Snakes 'N' Adders Introducing Series: Episode 49 - Royal Pythons - A closer Look.
Вставка
- Опубліковано 15 сер 2020
- • Snakes ‘N’ Adders introducing series
• Episode 49 - Royal Pythons (A closer look)
• Python regius - The Royal or Regal Python.
• Ok, so before I get started a bit of a PSA. If you are expecting the usual kind of video on Royal Pythons you may well be disappointed. This will not be an ‘echo chamber’ kind of video where I will reinforce everyone’s ideas of what makes suitable care. The video will look at the natural distribution of the species and the regions and types of land they inhabit within that distribution. We will look at food consumed by the animals to consider whether this affects our outlook on how the life cycle of this species progresses from youngsters into maturity.
• This isn’t a go at anyone, it is thought based upon what is seen in the hobby and often times perpetuated by members of this hobby/trade. This video simply exists to afford people a little more information on which to base their husbandry choices. That is all. It isn’t expected that people rush out and change everything, but maybe with consideration may come to think in time im not sure I want to keep on keeping this way.
• To begin the research element of this video the obvious place to go was not the internet of UA-cam but my book case. Around 12 years ago now, maybe longer Paul ordered me one of the most complete texts ever to have been produced on a single species of reptile. Pythons of the world Volume II by Barker and Barker. I would encourage any would be keeper with a serious interest in natural history not hobby derived clap trap and half truths to seek out a copy of this book. Using info from this book I then looked up other distribution maps including those of the ICUN red list who have assessed Royal Pythons threatened status. This included the map shown here. Then I needed to look at elevation of the land and land usage to see the kinds of habitats the species frequented. I hasten to add, all the info apart from the guidance received from the Barker and Barker book is available online as it is with all the videos we produce here at Snakes ‘N’ Adders.
• It is lamentable that the depth into which people research the natural history of a snake often leaves much to be desired. This is often epitomised by Royal Python Keepers. Many times they become fully adept at the quite complex mathematical equations required to work out new morph or cultivar percentage. Or alternatively they readily use progeny predictors online to work out how to make oh I don’t know a mystic potion or Panda Pied or some other man made combo.
• This is driven by a market obsessed with the aesthetic. Reaching for the latest and greatest cultivar to be produced often in what many are beginning to see as simplistic enclosures that do not fully replicate the totality of the Royal Pythons life cycle. Concerns are regularly raised regarding the rack ‘em stack ‘em style of husbandry. Defenders of the style point towards natural habits that Royal Pythons display by means of giving legitimacy to their husbandry.
• I hasten to add myself and Paul are commercial reptile keepers. We utilise racking systems by way of having more livestock in our shop to keep the stock list of a wide church; and or of interest to travelling keepers. We are a profit making organisation and efficiency is one of our primary motivators (to help increase profits). We pay for licensing, tax and VAT, public liability insurance, property rental, business rates and commercial waste removal. Any shop does these things.
• The stock is not sedentary though. And this is key. Keeping them in simplistic enclosures whilst here makes our life easier, we can control outbreaks of things like mites easier and stop transmission of disease using barrier control. This style of care is temporary and we always try to encourage people who are keeping only a few animals in enclosures that allow for enrichment and the use of multiple areas of an enclosure.
**notes to continue in first comment** - Домашні улюбленці та дикі тварини
I don't understand how your channel hasn't blown up more. Your work is ASTOUNDING and it's clear you know your stuff and do your research. This is so informative, awesome work! Thank you so much!!!
Thank you xx. I understand though. They are filmed on my mobile phone, i do it all in one take so all the mumbles and cock ups are included. I do not have the time to sit through long editing process and doing titles and animations etc. The idea of it is enough to drive me mad. I have to squeeze in doing the videos between all the regular shop stuff. I hope rhe content and subject matter speaks for itself but you have to suffer through poor production value. Thats the trade off i suppose.
People can either watch over giddly american keepers asking you to ring that bell and smoosh that subscribe button and display animals with rotten snouts and keeping monitor lizards in rack draws but it looks glossy and well put together or watch me. Just saying it as it is like a normal human who hasnt consumed 5 packs of skittles prior to recording.
