Animal Diversity Web

Ge­o­graphic Range

Ball pythons (Python regius), also known as royal pythons, are found in the grass­lands and open forests of West and Cen­tral Africa. They are na­tive to the Su­danese sub­province west of the Nile, in south­ern Sudan, the Bahrel Ghazal and Nuba Moun­tains Re­gion, from Sene­gal to Sierra Leone in West Africa, and in the Ivory Coast and some parts of Cen­tral Africa. (De Vosjoli, et al., 1995; Sill­man, et al., 1999)

• Biogeographic Regions
• ethiopian
  • native

Habi­tat

Ball pythons spend most of their time on or under the ground in bur­rows. They are most ac­tive at dawn and dusk. They in­habit sa­vanna grass­lands or open forests and are found in areas that have been cleared for farm­ing. (De Vosjoli, et al., 1995)

• Habitat Regions
• tropical
• terrestrial

• Terrestrial Biomes
• savanna or grassland

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

At birth, ball pythons range from 25 to 43 cen­time­ters in length and grow to 1 to 1.5 me­ters as adults. There are some re­ports of ball pythons found in the wild at 1.83 me­ters in length. Their heads are larger than their rel­a­tively slen­der necks and they are con­sid­ered heavy-bod­ied. The typ­i­cal ball python has large brown mark­ings with lighter medium-brown spots in­ter­spersed be­tween the darker spots. They may also have yel­low stripes from the nos­trils through the eyes. The belly is gen­er­ally ivory white. Adult fe­male ball pythons are larger than adult males. This sex­ual di­mor­phism is not pre­sent in neonates, but is ap­par­ent in adults. Adult fe­males also have longer jaws than their male coun­ter­parts. The re­sul­tant in­crease in swal­low­ing ca­pac­ity may im­prove their hunt­ing abil­ity. (Aubret, et al., 2005; Barker and Barker, 2006; De Vosjoli, et al., 1995)

• Other Physical Features
• heterothermic
• polymorphic

• Sexual Dimorphism
• female larger

• Range length

  1 to 1.83 m

  3.28 to 6.00 ft

De­vel­op­ment

Ball python hatch­lings range from 25 to 43 cen­time­ters; adults from 0.9 to 1.5 me­ters. The ges­ta­tion pe­riod is about 44 to 54 days. Most ball pythons lay their eggs dur­ing the sec­ond half of the dry sea­son, from mid-Feb­ru­ary to the be­gin­ning of April. Eggs are then hatched from mid-April to mid June. Ap­prox­i­mately 3 weeks after ovu­la­tion, a fe­male ball python be­gins to shed its skin. Eggs are laid about 4 weeks later. (De Vosjoli, et al., 1995)

Re­pro­duc­tion

After lay­ing their clutch of eggs, fe­male ball pythons coil around their clutches until hatched (after ap­prox­i­mately 2 months). Hatch­lings are im­me­di­ately in­de­pen­dent, but re­main in the vicin­ity for months after. (Aubret, et al., 2002)

• Mating System
• polygynandrous (promiscuous)

Ball pythons have long re­pro­duc­tive lives that last from about 27 months to 30 years. The breed­ing sea­son is pri­mar­ily from mid-Sep­tem­ber through mid-No­vem­ber, cor­re­lat­ing with the minor rainy sea­son. A clutch is from 1 to 11 eggs. The eggs typ­i­cally ad­here to each other. A few days be­fore hatch­ing they lose their ad­he­sion. After the eggs are no longer at­tached and are ready to hatch, baby ball pythons slit the shells with their egg tooth and work their way out. Weight at birth is 65 to 103 grams, with an av­er­age of 86 grams. Fe­male ball pythons reach re­pro­duc­tive ma­tu­rity from 27 to 31 months. Males reach re­pro­duc­tive ma­tu­rity at 16 to 18 months. Both male and fe­male ball pythons have large cloa­cal spurs.

Hu­mans can de­ter­mine python sex by plac­ing a probe through the cloa­cal spur and into the in­verted hemipe­nis. The probe will travel deeper into the base of the tail for male ball pythons, span­ning 8 to 10 sub­cau­dal scales in con­trast to fe­males in which the probe may be only in­serted a dis­tance of 2 to 4 sub­cau­dal scales. (De Vosjoli, et al., 1995)

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

• Breeding interval

  Breeding occurs yearly.

• Breeding season

  Breeding is from mid-September through mid-November, correlating with the minor rainy season.

