Blood Python
Python curtus

Status: Endangered

Geographic Region
The blood python can be found in South East Asia, in Southern Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Borneo Island.

Habitat
Swampy areas, poorly drained plains, and low forested hills

Physical Description
The Sumatra Blood Python gets its name from the blood red color that washes over its skin. They are also dusted in light yellows and oranges and have thick bodies, perfect for constricting. The head is long and broad and distinctly wider than the neck. The anterior half of the body appears to us as pale with dark pattern, while the posterior appears as dark with pale pattern. There is much variation of color in individuals and in populations. The dark elements of the pattern may be red, orange-red, oxblood, brown, tan or yellow. Blood pythons are without red coloration at hatching and appear as predominantly tan with black markings. Blood pythons attain their adult colors usually between two and three years of age.

Reproduction
Blood Pythons become sexually active between second and fourth years old. They breed between the months of November and March when in Captivity. Oviparous, females of the Borneo Blood Python species normally lay about eight to thirty eggs. The eggs, which are usually incubated at relatively high temperatures of between eighty-eight and ninety degrees Fahrenheit, hatch after seventy to eighty days. The hatchlings' length normally measures thirty centimeters.

Diet: Carnivore
They are good hunters, feeding on mice and rats and rabbits and all number of small mammals in the rice fields and grasslands of Sumatra.

Behavior
A blood python living in its natural habitat will spend most of its time underwater. While submerged in a river or stream, the blood python waits for its meal to cross its path. Blood pythons would then stalk the targeted prey and ambush it. This aggressive characteristic is evident in other behaviors of the blood python.

Click here to learn about Animal Care.

Sources:
"Borneo Blood Python." Snake Estate. N.p., Dec. 2009. Web. 11 Dec. 2009.

Piorun, Henry. "Blood Python: Information Sheet." 2009, December.

Sweeney, Karen. "WhoZoo." 2009, December.