Finally! Content about the species itself, rather than morphs. Love it thank you.
So glad you've redone this video. It's always bothered me when people oversimplify their animals needs. Suggesting they spend their entire lives in burrows in the wild to rationalize rack systems isn't fair or logical. You gave a fair and balanced take on the many nuances in a not so black and white issue. I'm personally still discerning this topic and this video is very helpful in my decision.
You seriously hit this one out of the park, massive eye opener as somebody who dismissed royal pythons as boring.
This is easily one of the best videos from this channel to date. Good data and open-minded thinking working towards ever increasing levels of welfare. As pointed out, even small positive or negative changes can have a noticeable positive or negative impact on a species and this species is certainly no exception. Again, as pointed out, the race of man in search of non-natural colour forms has, in cases led to a decrease in the welfare standards of the species, removing from it its 'right' to be able to experience and show wild-like behaviors. To take a step back to ruminate upon its natural form, its wild life, sheer scale of occurrence and adaptability can only lead to some level of positive change.
For me, there is nothing more beautiful than a healthy wild form, living an enriched life and being allowed to effectively and ethically reproduce within its usual cycles.
The Royal/Ball Python is an apex species, developed over vast time to thrive and as this video clearly demonstrates, it has achieved this well. It is for this reason solely that they have been able to adapt and fair so well within minimal systems of care. As this video shows, this does not mean that these restricting systems of care are right for the animal for the whole of its life. A well kept royal python, fit, healthy, vibrant and able to move freely is a thing of sheer beauty.
I sincerely hope that keepers all over the globe will indeed take pertinent parts of the data displayed here so clearly to make considered positive changes, and in so doing lift the overall standard of care. I firmly believe that as dedicated thoughtful keepers that we will then start to actually enjoy this amazing species in all of its developmental glory.
I already know what people are gonna say about this. "not everything in nature is best for the animal".
thank you for the content, though. I really appreciate the in-depth analysis of ball python ranges! I've always been curious.
I keep my two ball pythons in 4x2x2 wooden enclosures each. My older one, who is a young adult, is so active he knocks things over in his enclosure every day.
Excellent video, really enjoyed that! It seems to me that popular UA-camrs have romanticized keeping BP's in unenriched racks, it's a shame.
I feel blessed having found this video. This is exactly what I wanted to find: all the information based on their natural habitat and natural history. I've gained far more appreciation for this hardy puppy-faced noodle. Thanks so much for sharing your hard work with us.
• The chief argument for the usage of racks is keepers argue it replicates they behaviour in nature. This is over simplistic / bordering on retarded way of rationalising husbandry of this style for the entirety of a Royal Pythons lifespan.
• Over the course of this video we will look at the areas in which they occur, the land use of those areas, the climate throughout the range and also look at behaviours cited in texts such as the fabulous Pythons of the World Volume II by Barker and Barker. These will include arboreal tendencies, forest and swamp dwelling and the consuming of strictly arboreal animals suggesting that royal maybe don’t live the entirety of their 30 years on this planet in a rodent burrow!!
• First we needed to look at the natural range of the Royal Python. We used the distribution map shown on the ICUN red lists’s website. Other distribution maps show somewhat more of a choke point as we move across the Central African Republic to Western Uganda.
• When you see it on the map this range doesn’t look that significant, simply because it is hard to grasp the sheer size of the African continent. I needed to try and use something that would help us to understand properly just how much of a range we are talking about. During the Boa video last week I used a passenger jet as an example where they travel at rough 500mph. We used this to calculate how long a flight would be needed to get from one side of the range to the other. I needed something to help illustrate the sheer span involved.
• We looked at the distance from LA to NY as the crow flies.
• 4hrs 50mins
• Then we took Dakar in Senegal and Plotted a Route to Kampala in Uganda as the crow flies
• 7hrs 10 mins
• Just take a minute to digest that……. Consider the sheer volume of species in the US and their ranges across the North American continant. All the kings snakes, rat snakes, milk snakes, bull, pine, gopher, hognose, indigo, racers, rattle snakes, coral snakes, cotton mouths, water snakes, garter snakes, ribbon snakes. As you track from West to East across the US think about how many species intersect across that journey. Many are geographically distinct from their neighbour, simply because there is room. Then understand that a single species with no recognised subspecies has a range that take over 2 hours longer to travel across… than all of those mentioned above. That is pretty incredible.