• Range number of offspring

  1 to 11

• Average number of offspring

  7

  AnAge

• Range gestation period

  44 to 54 days

• Average time to independence

  1 minutes

• Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)

  27 to 31 months

• Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (male)

  16 to 18 months

Once fe­male ball pythons lay their eggs, they con­sis­tently ball around the eggs for pro­tec­tion. Ball pythons also stay in close prox­im­ity to eggs to pro­tect them from preda­tors. (Ellis and Chap­pell, 1986)

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

Lifes­pan/Longevity

The av­er­age lifes­pan of ball pythons in cap­tiv­ity is 20 years. Re­ports doc­u­ment the max­i­mum lifes­pan in cap­tiv­ity ranges from 28 years (at the Oak­land Zoo) up to 50 years (re­ported by the Philadel­phia Zoo). Av­er­age life span in the wild is re­ported to be 10 years. (Gorzula, et al., 1997; Bartlett and Bartlett, 2000; Bartlett, et al., 2001; Gorzula, et al., 1997)

• Range lifespan
  Status: captivity

  48 (high) years

• Average lifespan
  Status: captivity

  20 years

• Average lifespan
  Status: wild

  10 years

• Average lifespan
  Status: captivity

  20 years

• Average lifespan
  Sex: male
  Status: captivity

  30.5 years

  Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research

• Average lifespan
  Status: captivity

  8.7 years

  Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research

Be­hav­ior

Ball pythons move by way of rec­ti­lin­ear lo­co­mo­tion, whereby bi­lat­eral sym­met­ri­cal con­trac­tions pro­pel them for­ward as they push against the sur­face. Ball pythons are known for the pro­tec­tive mech­a­nism of “balling,” where they form a tight ball with the head at the cen­ter in re­sponse to threats, earn­ing them their com­mon name, "ball python." (Bus­tard, 1969; De Vosjoli, et al., 1995; Greene, 1997; Mc­Don­ald, 1996; Sill­man, et al., 1999)

• Key Behaviors
• terricolous
• nocturnal
• sedentary
• solitary

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

Vi­sion plays an im­por­tant role in a ball python’s abil­ity to se­cure prey. Re­search on the way these snakes be­haved under bright light de­ter­mined that ul­tra­vi­o­let ac­tiv­ity may be a fac­tor in cap­tur­ing prey. Other re­search sug­gests that ball pythons may fol­low the scent trails of their mam­malian prey be­cause those trails re­flect ul­tra­vi­o­let light. (Mc­Don­ald, 1996; Sill­man, et al., 1999)

• Communication Channels
• visual
• tactile
• chemical

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

Food Habits

Ball pythons are car­niv­o­rous and have mo­bile lower and upper jaws. They use chem­i­cal and vi­sual cues to hunt for their prey. Ball pythons sit and wait to am­bush prey. As heavy-bod­ied snakes, they are less ac­tive and in­stead choose good am­bush sites. The feed­ing strat­egy is to re­tract the head and neck and strike rapidly. After the rapid strike, they swal­low prey alive or im­mo­bi­lize by con­stric­tion. They feed al­most ex­clu­sively on ro­dents and eat in­fre­quently. In­fre­quent feed­ers have adapted by hav­ing the ca­pac­ity to widely reg­u­late gas­troin­testi­nal func­tion­ing with feed­ing and fast­ing. Ball pythons prey on ro­dents and are vital to con­trol­ling these pests, es­pe­cially in rural com­mu­ni­ties. Ro­dent prey in­cludes African giant rats (Crice­to­mys gam­bianus), black rats (Rat­tus rat­tus), ru­fous-nosed rats (Oeno­mys species), shaggy rats (Dasymys species), and grass mice (Lem­nis­comys species). (Greene, 1997; Ott and Secor, 2007)

• Primary Diet
• carnivore
  • eats terrestrial vertebrates

• Animal Foods
• mammals

Pre­da­tion

Ball pythons at­tempt to avoid de­tec­tion by preda­tors and to seek cover. De­fenses in­clude cam­ou­flage, es­cape at­tempts, bluff­ing dis­plays, and bit­ing. Ball pythons are best known for “balling,” in which they form a tight ball with the head at the cen­ter. There are few known preda­tors of adults, al­though the trap­pers of Ghana have re­ported that black co­bras (Naja ni­gri­col­lis) prey on small and medium pythons. Some known preda­tors, es­pe­cially of young pythons, in­clude hu­mans (Homo sapi­ens), car­niv­o­rous mam­mals, and birds of prey. (Greene, 1997)

• Anti-predator Adaptations
• cryptic

• Known Predators

  • humans (Homo sapiens)
  • carnivores (Carnivora)
  • large birds of prey (Falconiformes)
  • black cobras (Naja nigricollis)

Ecosys­tem Roles

Ball pythons are found in west­ern to cen­tral Africa, just north of the equa­tor. They are found in grass­lands and open forests, and in areas with some cover. They are typ­i­cally found near open water so they can cool them­selves dur­ing hot weather. They spend most of their time on or in bur­rows under the ground, al­though they are able to climb. They are pri­mar­ily noc­tur­nal and ac­tive dur­ing the wet sea­son. Bush fires can also af­fect ball pythons. In ad­di­tion, farm­ers may kill ball pythons out of fear.

