November 25, 2021 • 43 mins
Pythons are big snakes. Really big. But there's more to them than their size. Learn all about these big daddies in today's episode.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of I
Heart Radio. Hey you, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh.
There's Chuck, and this is Stuff you should Know about pythons.
Take it, Chuck, You mean take my two pythons to
(00:24):
the vet because I have two sick pythons. Do you
have two sick pythons? You never heard that joke? No,
but muscles? No, let's here. Well, I mean that's just
kind of it. It's just a not just way to
say you have big biceps, so you like, I need
a vet because I've got two sick pythons. Oh no,
I've never heard anything like that. I don't think that
(00:45):
joke even made it into The Hangover. It's like two
tickets to the gun show. Yeah, I've heard that one.
You haven't heard two sick pythons. No, no, No, that's terrible.
I think it was in The Hangover too. Oh I
never saw that one. It was not good. Was the
first one good? Yeah? It was. In fact, I just
watched some of that recently on a plane flight because
(01:08):
I just needed some comfort food and that movie was
really really funny. No, yeah, did you see it? Yeah? Oh, dude,
Zach Alifanakos was great. Ed Helms was great. Ken Uh,
what's his name? Ken Burns was awesome. No, main guy Ken,
(01:29):
the guy who's the doctor in real life, the Asian actor.
Oh Ken Jung, yeah Jung. He was hysterical. Yeah, he's funny. Okay,
Mike Tyson so funny. Tyson was funny that you know.
Actually he wasn't that good in it? Now, never mind,
I'm not gonna talk about that. Okay, correction wrong. I'll
(01:51):
let everyone guess who I didn't think was good out
of all the remaining characters. Oh, man, you're so hard
on that guy. Why what did you don't even know
what I'm talking about? I do too, of course I
know who you're talking about. Should we talk about pythons?
I think we should, And we're not talking about the muscles,
as the joke everybody knows goes. No. Instead, we're talking
(02:12):
about snakes, realize, snakes that will mess you up. Yeah.
I'm not so scared of pythons, no, uh, largely because
I'm never around them. But there's something my snake fear.
And I don't have that much of a snake fear,
but uh, my snake fears around having bangs of a
(02:32):
snake enter my body. But pythons are you know, they
have been known to kill people every once a while.
But from what I read, get this, chuck every single
person that's ever been killed in the United States by
a python, and take that with a grain of salt,
because they're not native to the United States. Um was
a cap was was it killed by their own by
(02:53):
a captive python? Usually it was their pet, and they
messed up by not fall following the proper procedures for
feeding it right, or they like went to sleep with
it wrapped around their neck yau they thought it was comforting,
or sadly they didn't keep their snake in an enclosure
like you're supposed to, and the python got ahold of
(03:15):
a kid in the house. That is, I can't I
can't even like put my mind there. Nightmare. But we
don't want to give python's bad name because UM in
a lot of cases there are definitely um plenty of
them that are pretty docile, nice friendly UM and UM
if they if a python does try to eat you,
it's probably a case of mistaken identity to begin with.
(03:37):
But also there's differences, UM that that make pythons seem
less threatening. They moved just like one mile an hour.
They're very slow. Um, they're not venomous. That's another big one, right, sure, yeah,
I think you know, Andy, I'm scared of any venomous steak,
like really scared of any venomous snake, not like a
(04:00):
phobia or anything. I think that's just like a legitimate fear,
that's right. Uh. They're found in Asia, Africa, and Australia.
They are Old World snakes and there are forty one
species of python. Um, we're going to concentrate on just
a few of these, but these are you know, they
along with the anaconda, which um, maybe we should do
(04:22):
like a shorty on anaconis at some point. But these
are these are the big daddies that are just amazing.
You can you can see a python that's twenty to
thirty ft long, and to see a snake that big
and that heavy, it's just it's it looks like a
holdover from ancient times. Yeah. Um, there are very small
(04:44):
pythons too, though. It turns out there's one called the
antil python. It's only about two feet long and it's
adult size. Um. But for the most part, if you're
talking about pythons. One of the ways to I think
this is probably one of the reasons why they do
seem so impressive too. They're bulk two length ratio is substantial,
which means they're like pretty big around. Even though they're
(05:07):
really long, they're also really big around. Um. So when
you see a snake like that, like, it definitely stands
out in your mind. Yeah. And even among big ones,
there's not the same um, the same color pattern or
anything there. They can really really differ depending on where
they are and what they need to camouflage themselves. Sometimes
(05:27):
you see those really pretty pattern scales that look almost
like a copper head in some ways. Uh. Sometimes they're
solid though. You've seen those big, gigantic bright green ones
or brown ones that are solid brown. Yeah, yeah, really
good looking snakes. Yeah, that's the green tree python, right,
that's right. Um. One thing I found, Chuck that I
found totally fascinating is um. A lot of python species
(05:51):
eat warm blooded um pray. Right. Yes, So they've developed
what are called labial pits, which are these little heat
sensing organs in their face around their mouth. Um, and
it allows them to sense uh. It's basically like the
predator remember UM, they would switch to what looked like
(06:12):
like thermal imaging. That's what those labial pits pick up.
