Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I posted this snake a few posts below, but I only had access to a poor picture. Doug and TC gave some interesting answers and I wondered if opinions were the same with better pictures.

So, here are some better pics!

Thanks for everyone's help.
sonja

another

another

You can kind of see the pink colors on his head in some of these pics.

another

last one

Sorry, this family of snakes is not my strong point. I just want to point out for future reference that you can post multiple pictures in a single post by typing

[img]PHOTO URL HERE[/img]

You can do that as many times as you want in a single post

It looks like an Indian Python to me. It doesn't look as much like a pimbura (Ceylonese) from these shots.
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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

It seems I've always gotten mixed info on the differences of molurus(Indian Python) and pimbura(Ceylonese/Sri Lankan Python. One thing that is certain, and that is the Ceylonese/Sri Lankan Python is MUCH easier to obtain legally than the Indian Python. I've also heard about the pink colored cheeks that can be an alleged typical identifier to pimbura, but have also seen this on specimens referred to as Indian Pythons as well. They both also share the same very faded "spear" on top of the head too, so that doesn't prove anything one way or the other either. I've read from some literature that the dorsal blotch pattern is more abstractly shaped and more "broken" in pimbura than molurus, and that the pattern on molurus is more shaped like symetrical rounded squares, but have seen many pictures before that lead me to believe that this is not necessarily true either. I've also read before that "pimbura" was dropped altogether from being a valid subspecies some time ago.

I'm not all too sure about the hard, absolute differences in these two subspecies, if indeed there really IS a major discernable difference that is consistent. It just seems that for many years, I can never seem to find any real solid evidence of any absolute differences, if any, all info I've EVER been able to get seems to be very general and very vague at best.

I would post the snake on the Burmese Python forum,....there you are sure to get some responses from a few people like Kelly Haller, Bob Clark, and some others that are much more familiar with them.

I've seen pimbura for sale recently, and Kelly Haller posted a recent pimbura hatchling that looks very similar to yours, although somewhat darker, and Bob Clark usually has some Sri Lankan's as well.

best regards, ~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

Thanks everyone. I posted him in the Burmese forum, too.

I am very curious to find out what the consensus is!

Thanks, anuraanman, for the picture posting tip---I tried it in the Burmese forum and it worked! : )

sonja

Hi ! I work as a volunteer keeper at the Ellen Trout Zoo in Lufkin Texas and I ask our curiater who is a walking text book and he said that the only differance between Molurus & Pimbura is there locality . david