THE STEINHART AQUARIUM - Gulf of Guinea Science ...

218 A Docent Field Guide to the Species of the Steinhart Aquarium
Woma
Aspidites ramsayi (Pythonidae)
Pythons
Distribution: Central and southwest Australia.
Habitat: Arid zones on sandplains and
dune fields. Shelters in hollow logs, animals
burrows, or vegetation during the day.
Appearance: Like the black-headed python,
the Woma’s head is unusually narrow for
a python. Gray, olive, brown, or red-brown
above with darker olive brown to black crossbands
on the body. Sides and undersides pale.
Diet: A nocturnal hunter of small mammals,
ground birds, and lizards. Because it hunts its
prey in narrow tunnels, it cannot throw coils
around its target. Instead the snake pushes a
loop of its body against the prey, crushing it to
death against the side of the burrow.
Reproduction and Development: Oviparous,
like all pythons. The female coils around the
5–20 eggs, protecting and warming them with
heat generated by muscular “shivering” for the
2–3 month incubation period.
Conservation Status: Listed as endangered by
IUCN in 1996. Clearing of land for agriculture
and grazing and perhaps high predation by
foxes and feral cats are causes for decline.
Adelaide Zoo in South Australia is coordinating
a captive breeding program with offspring
being released to the wild. Active research
is aimed at returning the woma to its former
range.
Remarks: The woma, like its relative the blackheaded
python, lacks the heat-sensing pits that
border the mouth of most other pythons.
The woma is a prized food item for desert
Aboriginal people. Hunters follow the track
of a woma to its burrow and then dig it out.
Centralian Python
Morelia bredli (Pythonidae)
Pythons
Distribution: Northern Territory of Central
Australia.
Habitat: Arid desert areas; most often on rocky
outcrops and river banks in or around trees
and shrubs.
Appearance: A large, heavily built species,
unlike its two more slender Aspidites exhibit
companions, who are built for burrowing.
Distinct, but variable colors and pattern;
often brown-to-reddish background color
with cream patterning surrounded by black.
Undersides lighter. Length: up to 2 m, known
to reach 3 m in captivity.
Diet: Small mammals, lizards, other snakes,
and birds.
Reproduction and Development: Female lays
and incubates12–45 eggs, which hatch within
2–3 months.
Mortality/Longevity: Life span in captivity:
20–30 years.
Remarks: Known to be a “well-mannered”
species, easy to keep in captivity and thought
by many collectors to be a particularly
handsome snake.
This species may be an unexpected visitor
on rafters and ceilings of buildings in more
populated areas.
Ball Python
Python regius (Pythonidae)
Pythons
Distribution: West and Central Africa.
Habitat: Grassland, savannah, open woodlands
and agricultural areas. Nocturnally active;
often shelter in rodent burrows.
Appearance: Length to 2 m. Heavy-bodied
with small, slender head. Camouflage-colored:
black background with brown saddles, some
interspersed with black dots. Female larger
than male. Young very similar to adults in
color and pattern.
Diet: Nocturnally prey on rodents.
Reproduction and Development: Fertilization
internal. Female mature at 3 years; some males
mature at 1 year. Lay 6-8 eggs, clutch to 16 eggs.
Hatchlings are ~ 41 cm in length.
Mortality/Longevity: Live to at least 49 years
in captivity.
Conservation Status: Pet trade possibly
threatening? Anecdotal evidence suggests that
ball python populations may have benefited
from deforestation.
Remarks: Rolls into a tight ball with its head
at the center when frightened.
Most common python in captivity (~ 1,000,000
exported into captivity in the 1990s).
Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake
Crotalus adamanteus (Viperidae)