Ticks are pri­mary par­a­sites, with a slightly higher tick bur­den in males than fe­males. This may be due to the pro­longed pe­ri­ods of im­mo­bil­ity in fe­males dur­ing the two months of brood­ing their clutch. Male move­ment to cap­i­tal­ize on en­coun­ters with fe­males may in­crease their risk of ex­po­sure to ticks. There are also in­ter­nal par­a­sites found in ball pythons in­clud­ing, Try­panosoma varani, Hel­pa­to­zoon (Api­com­plexa: Ade­lo­rina), and Spini­cauda regien­sis. (Aubret, et al., 2005; De Vosjoli, et al., 1995; Gorzula, et al., 1997; Mukhtar, et al., 2009; Platt and Bush, 1979; Slo­boda, et al., 2007)

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

The eco­nomic im­por­tance of ball pythons to rural com­mu­ni­ties of cen­tral and west­ern Afria is the con­trol of ro­dents. The mag­ni­tude of this ben­e­fit is in the mil­lions of dol­lars per year. Even though ball pythons are ex­ported, there is lit­tle di­rect eco­nomic ben­e­fit to rural com­mu­ni­ties ex­cept the eco­nomic im­pact of pro­vid­ing lodg­ing and food for trap­pers. There are some areas where ball pythons are con­sid­ered sa­cred and are fully pro­tected. In these areas there seems to be an aware­ness of the ben­e­fits of these pythons. Al­though ball pythons can be bred in cap­tiv­ity, most are im­ported from Africa. Ap­prox­i­mately 30,000 to 50,000 ball pythons are ex­ported an­nu­ally to Amer­ica, mostly as hatch­lings from wild pythons. Ball pythons are eas­ily han­dled snakes, which is what makes them good pets. Trap­pers of ball pythons tend to be eco­nom­i­cally vul­ner­a­ble, which dri­ves them to­wards trap­ping these snakes for ex­port. Ball pythons are also oc­ca­sion­ally eaten. (Aubret, et al., 2005; Bartlett and Bartlett, 2000; De Vosjoli, et al., 1995; Gorzula, et al., 1997)

• Positive Impacts
• pet trade
• controls pest population

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

There are few neg­a­tive ef­fects of ball pythons on hu­mans, as these snakes do not tend to be ag­gres­sive. (De Vosjoli, et al., 1995; Gorzula, et al., 1997)

• Negative Impacts
• household pest

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Be­cause of their large range and high, sta­ble pop­u­la­tion num­bers, ball pythons are not con­sid­ered threat­ened cur­rently. A change to highly mech­a­nized farm­ing and sub­stan­tial use of agro­chem­i­cals may change sur­vival rates of ball pythons, af­fect­ing pop­u­la­tions. (Gorzula, et al., 1997)

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• IUCN Red List

  Least Concern
  More information

• US Federal List

  No special status

• CITES

  No special status

Con­trib­u­tors

Alex Graf (au­thor), Rad­ford Uni­ver­sity, Karen Pow­ers (ed­i­tor), Rad­ford Uni­ver­sity, Tanya Dewey (ed­i­tor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor.

Ref­er­ences

Aubret, F., X. Bon­net, M. Har­ris, S. Maume­lat. 2005. Sex Dif­fer­ences in Body Size and Ec­topar­a­site Load in the Ball Python, Python regius.. Jour­nal of Her­petol­ogy, 39/2: 312-215.

Aubret, F., X. Bon­nter, R. Shine, S. Maume­lat. 2002. Clutch size ma­nip­u­la­tion, hatch­ing suc­cess and off­spring phe­no­type in the ball python ( Python regius ). Bi­o­log­i­cal Jour­nal of the Lin­nean So­ci­ety, 78: 263–272.

Barker, D., T. Barker. 2006. "The Ball Python Care Sheet" (On-line). Ac­cessed Feb­ru­ary 18, 2010 at http://​www.​vpi.​com/​publications/​the_​ball_​python_​care_​sheet.

Bartlett, P., E. Wag­ner. 1997. Pythons: every­thing about se­lec­tion, care, nu­tri­tion, dis­eases, breed­ing. Haup­pauge, New York: Bar­rons Ed­u­ca­tional se­ries.

Bartlett, P., B. Gris­wold, R. Bartlett. 2001. Rep­tiles, am­phib­ians, and in­ver­te­brates: an iden­ti­fi­ca­tion and care guide. Haup­pauge, New York: Bar­rons Ed­u­ca­tional se­ries.