But these UM snakes still also see visible light too,
so they use their eyes, but that the labial pit
information is transferred up their trigeminal nerve through their face
and eventually hits like their optics the optics center in
their brain. So and this is really tough to wrap
(06:33):
your head around. UM, but the the thermal imaging from
the labial pits and the visible information from their eyes
is superimposed so that they see in a way that
UM at this one site put It's impossible for us
to imagine. Isn't that awesome unless you've seen the movie Predator?
(06:53):
And that the um labial pits are so sensitive they
can detect changes in temperature of as little as point
zero zero one degree celsius. It's amazing, I think so too.
Good luck if you're a rabbit, I know you don't
stay in a chance. Sadly, no none, because if you
do get a python around a rabbit, they will grab
(07:16):
ahold of it with its triangular shaped head and they
have these sharp backward curving teeth. If you ever looked
at a Um, if you just look up pictures of
python teeth, they have a lot of sharp fangs that
are kind of pointing in the backwards direction. They don't
because they're not venomous. They don't have those two giant,
big daddy venom injectors at the front, which those are
(07:39):
the things that really scare me when it comes to snakes.
So pythons don't have those, but uh, they do, some
of them. Arboreal pythons have these prehensible tails that, um,
you know, there are legends of pythons like leaping from
trees to kill people or kill prey. That is not
true because that would hurt the snake to eat from
(08:00):
a tree. But they said in the articles I read,
they're like, well, they don't do that, but so don't worry.
But but they can really hang from the tree and
then come down and grab you. Right. They're famous for
wearing a hat and swinging down in front of your
face and going hello yeah. Basically, um, So there's some
other things about pythons that um stand out even amongst snakes.
(08:23):
One of the things that they have that most snakes
don't is two lungs, which is weird because it makes
them primitive. Then that seems odd we have two long
as we'd think, well, it's evolving towards humanity. Of course,
that's that's not primitive, that's the opposite. But apparently, um,
all snakes, or at least pythons I should say, evolved
(08:44):
from four legged, uh two long vertebrates of some sort
in the great distant past, and they just haven't evolved
into just a single lung like plenty of other snake
families have. That's right. And because of that evolution, they
all so have remnants of that stuff. They have remnants
of a pelvis and these little hind limbs and they're
(09:06):
called spurs located on the back, on the sides beside
the cloaca, and they use those for a bunch of
different things. But one of the things they do, and
we'll talk a little bit more about mating, they'll kind
of kind of stroke the ladies with the what's what's
left over of their vestigial limbs? I like that? Does
(09:26):
that creep you out? Yes? It does? It seems very sweet. So, um,
if you wanted to find a python in the wild, chuck,
where would you go? Well, already said Asia, Africa and Australia.
But what parts of those continents you would go to
where it's warm and wet. You would go maybe to
(09:48):
a rainforest, maybe in the woodlands or grasslands or the swamps.
They like to hide in under rocks and things. They
like to hide in little animal burrows. Like I said,
they can't hang from tree branches. Uh, this should scare everyone,
and we'll get a little bit more into how they've
made their way to Florida in the United States. But
(10:10):
when they are found in urban areas, they shelter in
urban debris. So you could, uh, you could pick up
a spare tire or turn over a wheelbarrow and find
a python into there. And if you were in the
in the wrong place at the wrong time, somewhere in
Florida right in the inner cities are littered with overturned wheelbarrows,
(10:31):
well you never know. So remember I said that python's
moved about one mile an hour. There's a reason for this.
That's really slow, just if you stop and think about it.
The reason they are so slow is because they're using
a form of movement called rectilinear progression um, which is
where they brace themselves on the ground with their ribs
(10:54):
and then lift their body up a little bit in
front and then push themselves forward and then just keep
repeating this. It's just kind of like, um uh, like
herky jerky moving forward in a herky jerky motion. Yeah.
