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

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