It is small to be a
python, it
is beautiful bright green
(juveniles are either yellow or reddish brown), and it is often seen on
photos in its favourite, coiled
position with the head in the middle of the coil.
It is also found in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, but in Australia it
is only found in some eastern
rainforests of Cape York.
It is
possible to see if you go spotlighting
night time, and
like
all pythons,
it is a harmless snake.
It is not the same as
the (also harmless) green
tree snake
that is also found elsewhere in Australia and is a colubrid snake.
What
Does a Green Tree Python
Look Like?
In some
other countries you
could mistake them for some other species, but in Australia they are unmistakeable.
Their large head,
well defined
from the neck, is clearly different from the small head of a green tree
snake.
Their body is also very different - not as smooth and slender, and triangular in cross section.
Their colour is bright
green,
with yellow shades, and some have white
markings on the back. Juveniles are brown or yellow.
They are one of the
smaller pythons,
usually about 1.5 metres long and weighing not more than about 1.5 kg.
Their favourite resting position on top of all that - loosely coiled in a saddle, with
the head
in the middle - makes them impossible to mistake for any
other
snakes.
Where
Is It Found?
Their
primary location is Papua
New Guinea
(including Normanby
Island and the d’Entrecasteaux Islands), but they are also found in Indonesia (Salawati, Misool, Schouten
Islands, Aru
Islands),
and
Australia.
In Australia, it is endemic to some small pockets of rainforest of Cape
York peninsula.
Some are easier to access than the others, but your best place by far to
go spotting it
is Iron
Range
National Park.
It is accessible, and the snakes are possible to spot - the best way is
to go spotlighting night
time,
when they are actively hunting and getting around.
The photos on this page are of a green tree python that I saw right
next to the road into the park, about
a metre above the ground on shrub branches - apparently a
very
common height to see them.
But they can also be seen in
trees,
where they often rest, coiled, day time.
What
Does It Eat?
Unlike
some other pythons
that favour other reptiles, green
tree pythons focus on small mammals,
like ground dwelling mice and rats, which they catch striking from tree
branches above as the unaware prey walks past them on the ground.
But they do take small
reptiles,
and juveniles particularly like small reptiles and frogs.
They were previously thought to also eat birds, but some
studies have shown
no evidence of birds in their stomach content.
Like all pythons they are non
venomous, and they kill their prey by coiling around it and suffocating it,
after having caught
it using their long, curved teeth.
They
sometimes also play the
favourite trick of death adders, using the tip of their tail as a lure,
mimicking a worm and attracting the prey into grabbing distance.
Reproduction
of
the Python
Green tree pythons are oviparous,
which means that their eggs develop outside the body of the female.
Up to 25 eggs
are laid in a
tree hollow, then protected and incubated.
The eggs hatch after about seven weeks, and hatchlings are yellow or reddish
brown.
Once they are about a year old, their
colour changes to emerald green. The colour change is
known to
take about five to ten days.
Threats
to this Beautiful
Python
Their largest threat is that their habitat
historically has, and in some places still is, being destroyed.
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at least 30 guaranteed FREE
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how to deal with the national
parks booking rules; and Aboriginal land entrance and camping permits
and alcohol restrictions - to vehicle preparation and accessories and necessary recovery
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This site uses British
English, which is the English we use in
Australia.
Disclaimer:
Although
best efforts have been made to ensure that all the information on this
website is correct, this site is not to be blamed should there be a
mistake.
This is the ORIGINAL Cape York Travel Guide run Locally on the Peninsula.