larger head scales, and is more brightly col­ored than P. s. na­tal­en­sis. (Branch, 1998; Spawls and Branch, 1995; Spawls, et al., 2002)

• Other Physical Features
• heterothermic

• Sexual Dimorphism
• female larger

• Range mass

  44 to 91 kg

  96.92 to 200.44 lb

• Average mass

  55 kg

  121.15 lb

• Range length

  4 to 7.5 m

  13.12 to 24.61 ft

De­vel­op­ment

African rock python eggs are laid in hol­lows and pro­tected by the coils of their mother dur­ing de­vel­op­ment. Once the young hatch they are in­de­pen­dent.

Re­pro­duc­tion

Some au­thors have re­ported large, sea­sonal con­gre­ga­tions of African rock pythons and have sug­gested that these are mat­ing ag­gre­ga­tions, but lit­tle is known about mat­ing in the wild.

Male and fe­male African rock pythons reach sex­ual ma­tu­rity at three to five years of age. Males will begin breed­ing at a size of 1.8 m, while fe­males will wait until they have ex­ceeded at least 2.7 m. Breed­ing usu­ally takes place be­tween No­vem­ber and March. De­clin­ing tem­per­a­ture and chang­ing pho­tope­riod act as sig­nals for snakes to begin breed­ing. Dur­ing the breed­ing sea­son, both males and fe­males cease feed­ing, with fe­males con­tin­u­ing to fast until the eggs hatch. The fe­male lays her eggs about three months after cop­u­la­tion. Clutches are, on av­er­age, 20 to 50 eggs in num­ber, al­though a large fe­male can lay as many as 100 eggs in a sin­gle clutch. The eggs are quite large, often weigh­ing 130 to 170 grams, and about 100 mm in di­am­e­ter. (Areste and Ce­brian, 2003; Branch, 1998; Mc­Cur­ley, 2003; Spawls and Branch, 1995; Spawls, et al., 2002)

• Key Reproductive Features
• iteroparous
• seasonal breeding
• sexual
• oviparous

• Breeding interval

  African rock pythons breed once yearly.

• Breeding season

  Breeding usually takes place between November and March.

• Range number of offspring

  20 to 100

• Average number of offspring

  20-50

• Range gestation period

  65 to 80 days

• Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)

  3 to 5 years

• Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)

  3 to 5 years

The fe­male will lay her eggs in a tree hol­low, ter­mite nest or mam­mal bur­row and coil around them. This coil­ing be­hav­ior may be largely for pro­tec­tion, as the fe­male does not "shiver" to cre­ate extra heat for in­cu­ba­tion as re­ported for some other python species. How­ever, a Cameroon spec­i­men had a body tem­per­a­ture 6.5 de­grees C higher than am­bi­ent tem­per­a­ture. De­sired in­cu­ba­tion tem­per­a­ture is 31 to 32 de­grees C (88 to 90 de­grees F). In 65 to 80 days the eggs will hatch, at which time the fe­male will leave the young to fend for them­selves. Hatch­lings av­er­age 450 to 600 mm in length. (Areste and Ce­brian, 2003; Branch, 1998; Mc­Cur­ley, 2003; Spawls and Branch, 1995; Spawls, et al., 2002)

• Parental Investment
• pre-fertilization
  • provisioning
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-hatching/birth
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female

Lifes­pan/Longevity

African rock pythons can live for up to 30 years in cap­tiv­ity. (Branch, 1998; Mc­Cur­ley, 2003)

• Range lifespan
  Status: captivity

  30 (high) years

• Average lifespan
  Status: captivity

  18.0 years

  Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research

• Average lifespan
  Sex: female
  Status: captivity

  27.3 years

  Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research

Be­hav­ior

Like many other snake species, African rock pythons are fairly soli­tary snakes, seek­ing out their own kind only dur­ing the breed­ing sea­son. Being a large-bod­ied snake, rock pythons mainly stay on the ground, but some­times climb if the need arises. They can swim well and stay sub­merged for a long time, which is ad­van­ta­geous for avoid­ing po­ten­tial threats. Al­though pri­mar­ily noc­tur­nal as adults, rock pythons may be ac­tive dur­ing the day to bask in the sun for ther­moreg­u­la­tion. Ju­ve­niles, how­ever, are mostly ac­tive at dawn and dusk, pre­fer­ring to re­treat to the safety of a rock for­ma­tion or hol­low tree dur­ing the day and night. (Areste and Ce­brian, 2003; Branch, 1998; Spawls and Branch, 1995)

