Description
The Stimson python, which is sometimes known as the large-blotched python, has a pattern of golden to red-brown or chocolate-brown patches on a light tan to yellow background. The Stimson python often has a stripe of blotch-free base-colour extending from either side of its neck. This stripe can run for almost a third of the snake’s length. The python is non-venomous and kills its prey by coiling around it so that it can’t breathe. One of the smaller pythons, they grow to 1m long. Like many pythons, its head, which is bigger than its neck, contains heat sensing organs to help locate its prey. Stimson’s pythons are nocturnal.
Habitat
Stimson’s pythons are found in central and Western Australia, in arid grasslands, shrub-lands, woodlands and desert. The snake favours rocky outcrops and shelters in crevices, holes, hollows and even termite mounds.
Diet
The diet of the Stimson’s python consists of small mammals, frogs, birds and lizards. Like many other snakes, it can go for months without feeding.
Reproduction
A female Stimson’s python lay a clutch of 5-15 eggs, which the mother incubates for about 55 days by coiling herself around the eggs.