• Only last week (in the boa video) I commented how it was actually common sense that the boa constrictor be split into subspecies based on the sheer natural span of their range and here we have a tubby little Python we all assume lives in burrows all year round that has a range comparable to that of boa constrictor, imperator and sigma combined as the crow flies.
• The North South range is far more compact at a little over 500 miles for most of the range (depending upon the map you use). As we will see with the climate data a little later areas close to the equator enjoy relatively buoyant temperatures year round. The North to South changes play a large part in deciding upon a Python is successful there or not.
• One area I read with great interest in the Pythons of the world was the scientific records of stomach contents: these included the usual suspects expected for an animal seemingly solely associated with rodent burrows and a fossorial life (giving credence to keepers keeping them in rack boxes for their entire life. Multimammate rats, White Toothed Shrews, Giant Rats, African Pygmy mice, gerbils and others.
• What troubled me more was the inclusion of animals not associated with the ground:
1. Epaulated fruit bats, who feed and roost in trees.
2. Melancholy Woodpecker, who feeds in the canopy and obviously is a denizen of trees given their nesting strategy.
3. Demidoffs Busbaby, a tiny primate that is exclusively nocturnal and arboreal generally nesting between 5-40m OFF the ground.
4. But if our rationale for maintaining animals in a plastic draw box for the entireity of their life span is based upon best care based upon natural history how did almost exclusively arboreal species of mammal and bird find their way into the stomach contents of Royal Pythons.
I’ll wait………..
• Royal Pythons climb and hunt in trees as well as on the ground. Arboreality is at its peak in younger animals but adult males also regularly show arboreal tendencies given the opportunity. We have vivariums with suspended branches within the shop and if royal pythons are resident in those enclosures it is common place to see males tightly coiled around the branch similar to a Green Tree Python. I’m not making this up, I’m serious.
• It is fair to assume that across such a vast swathe of land; land-use will change dramatically and adaptations will have to be made by this same species we seem so sure only lives in burrows.
• Royal Pythons have also been cited within flooding grasslands, swamp and arboreal mangrove swamp. Showing an ability to swim and also to adapt to a life closely in tune with trees.
• It would be however: overly simplistic and therefore wrong of me to only consider the arguments against this care without considering the reasons for this care. Royal Pythons are equally found in semi desert and grassland settings. The northern element of the range is under threat from rapidly increasing desertification. What is now semi desert and the Sahel was lush grassland and border thickets only a decade or so ago.
• Only time will tell if Royal Pythons adapt long term or the populous dies out and retreats back to the safety and relative clemency of the forested areas and border.
• The grasslands surrounding the forested regions (which yes, the Royal Pythons also populate) are a harsh environment. Temperatures steadily climb during dry season and in some regions approach 40°c on average so god only knows what the peak will be. This is aestivation weather. Aestivation is the opposite of hibernation or Brumation. It is that god awful and hot outside I simply cannot come out - I need to shut down and wait for cooler weather to come back. The risk of being caught out in this heat is a death sentence. The ground is parched, often there is no rain (often for months) see Senegal for example with certain regions going without rain for 6-7 months of the year then the deluges begin.
• This period of the year is simply not conducive to life for a Python. Better to wait it out in the stability of my rodent burrow.
• As the temperatures degraded the rains come, as the rains come the grasses grow, the countryside becomes lush. Insects return, mammals return and Pythons hunt, predominantly at night using their heat sensitive pits to guide them.
• It is noted during this period of the year and them not being holed up in their burrows, Royal Pythons become far harder to find by hunters (looking for pregnant females during the heat of the year - perfect underground incubation temperatures).
• All of this serves to further illustrate that the Royal Pythons relationship with the burrow is fleeting and based upon necessity, not because it prefers it.
Hey I love your videos and have found you to be a wonderful resource for snake keeping. I must, however, tell you that I clicked off this video pretty early because of your use of the word "retarded." I will likely finish it later but that just really hit me the wrong way. I don't want this to sound like an attack, none of us are perfect and we're all learning, but as someone on the spectrum I have to tell you the use of that word to mean stupid is extremely hurtful and furthers the idea that people like me are lesser humans. Thank you for your time if you read this.
