UPDATE: 6/29/2007: Sadly, Princess passed away last night... She was active and had just had a nice meal of two juicy mice the evening before she became sick and died. The vet said that she had a defect in her intestine which caused her food to lodge inside her leading to an impaction (a blockage). Unfortunately, the vet said that this is a common defect in pythons and he had a similar case with a reticulated python just last week. I loved that snake and I know many of our students loved her, too.
"Princess" is our school's very own Royal Python. The Royal Python is also known as a "Ball Python" because it hides its head within its coils when threatened, rolling up like a ball. Royal Pythons are known as "Python Regius" and have some of the largest python species as their cousins. While pythons inhabit areas throughout Africa and Asia, Royal Pythons like Princess can be found in southern Sudan, parts of Central Africa, and Western Equatorial Africa, e.g. Sierra Leone, Togo, Senegal.
Found on savannahs and sparsely wooded plains, python regius can tolerate night time temperatures in the mid to upper 60's and day time temperatures into the mid 90's.
Pythons are not poisonous, but they are efficient hunters. While Princess can bite when threatened, she is known as a "constrictor". Once she spots her prey, she stalks it and then grasps it in her powerful jaws and coils her body around it, squeezing it to death. One way in which pythons ensure catching prey is their ability to use heat sensing "pits" found just above their mouthes. These pits allow pythons to detect their prey in total darkness! In fact, they do a better job of "seeing" prey thanks to their pits and collecting small scent particles with their scent organ than they can with their eyes. Princess is 4 pounds, 14 ounces and is approximately 4.5 feet long. She can live up to 35 years if she is well taken care of and I am sure the students of the MAC will assist Mr. Clark in making sure she lives a happy, healthy life.
| Many of these pictures were taken during the summer when Princess goes to live with Mr. Clark when school is out. The cat you see in some of the pictures is "Squares". He is named Squares because he has a big, square head. =) Squares and Princess are good buddies and will even curl up together on Mr. Clark's lap and go to sleep! | ||
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