Coastal Carpet Python

Description:

Large, heavy bodied snake with a highly variable, mottled & blotched pattern and colour. Mostly white to cream on the underside. Head is distinct from the neck. Deeply pitted scales (infralabials) along bottom jaw and to a lesser extent the upper jaw (supralabials) with small “granular scattered scales on top of the head. Midbody scales in 40 - 60 rows. They are constrictors and thus non-venomous, but bites may cause substantial lacerations or punctures. Average Length is around 2.1 meters but large specimens exceed 3 meters. Largest reliable record at 4.2 meters in length.

Habitat:

Spotted near the Metroplex Wetlands. It's an area rich with wildlife, particularly waterbird species. This is the first python spotted in the area, but several snake species inhabit these wetlands, and I have seen Eastern Brown Snakes in search of skinks and ground-dwelling birds.

Notes:

This certainly was not a large python, not that I managed to see its entire body length. I doubt it would have been much more than a metre long. The only reason I knew of its presence was because of a group of Noisy Miner birds. Their calls were loud and persistent, the noise beyond any territorial dispute. I went looking for a hawk but found the snake instead, initially draped across the upper branches of the tree. It eventually curled itself up into a little ball. AND HERE'S WHAT HAPPENED LATER THAT AFTERNOON - http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/213...