Bartlett, R., P. Bartlett. 2000. Ball Pythons. Haup­pauge, New York: Bar­rons Ed­u­ca­tional se­ries.

Bus­tard, H. 1969. De­fen­sive Be­hav­ior and Lo­co­mo­tion of the Pa­cific Boa, Can­doia as­pera, with a Brief Re­view of Head Con­ceal­ment in Snakes. Her­peto­log­ica, 25/3: 164-170.

De Vosjoli, P., R. Klin­gen­berg, T. Barker, D. Barker. 1995. Ball Python Man­ual. San­tee, Cal­i­for­nia: Ad­vanced Vi­var­ium Sys­tems.

Doe­den, M. 2005. Pythons. Mankato, Min­nesota: Cap­stone Press.

Ellis, T., M. Chap­pell. 1986. Me­tab­o­lism, tem­per­a­ture re­la­tions, ma­ter­nal be­hav­ior, and re­pro­duc­tive en­er­get­ics in the ball python (Python­regius). Jour­nal of Com­par­a­tive Phys­i­ol­ogy B, 157/3: 393-403.

Gorzula, S., W. Nsiah, W. Oduro. 1997. "Sur­vey of the Sta­tus and Man­age­ment of the Royal Python (Python regius) in Ghana" (On-line pdf). Ac­cessed April 23, 2010 at ec.​europa.​eu/​environment/​cites/​pdf/​studies/​royal_​python_​ghana.​pdf.

Greene, H. 1997. Snakes: The Evo­lu­tion of Mys­tery and Na­ture. Berke­ley, Cal­i­for­nia: Berkley Uni­ver­sity of Cal­i­for­nia Press.

Luiselli, L., F. An­gelici. 1998. Sex­ual size di­mor­phism and nat­ural his­tory traits are cor­re­lated with in­ter­sex­ual di­etary di­ver­gence in royal pythons (Python regius) from the rain­forests of south­east­ern Nige­ria. Ital­ian Jour­nal of Zo­ol­ogy, 65/2: 183-185.

Luiselli, L. 2006. Why do males and fe­males of Python regius dif­fer in ec­topar­a­site load?. Am­phibia-Rep­tilia, 27/3: 469-471.

Mary Ann, M. 1996. Pythons. Min­neapo­lis, MN: Cap­stone Press.

Mat­ti­son, C. 1986. Snakes of the World. New York, New York: Fact on File Pub­li­ca­tions.

Mc­Don­ald, M. 1996. Pythons. Min­neapo­lis: Cap­ston Press.

Mukhtar, M., Y. Une, H. Kawa­bata, A. Takano, H. Sato, H. Watan­abe. 2009. Try­panosoma cf. varani in an Im­ported Ball Python (Python regi­nus) From Ghana. The Jour­nal of Par­a­sitol­ogy, 95/4: 1029-1033.

O'Shea, M. 2007. Boas and Pythons of the World. Lon­don: New Hol­land Pub­lish­ers.

Ott, B., S. Secor. 2007. Adap­tive reg­u­la­tion of di­ges­tive per­for­mance in the genus Python. Jour­nal of Ex­per­i­men­tal Bi­ol­ogy, 210: 340-356.

Parker, H. 1963. Snakes of the World. New York: Dover Pub­li­ca­tions.

Platt, T., A. Bush. 1979. Spini­cauda regien­sis n. sp. (Ne­ma­toda: Het­er­akoidea), a par­a­site of the ball python ( Python regius).. Jour­nal of Helminthol­ogy, 53/3: 257-260.

Seigel, R., J. Collins, S. Novak. 1987. Snakes-- ecol­ogy and evo­lu­tion­ary bi­ol­ogy. New York, New York: Macmil­lan Pub­lish­ing Co..

Sill­man, A., J. Carver, E. Loew. 1999. The pho­tore­cep­tors and vi­sual pig­ments in the retina of a boid snake, the ball python (Python regius). Jour­nal of Ex­per­i­men­tal Bi­ol­ogy, 202/14: 1931-1938.

Slo­boda, M., M. Kam­ler, J. Bu­lan­tova, J. Vo­typka, D. Modry. 2007. A New Species of He­pa­to­zoon (Api­com­plexa: Adele­o­rina) from Python regius (Ser­pentes: Pythonidae) and Its Ex­per­i­men­tal Trans­mis­sion by a Mos­quito Vec­tor. The Jour­nal of Par­a­sitol­ogy, 93/5: 1189-1198.

Starck, J., P. Moser, R. Werner, P. Linke. 2004. Pythons me­tab­o­lize prey to fuel the re­sponse to feed­ing. The Royal So­ci­ety, 271/1542: 903-908.

Wright, A., A. Wright. 1957. Hand­book of Snakes. Ithaca, New York: Com­stock Pub­lish­ing As­so­ci­ates.