The controversial enclosure is finished

[zina10]

Just to play Devil's Advocate ..... there is a detailed article online somewhere by a former Royal Python trapper that includes the specifics of where they actually found the Royals in the wild and there was actually a surprisingly high % of them located in bushes and trees .... sorry ..


I'll try and find the paper or link to it ...


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There is a lot of information out there, but hardly a lot of it by people that actually DID spend months doing nothing but actually observing Ball Pythons in the wild. That is because of the location and difficulty in doing so.

In 1997 Dr. Steve Gorzula spent 3 month in Ghana doing nothing but that. His team spent the entire time with BP trappers, in different locations. There was a DVD made, but its more like a "home video" with bad quality. That is because of the "rough" living they endured during the time, and the trip's priority was not a quality film, but to collect data. There was no "professional" camera crew.

However, you do get to see them collecting Ball Pythons in the natural habitat. Most were found in burrows and termite mounds. At times they even found several Ball Pythons sharing burrows because burrows are used by all kinds of different animal species and there aren't always enough available. Ball Pythons have a inherited NEED to hide. They WILL go "up" to find a hiding place. When they were found in trees, it was usually in tree hollows. The snakes were looking for places to hide. They do not actively hunt in trees, they are far to slow and thick to do so, unlike true arboreal species who are at home in trees.

Another interesting fact was also that Ball Python would move to and thrive where land was converted to farmland, where de-forestation had taken place. They are not a species that lives in deep forests.

It is also difficult to put actual "Trees" into cages. Meaning, big tree trunks with tree hollows and thick branches, thicker then the snake and easy to maneuver on. Usually, in cages you will find branches that may be sturdy, but barely (if at all) the snakes diameter. Adult Ball Pythons do NOT make good climbers. They do fall off. Even if they figured out, hey, that's the spot I fell off of last time, doesn't make them better or smarter climbers next time.

But to each their own. Personally, I would not want my heavy adult Ball Python falling off a branch 3 foot up in the air. I wouldn't even want them falling off anything higher then a foot up in the air.