@@katmccaslin i meant no offence and appologise if it was caused.
@@SnakesNAdders I've watched this a few times now as its great info so thanks for that! I am interested though. With all the info you've got from rainfall and dry seasons across the countries. The annual average humidity seems to range from the twenties right up in to the eighties. I'm really interested in what kind of humidity range you choose to keep at and if it's changed from before you put this video together?
This is a seriously awesome video. Thank you so much for all the time and effort you put into it.
Liked and subscribed for the amount of effort and work that was put into this video!!
Best BP video I've ever seen
This raises a lot more questions for me like with such a broad range were the wild ones we exported into captivity strange anomalies or were some of those locality. And if they were localities did we just mud blood the waters of beautiful naturlly occurring morphs. Like we find in corn snakes and carpet pythons and other species. Lastly I just want to say python reguis is just bad ace! Whole new love for them. Thanks for the video.
an amazing video, the stuff you are putting out there is like nothing else ive seen on any channel on you tube . as far as i am concerned you are truly inspirational in as much as i now seek to continue to improve husbandry for the species i keep based on research into the natural history etc. please please keep up the wonderful work you are doing, its people like you who will be seen to revitalise and safe guard our hobby for the future ;-)
What an informative and brilliant video and your explanation to the 'burrow' theory should be enlightening to the hobby. Thank you for putting this video together.
Easily one of the top 5 videos I’ve watched this year. Subscribed and headed to watch your boa video.
This is incredibly well put together. Thank you for taking the time to explain all the data and for laying it out for us to see. It’s very interesting.
I think a good size hide with heat pad and thermostat works quite well though...........since it’s warming the air inside that hide, and the thermostat prevents the burns..........I know though, we’re always discussing and learning, sharing....
I'm glad you've redone this. Love the video's.
Most interesting. I have “Pythons of the World” volume one: Australia. It’s a wonderful book, so I have no doubt that the one on Royals is great too, though I’m surprised that the authors devoted an entire volume to one species. I reckon we can only learn about the animals by giving them adequate space, and a degree of replication of their natural environment. For example, I had to keep my Brazilian rainbow boa in a tub for a few days while I replaced her viv: she just stayed put. In her viv, as soon as the lights go out, she is very active.
Awesome!!! Thank you for doing this research and fantastic presentation. Most informative video to date.
Utterly brilliant. Loved this and it is good to know we are doing the right thing with our royal and has given us some food for thought
Great video about one of my favourite species! 👌 Very interesting!
This is a fantastic video, thank you for your objective and evidence based approach. I just wish there were more groups on social media that joined the dots and looked at best care rather than easiest. You'll be pleased to know that it has been shared in the Not Just A Pet Rock group (it's how I found it) and we're all buzzing over it.
Well done and keep up the good work!
Thanks jon x
Thank you for this video! I've watched it a few times since it's release. I'm interested (with all the info you've collected here about rainfall and drier and wetter areas) what kind of humidity you choose to keep your royals at?
Absolutely brilliant video.
Amazing video, Royal Pythons have just become infinitely more interesting to me 😁
Great video
Nice job!
Beautiful royal🙂
What a video! Loved this and didn't want it to end. So useful as I'm researching on making a semi arboreal setup for my royal. Always good to see this type of content coming out of the UK 🇬🇧
Very, very interesting. Well done.
There is some fantastic footage online of a Royal Python crossing a road and moving into forest. Proves the point.
Always love your vidos - such great research and detail! one thing though (lol) in this video is that you focus a lot on rack systems as the only issue with reptile keeping leaving the vast majority of ball python keepers off the hook for the appalling conditions they keep their pythons. We recently rescued a python from a viv (the standard 3ft x 1ft coffin) with no hide, blue light, one log a small water bowl and a branch (which we managed to keep thankfully because after 5 years he is so attached to it, it is pitiful) and aspen substrate and a heat mat that has no thermostat on it and was way too hot. Sadly we could on take one of the five snakes there, I wish we could have taken them all.... it is to those people that your video needs to speak about too. There was no reason for it other than laziness of the parent and the youngness of the child (12ish when we were there) - they certainly weren't short of funds to ensure better keeping of their snakes. Well anyway ---- just wanted to say.