African rock pythons have a rep­u­ta­tion for being par­tic­u­larly ag­gres­sive snakes, with pro­nounced feed­ing re­sponses and spir­ited de­fen­sive be­hav­ior. If un­able to es­cape when threat­ened, an African rock python will bite and con­strict with great fe­roc­ity. They have large, re­curved teeth and bites are ex­cru­ci­at­ingly painful and can be­come eas­ily in­fected if not treated promptly. Due to the sizes that this species can reach, their con­strict­ing power must be re­spected. When in cap­tiv­ity, a wild-caught in­di­vid­ual will rarely ac­cli­mate to being han­dled or con­fined to a cage. Cap­tive-bred in­di­vid­u­als may be­come docile with a lot of han­dling, but over­all these are ag­gres­sive snakes and gen­er­ally a poor choice for cap­tive hus­bandry. (Areste and Ce­brian, 2003; Branch, 1998; Mc­Cur­ley, 2003; Spawls and Branch, 1995)

• Key Behaviors
• terricolous
• nocturnal
• crepuscular
• sedentary
• solitary

Home Range

Home range size in the wild is un­known.

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

As in all snakes, African rock pythons have a well-de­vel­oped vomeronasal (Ja­cob­son's) organ sys­tem, sup­plied by the tongue. This al­lows per­cep­tion of chem­i­cals (odors) in the en­vi­ron­ment, such as prey odors and pheromones pro­duced by other pythons. Pythons also pos­sess heat-sens­ing pits in the labial scales that de­tect in­frared (heat) pat­terns given off by en­dother­mic preda­tors and prey. (Cog­ger and Zweifel, 1998)

• Communication Channels
• visual
• tactile
• chemical

• Other Communication Modes
• pheromones
• scent marks

• Perception Channels
• visual
• infrared/heat
• tactile
• acoustic
• vibrations
• chemical

Food Habits

African rock pythons are car­ni­vores and feed pri­mar­ily on ter­res­trial ver­te­brates. As ju­ve­niles, these pythons feed on small mam­mals, es­pe­cially rats. Once adult sized, they will move onto larger prey, such as mon­keys, croc­o­diles, large lizards, and an­te­lope. They will some­times take fish as well. If African rock pythons live near hu­mans, fam­ily pets and live­stock may be eaten. (Areste and Ce­brian, 2003; Branch and Hacke, 1980; Branch, 1998; Luiselli, et al., 2001; Spawls and Branch, 1995)

African rock pythons gen­er­ally hunt at twi­light using their heat-sens­ing pits. Once a prey item has been found, the python will sit pa­tiently or move slowly to­ward the prey. Once in range, the python will strike with dev­as­tat­ing speed and ac­cu­racy, sink­ing its long curved teeth into the prey's flesh and coil­ing around it. The power of these snakes is in­cred­i­ble. A large adult snake can tackle an an­te­lope weigh­ing up to 59 kg. (Areste and Ce­brian, 2003; Branch, 1998; Mc­Cur­ley, 2003; Mur­phy and Hen­der­son, 1997; Spawls and Branch, 1995)

African rock pythons con­strict their prey as do other mem­bers of the fam­ily Boidae (boas, pythons and ana­con­das). Con­trary to pop­u­lar be­lief, large con­strict­ing snakes do not crush their prey to death, but rather as­phyx­i­ate or com­press them until they die of car­dio­vas­cu­lar shock. As the prey breathes out, the snake tight­ens its coils so that the prey can­not breathe in again. Even­tu­ally, the prey suf­fo­cates or ex­pires from heart fail­ure and is swal­lowed whole. These snakes can go long pe­ri­ods of time be­tween meals if nec­es­sary. A cap­tive spec­i­men re­port­edly fasted for over 2.5 years. (Areste and Ce­brian, 2003; Cog­ger and Zweifel, 1998; Mur­phy and Hen­der­son, 1997; Spawls and Branch, 1995; Spawls, et al., 2002)

• Primary Diet
• carnivore
  • eats terrestrial vertebrates

• Animal Foods
• birds
• mammals
• reptiles
• fish

Pre­da­tion

Aside from hu­mans, adult African rock pythons have few nat­ural preda­tors due to their large size. How­ever, dur­ing long di­ges­tion pe­ri­ods a python may be­come vul­ner­a­ble to pre­da­tion by hye­nas or African wild dogs.

Ju­ve­niles are prob­a­bly sub­ject to at­tack by more preda­tors. (Areste and Ce­brian, 2003; Branch, 1998)

• Anti-predator Adaptations
• cryptic

• Known Predators

  • hyenas Hyaenidae
  • African wild dogs Lycaon pictus

Ecosys­tem Roles

These snakes are preda­tors on small to mod­er­ately large ver­te­brates. As ec­totherms, they feed in­fre­quently com­pared to en­dother­mic preda­tors (such as mam­malian preda­tors), and over-all ef­fects on prey pop­u­la­tions are pre­sum­ably min­i­mal in com­par­i­son.

