Welcome to Animal Magic – a series of fortnightly columns where we take an in-depth look at some of Tilgate Nature Centre’s popular, and less well-known animal residents.
This week we take a closer look at one of our snake species – the royal python (python regius).
Reaching about 1.5m in length royal pythons are fairly small species of snake that inhabit the grasslands of Africa.
They are also known as ball pythons because when threatened they will roll into a tight ball with their head in the middle.
Snakes are opportunistic hunters so they don’t eat every day and really large species may go months between feeds.
Pythons are constrictors, which means they use their incredible muscles to squeeze and suffocate their prey. People often think they dislocate their jaws in order to eat their food whole but it isn’t quite like that.
What actually happens is the top and bottom jaws are opened really wide and then the bottom jaw splits in two! This makes the mouth much wider to accommodate large food.
The female will lay her eggs in a burrow and will then coil herself around them for about two months to incubate them.
Once they hatch the tiny snakes have to fend for themselves.
Royal pythons are very popular among snake owners because they are fairly small and docile.
Being cold-blooded means that snakes can’t control their body temperature in the same way we can and so pet snakes need to bask under heat lamps or use heat mats to keep warm; if these aren’t fitted safely then the snakes can burn themselves.
Our python is called Baldrick, and was an unwanted pet who arrived here with a bad burn which he got from an unprotected heat lamp. That meant we had to handle him a lot to care for the wound so he’s really used to being handled by people and is particularly calm.
He is used in educational sessions and spends the rest of his time in a large off show vivarium.
Although you won’t be able to see Baldrick every time you visit we do have Madagascan tree boas, Dumeril’s boas and our very long Jamaican boa on display.