I was looking at python movement and it looked like
a slither to me. It didn't stand out as much
(11:16):
as I thought it. What is looking really different? I
guess I should say, well, that's how they fool you. Well,
I guess so. I mean, they were definitely slow, but
I think I expected a lot more of a straight line,
and they do go in a straight line like as
opposed to like a really big S shaped slither. But
there was still some slither to their diather, you know
(11:36):
what I'm saying. Sure, I mean they are snakes after all.
To um they're also like frequently you can find them
in water. Apparently pythons can stay submerged in water for
up to half an hour. And one of the ways
that they they hunt is by basically hanging out in
water and waiting for something to come over to get
(11:57):
a little drinking and copal. And they're a will to
do this because they're um. Their their skin tones really
camouflaged well with like muddy mucky bottom. So it's really
tough to see a python, especially a Burmese python. Yeah,
there was a lot of alligators similarity. Uh, it's interesting
when I was studying this stuff. Hey, yeah, that hadn't
(12:20):
stuck out to me. But absolutely you're right, including how
to get away from him, which we'll get to, um,
But maybe we should take a break and we'll come
back and talk a little bit about uh they're hunting
and feeding and more detail right after this. Y yea,
(13:02):
so chok, we're talking about their hunting and feeding habits
and um. Like I said, they they sometimes hang out
underwater waiting for something to come up. They might also
just be hanging out on a tree branch. They might
just be hanging out under some brush. But what they're
doing every time they're hanging out is um performing the
type of hunting they do, which is ambush. They just
(13:23):
wait around for some prey to come and then come bout.
They get your alligators. Yeah, it is, it's like alligators.
You're right, man, Um, Please stop proving your point now.
But that's what they do. They ambush hunt, they bite,
and then they constrict bite and constrict back into the left.
(13:43):
That's right. If you're a little python, like the little
guys that are two or three ft long, you're gonna
eat mice and rats and things like that. Uh, lizards,
Maybe some birds might get in there if they're not
paying attention. If they're bigger, you name it man um, pigs, antelope, monkeys.
I think they found a rock python that had a
(14:06):
leopard in its stomach, A small leopard. Yeah, but that's
that's terrifying. That leopard doesn't win that battle. Well, So
that's something that pythons are known for, and we'll talk
more about it in a second. But they are capable
of eating things that are even bigger than they are,
which doesn't make sense even for snakes, Like that's really crazy.
(14:28):
Some of the stuff that they've eaten. Um. I saw
a picture, it's a really sad, terrible picture of a
python that tried to eat an alligator and it was
too big, and the python actually burst into in half
and the alligator was spilled out. But they are willing
to eat really large things because their body actually changes
(14:49):
to accommodate this huge um load of food that they've
just now taken on. It's got too big for a
stomach exactly, and now the body's like, now I gotta
change in adjust because this guy doesn't know his own size.
So you mentioned constriction. They are constrictors, and we'll talk
a little bit about how what they have in common
(15:10):
with BoA's a little bit later. But I think for many,
many years they thought that, um, well, they thought a
few things. Constriction. At first they thought was like they
were crushing their prey and like breaking their bones. That's
not true. Uh. Then for a while they thought that
they suffocated their prey and just like tightened up on
the lung so much that you can't breathe. That makes sense.
(15:32):
All of this sort of makes sense. But in two
thousand fifteen, uh, there was a scientific paper that came
out that basically said, hey, with boa constrictors, we now
know that what they do is they they don't suffocate you.
What they do is they cut off your brain or
your blood circulation basically, so you don't get any blood
to your brain and that's how you die. So it
(15:54):
may be true for pythons as well, because they are
also constrictors. Obviously, yeah, it would make a lot of sense. Um,
And that actually makes even more sense than than preventing
you from breathing, because you would lose consciousness much faster
if they can cut off the blood supply to your brain,
which is what you want to happen, because when they
when they capture you by biting your head like you're
(16:16):
eating head first by a python, you would probably hope,
no matter whether you're a person or a buddy, that
you have lost consciousness by the time it starts to
swallow you head first. Yeah. I saw a video of
someone feeding a dead bunny to this python on a
(16:36):
porch and it was, you know, it's just it was
it's just not fun to watch. I mean's super interesting,
but uh and again it wasn't a lie bunny. But
you know, when you when you see an animal consuming,
like unhinging that jaw and working this bunny's body into
its mouth, it's just it's amazing in a nature sense.
(16:58):
But I didn't watch at all, let's put it that way.
I don't blame you, so, Chuck, I think we should
talk about the studies of trying to figure out how
pythons can eat things that are so much bigger than it,
or just so enormous to begin with, not necessarily even
bigger than the snake, but way bigger than anything you
(17:21):
or I could eat proportionately, right, that's right. And they've
figured out thanks to um genetic sequencing, they see they
sequence the genome of the Burmese python um and found
out that it's actually their genes changed. The way that
their genes express um things like proteins or affect their metabolism.
