I think 5 pages could be do-able. Especially if you can use quoted material in the paper. Quotes can take up a good bulk of a paper in my experience.
A few things that you can write about to include into the paper to introduce the topic
- Natural history of Ball Pythons and behavior/living conditions in the wild
- Discuss why captive husbandry is so important to keeping reptiles and what poor conditions can do.
- Compare/Contrast a tub vs glass tank vs natural living conditions
a) pros glass tank
b) cons glass tank
c) pros tub
d) cons tub
- Discuss when it's appropriate to use a tub and when it's not
- Maybe discuss how tubs benefit a ball python specifically, but perhaps not other species.
But I agree that it will be difficult to find scientific sources for the overall topic. You may have to find a herpetologist/qualified reptile vet to quote directly from. I know there are many biologists in the community that house their animals in tubs. They might be able to assist. Wild conditions will be easy to find since you can probably just pull up the average temp/weather from a reputable weather station site.
Don't forget to try searching under other common names(Royal Python) and scientific name (Python regius).
This site has some sources on the bottom that may be useful. They're mostly printed publications.
http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.ed...Python_regius/
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