Threat Level
Least Concern

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Burmese Python
Fact Sheet

(Python molurus bivittatus)

Habitat

The Burmese Python is found throughout South-East Asia, Burma, Sumatra, Borneo and Malaya. They usually live near water and will inhabit grasslands, marshes, swamps, rocky foothills, woodlands, river valleys and jungles with open clearings. It is also quite common for them to enter surrounding villages.

Diet

Burmese Pythons prey on small mammals, up to the size of a pig or small deer, however smaller snakes will eat birds, lizards, other snakes, frogs, and even fish. It depends on the python's size as to what size prey they can consume. Burmese Pythons are usually nocturnal hunters and often ambush their prey with a sit and wait technique. They require little more than their own body weight of food per year.

Breeding

Mating season begins during the cooler months (end of Winter). The Burmese Python lays on average between 20 and 60 eggs about 3-4 months after mating. The female will coil her body around the eggs to protect and incubate them using muscular contractions (shivering) to keep them warm. This keeps their body temperature several degrees above that of the surrounding air. The female will incubate the eggs for 60-80 days.

How They Eat

Burmese Pythons constrict their prey. This involves the snake tightly coiling around the prey, not crushing it, but severely restricting movement. As the prey breathes out the tightening coils prevent the prey from inhaling. Very quickly the prey item asphyxiates (suffocates). To accomplish this, pythons are extremely muscular and usually heavy bodied snakes.

Basil

Sex: Female

Length: 4.5m (14.4ft)

Weight: 60kg (132lbs)

You Can Adopt Basil

Basil is our big girl of Burmese pythons at Australia Zoo weighing 60kg and 4.5 meters in length. She is a gentle giant even though she scares the life out of some people because of her size. Burmese pythons grow to be the third largest snake in the world after the Reticulated python and the Green Anaconda. You could not get a better ambassador for snakes than Basil - once people get over the amazement of her size they can't get enough!

Charlie

Age: 10 years (DOB 30/11/1999)

Sex: Female

You Can Adopt Charlie

Charlie is a beautiful female Burmese Python that has just entered into our breeding program to hopefully gain Australia Zoo some more of these fabulous snakes. You may have seen the Burmese Pythons in and around the Zoo being used for things like snake photos. Due to their beautiful and gentle nature they are the perfect snake for people to get up close and personal with, however with their ever growing popularity we need more snakes! This is a great thing to see as finally people are seeing snakes as beautiful creatures - Charlie's friends are sure doing a great job spreading the word. So make sure if you're in the Zoo stop in at one of the photo sessions and say hi to Charlie's brothers and sisters to experience the majesty of these amazing reptiles.

Medusa

Sex: Female

You Can Adopt Medusa

Medusa the gorgeous Burmese Python is one of our photo session snakes used here at Australia Zoo to allow people get up and close and personal with these amazing animals.

Medusa is currently three metres long and weights just over 14 kilograms; however she will grow much bigger. Burmese Pythons like Medusa have been known to reach six metres long and weigh in excess of 80 kilograms.

Her mum and dad are still on display up at the ‘Kids Corner ‘near admissions, and Medusa's brothers and sisters are also used at the photo studio here at the Zoo.