Yes rack systems are not good - definitely not as a long term solution. I do understand why breeders would use them however, and they are not causing outward stress to the animal it would seem - so if that is what it takes to stop them being taken from the wild to feed the pet industry then I can go with that - certainly in the UK anyway where animal standards are monitored on the most part. But the private owners? I think it is on the onus of the sellers of snakes to ensure that the environment they are selling snakes into is correct to a reasonable standard - and it is not unreasonable for an animal that clearly climbs to have a set up that encourages that behaviour. more pressue on sellers or minimum standards being set up RSPCA? I think so.
Thanks again for you videos - I always learn so much!
hopefully noone is off the hook as it were. This video hopefully makes clear that providing for the snake regardless of enclosure type and introducing enrichment is of paramount importance.
I am aware that this comment is almost a year old, but I just wanted to say thank you for pointing this out! The general public's level of snake husbandry is absolutely appalling, and I feel like not enough people are really addressing this. While online communities are discussing things like the benefits of UVB and the importance of enrichment, there are people out here keeping snakes without even providing the bare minimum required to meet their needs. And although I don't think racks are the nicest way to keep a snake, a rack with the correct size and set-up is still preferable to some of the set-ups people seem to think are adequate.
I adopted two snakes, a corn snake and a ball python, and in both cases, the owners claimed their terrarium was fully equipped, which was completely false. The corn snake came in what was essentially a cube with no heating, and the ball python came in a very small terrarium with a hide she didn't fit into and a tiny heat pad. But looking at other listings of animals for sale/adoption online, those set-ups were actually some of the better ones!
This might be wishful thinking but I think it would improve animal welfare if people were more strict in regards to who they sell their animals to, like animal shelters where you need to provide some sort of evidence that you are able to care for the animal properly before they adopt it out to you.
When you say 500 metres north to south, surely you mean miles or maybe kilometres. That range is a hell of a lot wider than 500 metres.
Too bad the commercials are so long on this vid................I try to play stuff like this video while I’m working on things and you start wondering what your listening to......then you realize it’s like a 5 minute commercial lol, wonder if you can change that up dude, no biggie, just irritating, great vid as always.
I'm not arguing for keeping them in racks, but it's possible that the Ball Pythons with arboreal prey items in their stomachs simply ate sick or deceased prey items that fell out of the tree.
They surely climb, though it's hard to imagine our captive animals doing so. I'm sure they're significantly leaner in the wild.
Research suggests that Juveniles of both sexes eat primarily birds. As they age females eat more and more mammals, eventually ending up having a roughly 65% mamalian and 35% aboreal birds diet. However, males remain eating a majority of birds, ending up with around a 30% mammalian to 70% aboreal birds diet. So I think it's more to do with it being a sourced out part of thier diet rather than just coming across dead/sick ones that fell out of trees (though I'm sure some probably are).
I'm sure that yes, wild counterparts are good at climbing likely because they are leaner (as a lot of captive royals are overfed), but also likely because they have better muscle tone than captive individuals. This is due to them having the space to explore and move, but also from birth experiencing things to climb up/over, and therefore they are actually build up muscle and climbing skills throughout thier lives. Many captives dont get that chance. So is it really that surprising when a likely overweight snake that doesn't have very good muscle tone isn't a very good climber? When thought about like that... not really. My girl who has quite a few climbing opportunities and is (according to body condition charts) at an ideal body condition is a really good climber and I've seen many peoples royals who are really good climbers too. People can be great swimmers, but if you never give them the opportunity (safely) to experience swimming and grow that skill, they will be pretty terrible at it. But that's just my take on it.
A few years ago, just before we got our first Royal Python I read the paper
“Sexual size dimorphism and natural history traits are correlated with intersexual dietary divergence in royal pythons (python regius) from the rainforests of southeastern Nigeria” by Luca Luiselli & Francesco Maria Angelici which gave me the link into their arboreal tendencies.
An online copy of the paper is here:
www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/11250009809386744