If they didn't farm the babies or export the adults, they would be sold to the skin trade or the meat market.

Ghana is very conservative of their ball python populations and the numbers are holding up well even with the pet trade/meat market collection.

If these animals were not being looked at as a valuable resource for the pet trade by the trappers in Africa then they would be selling them for other uses.

That said there is still not enough of a c.b population to cover the demand of the pet trade. There is a reason pet-co has Bill sitting on 21000 c.h babies until the next sale in March.

I think a lot of people dont see the big picture of the reptile industry, and the sheer numbers of animals needed to fill the demand.