How well do you know ball pythons?

Species of Constricting Snake: The Ball Python

• The ball python is a nonvenomous constrictor snake native to West and Central Africa, and it is the smallest of the African pythons, growing up to 72 inches.
• The name "ball python" refers to its tendency to curl into a ball when stressed or frightened.
• Ball pythons are typically nocturnal or crepuscular and known for their defense strategy of coiling into a tight ball when threatened.
• They prefer grasslands, savannas, and sparsely wooded areas and favor mammal burrows and other underground hiding places, where they also aestivate.
• Their diet in the wild consists mostly of small mammals and birds, with rodents making up a large percentage.
• Ball pythons are oviparous, and females lay three to 11 rather large, leathery eggs that hatch after 55 to 60 days.
• The ball python is listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List due to poaching for the international exotic pet trade, hunting for its skin, meat, and use in traditional medicine, and habitat loss.
• Ball pythons are the most popular pet snake and the second most popular pet reptile after the bearded dragon.
• Captive ball pythons are often bred for specific patterns called "morphs," and over 7,500 different morphs exist.
• The "spider" morph gene has been linked to neurological disease, and the International Herpetological Society banned the sale of spider morphs at their events beginning in 2018.
• The ball python is particularly revered by the Igbo people in southeastern Nigeria, who consider it symbolic of the earth.
• The oldest recorded ball python in captivity is 62 years, 59 of those at the Saint Louis Zoo.