Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi there all, I just returned from a 2 week safari in southern Africa and was lucky enough to run across 2 different African rock pythons.

Both snakes were 5-6 feet in length and very nasty, striking left and right! They were both stretched across the road when we found them days apart, trying to warm up as it is winter in that part of the world... I pulled them both off the road so they wouldn't get run over and snapped some pics, even was able to pic one of them up.

Then I placed them in the bush in hopes they wouldn't come back to the road, the local people there fear snakes and would surely run them over (according to our safari guide).

Ryan

Sorry, don't know how to post multiple pics in one post. Here is pic #2 of the same snake

Pic #3 of same snake...

Here is the 2nd rock python we found, larger and not nearly as mean!

to go to Africa, you lucky bugger, I am glad you got to see some african rocks in he wild. Must have been awesome!!! I have two african rock pythons (captive bred by Bob Clark pos het patternless). Mine are extremly tractable and don't deserve their reputation they have. They are flighty like Black Racers, wiry is a good adjective to describe them, they very rarly try to bite. If you are going to get a rock python, I highly recommend you get it captive bred. They are much mellower than a wild caught sabae.

Thanks for sharing your experience in Africa
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Frank Roberts
R&R Herpetological Frank Roberts & John Rodriguez
Roberts'Realm of Reptile Research

That is really interesting. How fortunate also to be right there in their natural habitat. Can you describe the winter temperatures and other conditions for myself and other afrock keepers for breeding data?

I sure would appreciate it kindly.
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David Beauchemin
High End Herps.Inc
http://HighEndHerps.com

Great question, yes it was winter in Africa, but it's definately different then winter in Seattle! =)

On both occasions the pythons were encountered in the morning stretched across roads (undoubtedly in an attempt to warm up). Now overnite temps in Southern Africa can dip to the mid 30's (it was FREEZING), but as soon as the sun rises the temperature rockets up to 80-90 no problem... Both of the snakes were found around 10am just basking in the sun.

As for their habitat, both were found near large sources of permanent water (the first in the Okavango Delta, Botswana & the second not far from the Zambezi River, Zimbabwe). There also was plenty of food in the area, on both occasions as I pulled the snakes off the road and placed them back in the bush I saw numerous animals scurry away (small mongoose, scrub hairs, african wild cats, field mice, tons of small birds, etc...)... In fact the pic of the one stretched out across the road appeared to have eaten the night before... we nearly hit it, as it looked like a tree branch in the road way.

On a side note, our guide had an AMAZING picture of an African Rock that killed a Kudu (a large antelope species) and as it was swallowing it a leopard was trying to steal the kill!!!!

Thanks for your interest, I have TONS more pics (unfortunately not many are reptile related).

Whoa!! A Kudu? That's a hell of an antelope. Not sure he'd get past the horns without takin' some kind of damage . Who actually got there first, the snake or the leopard? LOL

Quig

Lucky!!!!
That's awesome to see them in their natural enviornment I am sure. I have always wanted to go to africa(and loads of other countries) to see animals like that. Great pics too thanks for sharing your find(s).

Those were awsome pics. I'm another one of them 'wanna go to Africa' guys .

Quig

thanks for posting must have been awsome...
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1.0 pastel 7'
0.1 suriname 7'
0.1 columbian 8'
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16 babie boas
1.1 burmese 10'
0.1 retic 12'

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