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and tell me what you see. The snake is allegedly a "python", one of two "pythons" found in some guy's backyard in NJ. Now, I have either had at some point, or closely know people who still do, pretty much every morph of Burmese Python, along with many Retics, and of course, many Colubrids, but this does not look like any python species or morph that I've ever seen. Head too small, pattern all wrong, plus any python of that length is going to be much heavier, even a Retic. From what I can tell, it looks like a really large Pituophis, possibly a Northern Pine(native to NJ) but more likely a Bull. That rear body pattern looks especially Pituophis to me. Click on the pic and then zoom in and see what you think. I thought maybe a Labby or a Granite Burm, but Googled a lot of pics of those and none have that rear body pattern, not even close.
Lol, guy claiming that an albino python was worth $8,000.00...we need to get that guy buying at some of the shows!

Pythons Make Unwelcome Guests

Looks like an albino Burm to me. Maybe some funky morph, but it is an albino burm.
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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

It's a very poor far away pic for extremely accurate identification, but it isn't a typical "albino" (amelanistic) Burmese for sure. If it were it would be pure white and VERY bright lemon yellow. I see all sorts of brown pigment on the snake, even from this distance. Looks to be a fairly thin hypomelanistic(reduced melanin) Burmese python to me.

The story has all sorts of ridiculous nonsense in it, just as ALL stories regarding snakes do. I just saw an ad for a hypo Burmese that is a hypo 66% het albino 50% green burmese 2 females available both will come with paperwork.

£300 each 300 British Pound(s) = 466.128 US Dollar(s)

Now of course this pic is of a baby hypo Burmese, but that snake most definitely looks to be the same Burmese morph (hypomelanistic), just a bit more mature is all. I deal with countless snake morphs and genetic terms all day long, and I know exactly what they mean and how it accurately applies to what phenotype (outward visual look). It could possibly have some additional type of multi-morph factors involved, but from that distance it is just too hard to say with any certainty. But I seriously doubt those people would know ANY OF THIS!

First off, you can hardly GIVE an albino (amelanistic) Burmese python away now days, much less the ridiculous thousands they are talking about. Albino Burms are as common as rocks and have been around for decades and in almost every pet store around the globe. The hypo and some of the other color/pattern mutations are a bit different though depending on what they are, and how long they have been in the hobby mainstream.

In any case, that has to be a hypomelanistic (reduced dark pigment..i.e. melanin) just as in this photo. The one mutation by itself is hundreds, not $8,000...

~Doug

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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

serpentinespecialties.webs.com

Here is another extremely similar looking juvenile hypo Burmese (only lighter). Still, these so-called "experts" would have absolutely no idea of any possible heterozygous trait(s) the snake might possibly have anyway unless they knew the owner of where it escaped from and asked about it's genetic lineage..LOL!. Its definitely not a "granite" pattern or "labyrinth" mutation either, so all there is to go by is purely the outward visual look (homozygous phenotype) it is displaying in front of them (i.e. hypo). So the ridiculous assessment they dreamed up of $8k is still absurd for the larger one said to be an "albino", but the smaller one they found there the article did mention "a couple thousand".

In any case, here is an even lighter hypo juvenile next to it's normal phenotype sibling that went for $800 in May of this year, and I've seen other hypo's in the same range for $750, etc,...so that one found being larger it might possibly go for something like maybe $1000-1200 or so...*shrug*

~Doug

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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

serpentinespecialties.webs.com

My first thought looking at that pic was Pituophis too, but the front half sure looks like burm (malnourished burm, but burm).

The apparent "blocky" pattern near the back could be real (burm patterns are pretty random and can occasionally end up looking very odd) or it may just be an "interference pattern" between a complex labyrinth and the square pixels of a digital photo too small to capture it...
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What goes up must come down...unless it exceeds escape velocity.

http://newgreenmedia.tv/2012/07/30/suburban-trends-resident-finds-two-snakes-on-west-milford-property.aspx

Pictures of the second snake in a different article are a typical albino burm (healthy and fat).
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What goes up must come down...unless it exceeds escape velocity.

Larry, where's the "albino" (amelanistic)?. I see two pics of hypomelanistic burms there just as I suspected the one was? Maybe you are referring to what some call "caramel" albinos (a form of hypomelanism) that aren't amelanistic, but a reduced form.
People get the terms "lavender" albino, "t-pos." albino, "t-neg." albino, "blonde" albino, "caramel" albino, and countless other genetic terms and discription confused all the time as you probably already know.

This is a typical albino (no dark pigment) Burmese. they can of course range from light butter yellow to high-orange, and anything in between, but there is still no melanin. Huge difference to me in phenotype as well as price, and this is why I like to use precise terminology when referring to genetic mutations. Some coined names and terms can often mean very different things depending on who someone is talking to..

~Doug

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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

serpentinespecialties.webs.com

This is the article I was referring to. When they get older, typical albinos tend to look like the bottom photo, especially if they are kept in outdoor cages.

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2012/08/02/new-jersey-teacher-finds-2-pythons-in-yard-just-days-apart/
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What goes up must come down...unless it exceeds escape velocity.

Oh, that third bottom photo didn't show up for me on the previous link somehow. Yes, that is a very typical amelanistic (albino) as you mentioned.

Thanks for the link!

cheers, ~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

serpentinespecialties.webs.com