The Royal Python is native to West and Central Africa. It is called Royal since it is said that Cleopatra and
other African rulers would wear the pythons as ornaments. It is also called the Ball Python as it curls up in a ball
to protect its head when threatened.
Pythons are not venomous but strangle and suffocate their prey by curling their body round the victim and squeezing so that the victim cannot breathe in.
The smallest of the African pythons, it is still a large snake and can grow to some 6 feet. It can live for some 30 years.
Prey is generally rodents and other small mammals but can include birds and even insects.
It is mainly terrestrial.
Pythons differ from Boas in, among other things, laying eggs rather than giving birth to live young.