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dwarf and superdwarf origins

simias Feb 10, 2006 10:58 PM

I'm a herpetologist, considering starting a museum and field study of geographic variation in reticulated pythons. Can someone help me with advice about the geographic origin of the terms dwarf and superdwrf ? Presumably these would be insular (island) dwarf forms; or are they ? Are there dwarf forms on mainland SE Asia too ? I've found very little on the web - any links you know of would be much appreciated.

and does anyone know of any 'dwarf' forms of any of the othet large python species ?

thanks
Craig Stanford
Dept. Biological Sciences
USC

Replies (3)

Kelly_Haller Feb 11, 2006 12:48 AM

I posted the following a few months ago to a similar question, hopefully it will give you some additional information:

Dwarf and superdwarf retics are indigenous to the Bonerate Island chain in the Flores Sea between the large islands of Sulawesi and Flores. There are dozens of islands in this group with the larger ones being Tanahjampea, Kayuadi, Kalao, Kalaotoa, and Bonerate. Most of the larger islands and some of the smaller ones in this group probably have their own distinct populations of retics, of apparently, slightly varying adult sizes. The retics on Tanahjampea for example, appear to be the largest and are generally not considered a true superdrawf type, as some adult females have shown to reach lengths of 12 to 15 feet. The smaller retics from other islands in this group are termed superdwarf as they appear to reach adult sizes in the 6 to 8 feet range. This is a remote island group and not easily accessible, additionally, source importers are obviously reluctant to comment on precise collecting data. Some true superdwarf specimens have reportedly been collected from Kalao, Kalaotoa, and Kayuadi, but until further studies are conducted, the exact island locale of some of the true superdwarf specimens is probably somewhat speculative on our part.

Kelly

simias Feb 11, 2006 01:38 AM

thanks, that's very helpful.

Mahlon Feb 18, 2006 07:05 PM

The only other types of "Dwarf" pythons I've heard of are the Burmese dwarves, and I've also heard rumors of Scrub dwarves as well out there, but haven't seen anything that decisively points to them being a true dwarf variety.

As far as the Burmese though, there are a few private collectors out there right now with wild caught and captive bred dwarf specimens in their collections, but they are quite pricey, somewhere in the 5k-10k pricerange, but many specimens weigh less than ball pythons!

Hope this helps,
Dan

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