A small, docile West African python that curls into a tight ball when threatened, now the most popular pet snake in the world.
Description
The ball python is a relatively small, stout python rarely over 1.5 m, with a striking pattern of golden brown blotches on a chocolate background and a creamy belly. Captive breeding has produced hundreds of colour and pattern morphs sold in the pet trade.
Behavior
When alarmed, ball pythons tuck their heads into their coils and form an almost perfect ball, giving the species its common name. In the wild they shelter in rodent burrows and termite mounds, hunting at night and feeding mostly on grass cutters and other small mammals.
Range
Found across the savannas and woodlands of West and Central Africa. Wild populations are under pressure from collection for the pet trade and skin trade, though captive breeding now supplies most of the global market.