Noob question regarding Boids

[loonunit]

I'm not entirely sure about the evolutionary purpose of having a short tail, but it is indicative a terrestrial species vs. an arboreal species. Some arboreal boids do have very long tails--- green tree pythons, emerald tree boas, rainbow boas, for example.

Ball pythons are somewhere between terrestrial and semi-arboreal. They den underground, seem to genuinely enjoy climbing, but often fall. In fact, sometimes they might even fall on purpose: I swear I've seen my pythons decide to charge straight off of the dining room table rather than try to climb down the chair, because it is faster and more efficient. I've certainly seen my babies do it when I had a clutch of them in a 5 gallon tank, and I switched on a light and "caught" them all out climbing on a branch. (They all froze---and then one by one, over the next 5 minutes, we them watched drop to the bottom and scuttle into the hide.) They're surprisingly agile about falling, and they have pretty good control over any fall equal to their own length. And the body fat helps them distribute the impact.

So I guess.... if that's going to be your strategy, that a long tail is just an extra thing for a predator to latch onto?

Red tail boas and carpet pythons are far more arboreal than balls. But I never think to check their tails. How long are they, relative to their bodies?