Scientific Classification
- Common Name
- carpet python
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Reptilia
- Order
- Squamata
- Family
- Boidae
- Genus Species
- Morelia spilotes variegata
Fast Facts
- Description
- Carpet pythons are medium-sized pythons. They are named for their beautiful markings, which resemble an oriental carpet pattern. They can have black-to-gray patterns of blotches, cross bands, stripes, or a combination of these markings on a light yellowish-to-dark brown background.
- Size
- Adults measure 2-3.6 m (6.5-12 ft.) in length; average adult length is 2.4 m (8 ft.); carpet python hatchlings are approximately 30 cm (12 in.) in length
- Weight
- No data
- Diet
- Variety of birds and mammals, including marsupials
- Incubation
- Average of 40 days
Even though a carpet python is not warm-blooded, a female can raise her body temperature by twitching her muscles. This muscular activity creates enough warmth to incubate the eggs. The incubation temperature of the eggs may determine the young snakes' sexes, just as with some other reptiles.
Clutch Size: Up to 18 eggs
- Sexual Maturity
- 2.5-3 years
- Life Span
- Large bodied snakes, like the carpet python, can live more than 20 years in the natural environment, and even longer in controlled settings.
- Range
- Carpet pythons are found in Australia (except central western and extreme southeastern regions) and New Guinea.
- Habitat
- They live in a variety of habitats from eastern coastal rain forests to central desert areas.
- Population
- Global: No data
- Status
- IUCN: Not listed
CITES: Appendix II
USFWS: Not llsted
Fun Facts
- Pythons are primitive snakes that have vestigial or leftover pelvic girdles and hind limbs that show up externally as a pair of "spurs" near the base of the tail. Male pythons use these spurs during courtship and mating.
- Nesting behavior depends on a particular carpet python's range - terrestrial desert snakes use other animals' abandoned burrows in which to lay eggs, while arboreal or tree-dwelling forest snakes use tree hollows.
Ecology and Conservation
Many snakes in the python family are collected from the wild for the pet trade. Adults are collected for their attractive skins and slaughtered for their leather.
In many parts of the world, over-collection of these predators has resulted in ecological imbalances that often affect local people. Larger snakes frequently feed on nuisance animals such as rodents that destroy crops and spread disease. Also, many other important predators like birds-of-prey feed on young snakes. This means that snakes fulfill roles as both predators and prey in regional food chains.
Bibliography
Coborn, John. The Atlas of Snakes of the World. New Jersey: T.F.H. Publications, inc. 1991.
Mehrtens, John M. Living Snakes of the World. New York: Sterling Publishing Co., 1987.
Stafford, Peter J. Pythons and Boas. New Jersey: T.F.H. Publications, Inc., 1986.
