Are ball pythons even [I]slightly[/I] arboreal?

[Egapal]

I've seen a lot of conflicting opinions on this, and just can't seem to find a definitive answer. What do (you) the experts say? What have you observed?

I''m about to put some baked driftwood branches in Axel's tank, partly for attractiveness, partly for (hopefully) functionality. Will he actually use them?

Thanks in advance.

(grrr, screwed up the title and dunno how to fix it...)

This comes up all the time. I think that there are definitive answers in all of the threads like this. Ball Pythons are NOT arboreal. Now the problem is that a bunch of people will jump on and talk about how their ball python climbs. No it doesn't. Your BP climbs over branches just like it would climb over branches in the wild. Ball Pythons do not climb trees in the wild and spend large amounts of time in those trees. Let me put this another way. Are humans aquatic. I don't think that anyone would say that humans are even semi aquatic. Seeing people going for a swim does not make them aquatic. The fact that some people deep see dive does not make them aquatic. The fact is that if you have a pool in the back yard you run the risk of a human drowning in that pool. Because we are not aquatic. Just like a pool for humans you can provide branches for your BP but make sure they are secure and low to the ground. Young BP might strike you as great climbers but I can tell you that that they are not. They are great fallers. Go check out a green tree python and then ask yourself is a BP arboreal? Ball Pythons are a terrestrial snake that will explore its surroundings.