The Remarkably Diverse Diets of Wild Ball Pythons

[Snake Judy]

Let's talk about the opportunistic nature of wild ball pythons! This isn't new news by any means – I've seen this study referenced on here a couple of times. But it's also not discussed a whole lot, and I'm sure a few of you would find it interesting if you're unfamiliar.

In 1998, researchers captured a few dozen ball pythons in southeastern Nigeria and analyzed the contents of their stomachs. The snakes had preyed exclusively on mammals and birds with some surprising results:

...the males preyed more frequently upon birds (70.2% of the total number of prey items) than upon mammals (29.8% of the total number of prey items), whereas the females preyed more frequently upon mammals (66.7% of the total number of prey items) than upon birds (33.3% of the total number of prey items). There was an apparent ontogenetic change in the diet of both sexes: specimens shorter than 70 cm total length preyed almost exclusively upon small-sized birds (nestlings and immature), whereas the longer specimens (> 100 cm total length) preyed almost entirely upon small mammals.

Mammals consumed include a variety of rodents as well as bushbabies and bats! Birds include pigeons/doves, immature african grey parrots, starlings and bee-eaters, among others.

Male pythons were found climbing trees more frequently than females (14 males vs 2 females), which is reflected in the types of prey more frequently consumed. One theory is that this allows males and females to occupy different ecological niches and avoid competing with one another.

The article concludes with this:

With regard to the prey eaten by royal pythons, it may be noted that all the mammalian species, except Galagoides demidoff, are widespread and relatively abundant in the forest ecosystems of the studied region (Angelici, unpublished data). Thus, it is likely that opportunism represents an intrinsic trait of the predatory behaviour of these snakes.

Certainly opportunistic eating isn't a quality often associated with ball pythons!

The full study can be accessed here: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/1...4#.VZykCkaYpLM

The research took place primarily during the wet season. Curious if these numbers would vary seasonally or regionally.

So this begs the question: do you think there's any advantage in trying to mimic these variations in diet in captivity? Obviously feeding lean wild fledglings isn't really an option, but would there be any nutritional benefit to adding chicks or quails to the roster?