Classic Jungle

I was messing around with the camera this morning and snapped some pics of my little classic jungle girl. I hatched her out last year from a clutch of het hypo x het hypo. No hypos where produced but she came out very bright yellow with deep black markings.

Many many years ago before there were many ball python morphs or people working with them, there would sometimes be these exceptionally bright yellow looking specimens with light spots on the tops of their heads and light colored eyes that were imported. These animals were called Jungle Pastels. Breeding efforts with many of these showed that the trait was not reproducible. After some time, there were some similar looking jungle pastels that did prove to be reproducible and are what are known today as the co-dominant morph called the pastel. People then started referring to these non-reproducible ones as classic jungles.

I don't think anyone really knows what causes this look. Personally I think they look a lot like premature babies. Those of you who are egg cutters can often see very brightly colored snakes with interesting patterns in the eggs you cut too soon. However, those will continue developing and color up to normal looking after a few days. I'm not sure what causes these classic jungles to keep their 'preemie' colors but it appears to me that mother nature stopped their development a couple of weeks early and so they keep this color and pattern when they hatch out of the egg. My girl here is a year old now and is so far holding on to her color. It'll be interesting to see what happens after several more years.

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g2...sicJungle1.jpg
I think she's pretty, she has an interesting large blushed out area on one side, you can see it a little bit from this angle.
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g2...sicJungle2.jpg
The colors are pretty bright and the pattern looks thick and black like the melanine hasn't had a chance to spread out to where it would normally be
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g2...sicJungle4.jpg
You can see her light colored eyes and that light spot on the top of her head.
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g2...sicJungle5.jpg
She also has some real interesting facial markings.
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g2...sicJungle6.jpg

Mark,
She is a stunner! :salute::gj::gj::gj:

What's your plans for her?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jerhart

Mark,
She is a stunner! :salute::gj::gj::gj:

What's your plans for her?

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Thanks Josh, she is one of my favorites. I'll suppose I'll just keep her and watch her grow and probably breed her some day. The fact that she's also 66% possible het hypo is a bonus. I don't think a lot of true collectors would sell an animal like this since they are pretty rare and not reproducible. You just never know if you'll ever luck into another one again.

She's a beauty, I love the head markings

She's a beauty!

And thanks for the history lesson too!

Very nice, she looks awesome.... :)

Gorgeous girl!!
I, too, am very fond of my classic jungle girl...she's an '06 and a sib to a Super Pastel. She has darkened up a little bit, but nonetheless, is a standout compared to a regular 'ol normal. Even if not genetic....I can't wait to breed her!!
Hope your girl proves out for ya. Maybe she'll throw some killer Ghosts!!

That's one awesome looking pattern. Great lookin girl