Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This first time female came through great earlier this week. She is 5 years of age this month and about 11 feet. I couldn’t get an exact count of the number, but all of the eggs I saw looked full size and nice color. I have always firmly believed in maternal incubation with any molurus subsp., and this will give a rare opportunity to collect some valuable data on this rarest of the group. The eggs were actually slightly larger than average burmese I have measured, and were about 4.25 by 2.5 inches. Environmental conditions today showed the relative humidity at 90%, air temp at 85 degrees F, the nesting substrate at 87, and the intra-coil temp of the female at 91.5. Female was showing a contraction rate of 8 to 12 per minute. The intra-coil temp was just slightly lower than that I have seen as an average for incubating burmese. It will also be interesting to see if the incubation period matches the 56 days, plus or minus 1 day, as is always seen with maternally incubating burmese.

Kelly

Way to go Kelly. It looks like a pretty decent clutch to boot. I long for the day when more breeders are producing this species. I personaly am a firm believer that the ceylonese/sri-lankan python is in fact its own distinct subspecies and not to be classed as simply an indian from a different geological location. This based more on their behavior than their appearance which is admittedly very similar to that of the indian.

Nice accumulation of relevant data you got here too. Can you please post your personal email address so I can contact you directly?

Thanks.
Our Website!

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David Beauchemin
High End Herps.Inc
http://HighEndHerps.com

Yes,
Congratulations. I agree with David. These are surely distinctly different. Not enough pure celan breedings. glad to see someone is producing...
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Michael Cole
Ballroom Pythons South
863-439-3015
WWW.BallroomPythonsSouth.com

I agree with you that it would appear that they would rate subspecific status based on several factors. For obvious reasons, they look quite similar to the mainland molurus, but there are a couple of pattern characteristics that they retain that you never see on Indians. You can contact me at kelhal56@hotmail.com. Thanks,

Kelly

Nice job kelly. It's nice to see someone working with the Molorus subsp.
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Todd Spinosa

the privelige of collecting, studying, and personally bringing back 6 pairs of these pythons from Sri Lanka in the early 1980's. I was a guest of Mr. De Alwis the director of the zoo in Dehiwela. Pimbura can be colored like a Burmese or an Indian python. But ALL have a faded orange spear from the back of the neck forward and all have broken blotches not ovals like an Indian Python. They are very distinctive in appearance and behaviour to those that have seen a number of pure ones. Kelly yours outside of Sri Lanka are the nicest I've seen. I wish that more people would not intergrate or hybridize locality specific herps of all types. Tom Crutchfield

I completely agree with you with respect to intergrades. I believe that it is a complete waste and loss of genetic identity to intergrade subspecies of any animal species. It can also totally destroy a breeding program if these intergrades become mixed in with the subspecies that is the focus of the project.

Also, I have a question for you about Sri Lanka pythons on their native island. I have heard that there are two forms of Sri Lanka molurus. One being a highland form and the other a lowland form, and each with a slightly different color and pattern. Did you ever hear anything about this when you were over there? Thanks again,

Kelly

highland areas are around the city of Kandy in central Sri Lanka. It is covered with jungle. The lightest morphs come from the xeric areas and the darkest in more mesic areas. If you think about it it makes since because of the terrain. Its a matter of camoflage. TC

I did the earlier post at 4:00 a.m. and butchered the spelling. Again the lighter colored ones seemed to occur in more arid areas like scrub jungle and thorn forest. In the dense dry heavily forested areas like Wilpatu they tended to look more like Burmese Pythons in color.Sri Lanka has very little true rain forest but I was told they are dark there as well. Its reasonably easy to check locale specific pythons as in the 1980's there were always snake-charmers in every region. One snake most of them had in addition to the obligatory cobras was a python or two. The snakes seemed to be reasonably common in most areas I visited. It makes sense that the lighter snakes would inhabit areas with not as much floor detritus to facilitate camouflage. The Tropical Deciduous Forest areas are covered with leaf litter and the darker color makes them hard to see. I was attempting to collect a Bungarus crossing a dirt track in Wilpatu and was charged by an Asian Elephant that was only 50 yards away and I never so it until it screamed. Luckily it wasn't serious and only progressed a short way. Nonetheless I almost had to change my pants. Its one thing to watch it on T.V. and another in person. My strongest memories were of the sound and smell of the elephant so close. In any event Sri Lanka is a gorgeous country with great people. If you get the chance pay a visit. thanks...TC

By the way the hatching time is 56-60 days like Burmese or Indians. thanks..TC