#indian python

Today's animal of the day is the Indian Python (Python molurus)!

Photo credit: Adit Patel

This large species of snake can be found throughout the Indian subcontinent and can be found in a wide variety of habitats such as tropical rainforests, wetlands, and grasslands. Though they usually prefer slightly drier habitats over moist ones. They are often mistaken for their larger cousin, the Burmese python, but the Indian python tends to have a lighter coloration and is slightly smaller. The average size for this snake is 9 ft 10 inches, but the largest confirmed specimens were measured to be around 11 ft 10 inches! There are some unconfirmed reports of this species getting slightly larger, but these are hard to verify since many of these reports are either cases of people confusing them with Burmese pythons or just straight-up fabrications/exaggerations.

Photo credit: Pravin V Vishe

Like all pythons, the Indian python lacks venom and instead kills its prey via constriction. Depending on their size, they've been observed killing and eating toads, geckos, squirrels, civets, monitor lizards, mongooses, domestic dogs, monkeys, porcupines, deer, boars, hyenas, jackals, and even small cows! However, these snakes are extremely hesitant to attack humans and will prefer to flee even when provoked rather than strike. That's not to say that no one's ever been bitten by one of these snakes, but it's rare. Sadly, these majestic snakes are classified as near threatened by the IUCN, and the species experienced a nearly 30% population decline between the years 2010 and 2020! The main cause for this decline is habitat loss, and to a slightly lesser extent, over-exploitation by hunters looking to sell their meat and hide. Despite this, there is actually an invasive population of these snakes down in the Florida Everglades, or at the very least, there was before they hybridized with the invasive Burmese pythons. While it's currently unknown if there are any pure Indian pythons left in Florida, genetic analysis in 2001 showed that 13 out of the 400 pythons tested were hybrids between Indian and Burmese pythons.

Photo credit: Jono Dashper

Snake collection post, all taken at Dierenpark De Oliemeulen in September 2024:

Corn snake (Pantherophis guttatus guttatus)

same as #1 (corn snake)

Beautiful pit viper / Brown-spotted pit viper (Trimeresurus venustus)

Indian python (Python molurus) (albino)

Indian python (up to 21 feet)

Indian pythons can weigh the same as a newborn elephant calf.