I have had several African rock pythons, though I do not have any now. The mighty African rock remains the only python that I've had in my 12 years of keeping snakes that has ever gotten the better of me. I am fascinated by them, but that one big one I had was nasty, nasty, nasty and nasty some more. (I had a few smaller ones that were fairly tame, but had other issues.) After I got rid of that big one, I said I would never have another one. So far, I haven't. I made the mistake of using him in a presentation in front of 120 Boy Scouts at a day camp. The snake went crazy, defecated on me, took a plug out of my left forearm and then wrapped defensively around my right arm. I don't know whether the Boy Scouts were amused or terrified -- probably a mixture of both emotions!



I figure African rocks are a lot like retics used to be. Several years ago, retics had a reputation for being aggressive, but it seems that much of that aggression has been bred out of them as more captive bred babies become available. The same will happen with African rocks, if it isn't happening already. I wouldn't entirely rule out the possibility of getting another one, but it would have to be trustworthy enough to be shown in front of an audience.



That being said, I have had quite a bit of experience with these snakes, and would enjoy talking more about them. I got a big kick out Jeff Corwin's encounter with that angry African rock on Animal Planet. That was one mad snake! He/she had Jeff jumping around like a clown!



They are beautiful snakes, very interesting and of course enormous. Very cool snakes, but -- at least in my experience (which was admittedly several years ago) -- a little on the aggressive side.



RP

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