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African Rock Python Pyton sebae
Felsenpython / Klippepython
Facts: Length: 6.5 m
Food: Mammals and birds
Habitat: Areas near water and in rocky areas. They often sleep in holes and are sometimes found in abandoned termite mounds.
Incubation period: 75–85 days
Number of eggs per brood: 40–100
Life expectancy: Up to 18 years in captivity
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A python is a constricting snake that holds onto its prey with its teeth and constricts/crushes it with its muscular body. It does this to mould the prey, which it swallows whole. Snakes are capable of opening their mouths very wide, because their upper and lower jaw bones are not attached, as they are in humans. As snakes have no breastbone, their ribs can be greatly expanded. This enables snakes to swallow prey much bigger than themselves.
Snakes are deaf, but have a highly sensitive olfactory organ in the palate. The snake finds its prey by gathering scent molecules with its tongue and then sticking the tip of the tongue into its sensory “Jacobson’s organ”.
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