Ju­ve­nile pythons are prey for nu­mer­ous preda­tors; adults are much less vul­ner­a­ble but are oc­ca­sion­ally killed by larger mam­mals. (Cog­ger and Zweifel, 1998)

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

Hu­mans ex­ploit Python sebae in a num­ber of ways. The most lu­cra­tive use is its skin and meat. The skin es­pe­cially is highly de­sired by con­sumers, with the num­ber of skins ex­ported reach­ing near 9,300 in 2002. Hu­mans also at­tempt to make pets out of African rock pythons. While a cap­tive born python may be docile if ac­cus­tomed to han­dling, wild-caught in­di­vid­u­als do not make good pets be­cause of their ag­gres­sion. An­other ben­e­fit pro­vided to hu­mans comes from ju­ve­nile snakes. Since younger African rock pythons eat rats, they help to con­trol pests in areas of human habi­ta­tion. Pythons are ven­er­ated and pro­tected in some cul­tures. (Areste and Ce­brian, 2003; Branch, 1998; Luiselli, et al., 2001; Mc­Cur­ley, 2003; Spawls, et al., 2002)

• Positive Impacts
• pet trade
• food
• body parts are source of valuable material
• controls pest population

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

These snakes some­times will feed on live­stock and pets of local human res­i­dents, par­tic­u­larly if nat­ural prey has be­come scarce. In the past, rock pythons have been ob­served feed­ing on dogs, goats, poul­try and other live­stock that are im­por­tant to the liveli­hood of the na­tive peo­ples. (Luiselli, et al., 2001; Spawls, et al., 2002)

African rock pythons can also be a dan­ger to hu­mans. Al­though it is rare that a python will at­tack with­out provo­ca­tion, there are sev­eral re­ports of rock python at­tacks on hu­mans. Often, a human will star­tle a snake, caus­ing it to bite. More rarely, the python may even con­strict a human to death, and smaller hu­mans have been eaten in ex­tremely un­usual cir­cum­stances. Al­though peo­ple are oc­ca­sion­ally killed by pythons, the pythons are not al­ways killed in re­tal­i­a­tion. The of­fend­ing snake may be trans­ported to a dif­fer­ent area where it is less likely to come into con­tact with hu­mans. (Branch and Hacke, 1980; Branch, 1998; Spawls, et al., 2002)

• Negative Impacts
• injures humans
  • bites or stings

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

African rock pythons are no longer as wide­spread as they once were. Python sebae is now re­stricted mainly to hunt­ing re­serves, na­tional parks and se­cluded sec­tions of the African sa­van­nah. Re­duc­tion in avail­able prey an­i­mals and hunt­ing for its meat and skin has caused this species to de­cline in num­bers over the years. Larger in­di­vid­u­als are in­creas­ingly rare in many areas. African rock pythons have been placed on Ap­pen­dix II of CITES and are legally pro­tected in cer­tain coun­tries where pop­u­la­tions have be­come in­creas­ingly vul­ner­a­ble (such as South Africa). (Areste and Ce­brian, 2003; Branch, 1998; Spawls, et al., 2002)

• IUCN Red List

  Not Evaluated

• US Federal List

  No special status

• CITES

  Appendix II

Con­trib­u­tors

Tanya Dewey (ed­i­tor), An­i­mal Di­ver­sity Web.

Patrick Sher­man (au­thor), Michi­gan State Uni­ver­sity, James Hard­ing (ed­i­tor, in­struc­tor), Michi­gan State Uni­ver­sity.

Ref­er­ences

Areste, M., R. Ce­brian. 2003. Snakes of the World. New York: Ster­ling Pub­lish­ing Co., Inc..

Branch, B. 1998. Field Guide to Snakes and Other Rep­tiles of South­ern Africa. Sani­bel Is­land, Florida: Ralph Cur­tis Books.

Branch, W., D. Hacke. 1980. A fatal at­tack on a young boy by an African rock python Python sebae . Jour­nal of Her­petol­ogy, 14(3): 305-307.

Cog­ger, H., R. Zweifel. 1998. En­cy­clo­pe­dia of Rep­tiles and Am­phib­ians. San Diego, Cal­i­for­nia: Aca­d­e­mic Press.

Luiselli, L., F. An­gelici, G. Akani. 2001. Food habits of Python sebae in sub­ur­ban and nat­ural habi­tats. African Jour­nal of Ecol­ogy, 39: 116-118.

Mc­Cur­ley, K. 2003. "New Eng­land Rep­tile" (On-line). Ac­cessed Oc­to­ber 22, 2006 at http://​www.​newenglandreptile.​com.

Mur­phy, J., R. Hen­der­son. 1997. Tales of Giant Snakes. Mal­abar, Florida: Krieger Pub­lish­ing Com­pany.

Spawls, S., K. How­ell, R. Drewes, J. Ashe. 2002. A Field Guide to Rep­tiles of East Africa. San Diego, Cal­i­for­nia: Aca­d­e­mic Press.

Spawls, S., B. Branch. 1995. The Dan­ger­ous Snakes of Africa. South Africa: South­ern Book Pub­lish­ers, Ltd..