But don't forget that demand, supply, and price are all tied together in balance. Sure a huge number of normal import ball pythons are consumed every year ... at a very low price. If that supply where to dry up the price would raise to the point where the supply balanced the demand at some new price. That higher price would also stimulate more cb production. As it is normal cb ball pythons are mainly a byproduct of morph projects and aren't very profitable to produce in competition with wild collected eggs.

I also wonder how much the wild produced normal hatchlings are a byproduct of the search for wild produced morphs. The diversity of ball python morphs we have available today is a natural outcome out of the huge number of animals removed from the wild (like 150,000 a year). Out of that big of a sample they are bound to find a few freaks.

And consider that the income from wild collection is no doubt important to some number of African collectors.

Regardless, it's probably not going to stop any time soon.

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