Carpet python

Identification

The carpet python is a large, non-venomous snake with olive to brown skin marked with cream blotches, which camouflage it among leaf litter, tree hollows, logs and rocky crevices¹. Its colours and patterns vary across its range; typical snakes are pale to dark brown with blackish or very dark brown blotches that form a regular pattern². Like other pythons it has a bulky body and a roughly triangular head that is distinct from the neck². It also has heat-sensitive pits on its lower jaw¹.

Most adults are about 2 m long and few exceed 2.5 m, but some reach 4 m^1,2. The largest can weigh about 11 kg, and adult males grow larger and heavier-bodied than females⁶.

Distribution

The carpet python lives in Australia and New Guinea³. In Australia it is found almost everywhere on the mainland, but not in the arid centre or in Tasmania^1,3. In New Guinea it occurs along the southern coast of Papua New Guinea and into the Indonesian province of Papua, as far west as Merauke³.

The Reptile Database recognises several subspecies, including the diamond python of coastal New South Wales, the coastal carpet python from northern Cape York to northern New South Wales, the jungle carpet python of north-eastern Queensland, the inland or Murray-Darling carpet python and the north-western carpet python of northern Australia³. Two close relatives, the south-western carpet python (Morelia imbricata) and the Centralian python (Morelia bredli), were once treated as part of this species but are now listed as separate species^3,4.

Habitat

Carpet pythons live in a very wide range of habitats, from the wet tropics to semi-arid inland country^1,2. Coastal carpet pythons are found in rainforest, wet and dry eucalypt forest, heathland, pasture, farmland and towns, and they often rest in trees and the roofs of houses⁹. In the Brisbane area the carpet python is one of the snakes people meet most often¹⁰. In Victoria, the Murray-Darling carpet python lives in tree hollows and rock crevices along rivers and streams⁸.

Behaviour

Pythons are mostly active at night, travelling along the ground and through trees, but they are often found basking in the sun during the day, and diamond pythons may bask in trees^2,5. They hunt by ambush, waiting for prey to pass, and their heat-sensitive pits let them sense and track the body warmth of other animals¹. They are regularly found curled up in ceilings, where they find shelter and warmth and help control rats and possums^2,5. In suburban south-east Queensland, carpet pythons were active and fed all year round, and adult males fought each other during the breeding season⁶. In Victoria’s cooler climate, the Murray-Darling carpet python can stay inactive for up to five months over winter⁸.

Diet

The carpet python is a constrictor: it coils around its prey and suffocates it, then swallows it whole¹. It feeds mostly after dark on animals such as rats, possums and birds, while smaller pythons prefer lizards¹. In a study of 258 “nuisance” pythons from Brisbane and Ipswich, most food came from domestic and commensal birds and mammals⁶. The prey changed with the snake’s size: medium-sized pythons ate mostly mice, rats and parrots, while the largest took cats, brushtail possums and poultry⁶.

Reproduction

The carpet python lays eggs^1,3. In Queensland, a female lays up to 20 eggs at a time¹. She coils around her eggs to protect them and keep them warm, a kind of care that is uncommon in snakes and ends once the young hatch⁵. Female pythons can even “shiver” to make heat for their eggs². In Victoria, Murray-Darling carpet pythons breed only every three to four years, and their eggs hatch after 50–60 days⁸. The young look after themselves from the moment they hatch¹.

Venom and medical significance

The carpet python has no venom; Queensland’s pythons lack both venom and fangs^1,2. It can still give a painful bite, and its teeth can break off and stay in the wound⁵. Carpet pythons have a strong feeding response, a lightning-fast strike followed by throwing coils around the food, which can be mistaken for aggression, and a snake may occasionally mistake a person’s hand for food⁹.

Conservation

The carpet python is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List (assessed in 2017)⁷. In Queensland it is also listed as Least Concern under the Nature Conservation Act 1992¹. Some populations are in trouble: the Murray-Darling carpet python is listed as endangered in Victoria, where only about 160 are thought to remain in the wild⁸. The diamond python is not as widespread in Sydney as it once was and is under pressure from habitat destruction, although it is not considered endangered⁵.

Similar species

The Centralian python and the south-western carpet python are close relatives that were long treated as forms of the carpet python^3,4. Pythons in general have bulky bodies, triangular heads distinct from the neck, heat pits on the jaws and a pair of small spurs beside the vent². Even so, Queensland’s wildlife agency warns that there is no hard-and-fast rule for telling a dangerous snake from a harmless one². These differences are not a safe basis for handling any snake. Keep your distance from every snake you cannot identify.

In captivity

The carpet python is kept as a pet in Australia, and the coastal carpet python is probably the most common python kept there⁹. In captivity it can live for up to 20–30 years⁹. Keepers need a licence and must never take a python from the wild; in Queensland a pet snake can be bought, captive-bred, from an authorised reptile dealer, and the keeper also needs a wildlife licence^2,9. Carpet pythons are solitary, so each one should be housed alone in an enclosure tall enough to climb, with a range of temperatures to choose from⁹.