Ball python

Identification

The ball python is a small, heavy-bodied python whose head is noticeably wider than its fairly slender neck². Wild-type snakes have large dark brown markings with lighter brown or tan patches between them, often a yellowish stripe running from the nostril through the eye, and an ivory-white belly². Adult females are larger than males². Pet ball pythons are often bred into unusual colour and pattern forms called “morphs”, which can look very different from wild snakes⁵.

Hatchlings are 25–43 cm long, and adults are usually 1–1.5 m². The RSPCA gives a typical adult length of around 150 cm⁸, and there are reports of wild ball pythons reaching 1.83 m².

Distribution

The ball python is native to western Africa and the northern parts of central and eastern Africa, from Senegal to South Sudan and Uganda³. The Reptile Database lists Senegal, the Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, Benin, south-western Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali, Nigeria, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, northern Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan and Uganda¹. It also lists Liberia, but notes a 2014 study that found the species does not occur there¹.

Habitat

Ball pythons live in a wide range of savanna habitats, including open woodland, rainforest edges, mixtures of forest and plantations, and farmland³. They are also found in grassland and in areas cleared for farming, often near open water². By day they rest in old rodent burrows, termite mounds, under dead oil palms or in piles of grass and leaves, which is where hunters look for them³.

Behaviour

The ball python is mainly active at night^2,3. It spends most of its time on or under the ground, often in burrows, although it can climb².

When threatened, it rolls into a tight ball with its head hidden in the middle, which gives the species its common name². Other defences include camouflage, trying to escape, bluffing and, less often, biting². Its scientific name regius means “kingly”; it is said to have been kept as a pet by African kings and other rulers¹.

Diet

The ball python is an ambush hunter that waits at a good spot and strikes quickly at passing prey². It kills larger prey by constriction and feeds almost entirely on rodents, including African giant rats, black rats, shaggy rats and grass mice². It eats infrequently, and its gut can adjust to long periods between meals².

Reproduction

The ball python lays eggs². Mating takes place mainly from mid-September to mid-November, and eggs are laid in the second half of the dry season, from mid-February to early April². A clutch holds 1–11 eggs, usually about 7².

The female coils around her eggs until they hatch about two months later². A study in Togo found that brooding barely changed egg temperature but greatly reduced water loss, and brooded eggs produced larger, more active young⁴. Hunters collect gravid females and eggs, mostly from January to March, to supply snake farms³.

Venom and medical significance

The ball python has no venom; it kills its prey by constriction⁸. It is a small python, and adults rarely grow longer than about 1.5 m^2,8. Its usual response to a threat is to curl into a ball rather than strike, although it may bite in defence².

Conservation

The ball python is listed as Near Threatened on the IUCN Red List (2022 assessment)⁷. It is the most traded CITES-listed live animal exported from Africa, and the species is listed in Appendix II of CITES³. Up to 2017, about one million live ball pythons had been exported from each of Benin, Ghana and Togo, more than 99% of them for commercial use³. Most exports now come from “ranching”, in which eggs and young are taken from the wild and reared on farms³. Three-quarters of hunters surveyed in Togo said there were fewer snakes than five years earlier³.

Similar species

Young African rock pythons (Python sebae) can be mistaken for ball pythons. The rock python has a staircase-like pattern of dark blotches, a pale spearhead mark on top of the head and a yellow, inverted V under each eye, and adults grow to 3–5 m⁹. The ball python has large brown blotches with lighter patches, often a yellowish stripe through the eye, and rarely exceeds 1.5 m². These differences are not a safe basis for handling any snake. Keep your distance from every snake you cannot identify.

In captivity

The ball python is one of the most commonly kept pet reptiles, and its popularity is partly due to its docile nature⁶. Captive ball pythons live about 20 years on average, with reports of individuals living to about 50 years². The RSPCA recommends an enclosure at least as long as the snake, several hides and a water bowl large enough to bathe in^5,8, but a survey of breeders and pet expos in Europe and North America found most snakes were kept in conditions below these minimum recommendations⁵.