(17:45):
All this stuff actually changes when they eat, and it
happens really fast, and the changes that it creates are
really really dramatic. Yeah, I mean the fact that this
was naturally selected over I mean they think that happenedically
as well, right, yeah, yeah, like the that during its
evolution it started picking up these these positive adaptations like
(18:07):
really fast. And the main thing they found out that
it was allows pythons to eat things that are as
big as they are is their their organs shrink when
they're eating to to make room in there, like their
liver and their kidneys and their intestines. They act in
their heart even get smaller while they're eating these things
to create space. And after like some of these things,
(18:27):
I think the liver actually doubles in mass in the
two days after they're done eating. Yeah, their heart actually
increases in size by about in the two days after
they eat, which is like that that is very unusual,
but it actually has to happen because the metabolism that's
required to eat this huge thing, because we didn't I
(18:50):
don't know if we said, like they'll go like a
week without eating, they'll eat once a week. So the
rest of the time they're their metabolism is just going
along doing whatever. Then all of a sudden it's presented
with this huge piece of food that it needs to digest.
So it's a huge increase in metabolic demand, and the
heart actually increases in size to accommodate that increase in
(19:10):
metabolic demand. It's amazing, it really is. And they figured
out that it's their genes just become super active and
start producing way more proteins and um just doing all
this stuff that under normal circumstances when they're not digesting
food just doesn't. It's just not how their genes behave.
And if you're wondering how they're breathing with a rabbit
(19:32):
stuff down their throats, they have a windpipe that opens
at the front of the mouth so they can breathe
while they're doing this stuff. Yeah, I saw it described
as kind of popping up like a periscope. Yeah, that's amazing.
So what about reproduction. I know that you really like
how they court. Do you want to talk some more
about that. Yeah. When they make kind of depends on
(19:54):
which species it is. It's not set in stone, but
they do. Those males use those spurs that were originally
limbs to stroke the female, and once they impregnate them,
the ladies they lay eggs. Actually, um, which is another
thing that's different than other boas even is that they
give birth to live young, but pythons give give birth
(20:18):
to little egg Well, I guess big eggs because some
of these things are a couple of feet long when
they come out when they hatch. I saw there about
the size of chicken eggs. Well, how could they be
two ft long? I don't know, crazy, I don't know,
I don't know. I guess maybe they eat themselves while
they're in the egg. Uh. They do provide most of
(20:39):
the time some parental care, and they make little nest
Mama does and keep some warm and like protected spaces
under logs and stuff like that, and you know, sort
of burrowed areas and they coil around them. Um. If
they since temperature changing whatever, the mother will sort of
flex her muscles and sort of can tracked in place
(21:00):
to heat up her own body to warm up the eggs.
That's called shivering thermogenesis. And they're not feeding when this
is going on. They're only leaving their nest if they
want to really warm up, and they call that basking,
just like we do. Yeah, and then the eggs hatch
and the mom says, see you, and that's that um.
And depending on the species, like they they will um
(21:24):
reproduce fairly frequently. I think a female snake um produces
about forty eggs every two years. They start breeding at
about three to four years old, so like they're you know,
a pretty successful family of snakes. They reproduce pretty frequently.
And then I guess because the hatchlings are so big
(21:44):
when they're born, they don't really need to be raised
or nurtured or protected. They're just on their own from
the moment they come out of the egg, and they
can live decades. They can live a long long time,
which is why a lot of snake enthusiasts love him
as pets. I think the San Diego zeus says about
thirty five years, which is that's a long time. Yeah,
(22:05):
that's at the tippy top. So, Chuck, I believe that
we should speak uh at length about the Burmese python
because this is as far as pythons go, it's very
very beautiful snake. It's actually highly prized for its skin.
Sad for the Burmese python, but it also has a
really interesting story here in the United States. That's right. Um.
(22:30):
They have pale tan, sort of gray bodies sometimes yellow brown.
They have these big sort of reddish splotches. Uh. And
they have their sort of um almost like they were
drawn around their outlined in different colors white or yellow usually,
and they are really pretty. And they are in Florida. Um,
just like uh, we were talking about the alligators. There's
(22:53):
I don't I mean, I guess you would call it
a python problem. In one sense, it's it's not as
much of a problem in that they're not really like
coming out of the wild and attacking people really um,
but they're they're make wreaking havoc on the local ecosystem
there as far as mammals go, it's an ecological disaster
as a matter of fact. Like it's if you're in
(23:13):
the Everglades and you care about biodiversity, you you have
a real problem with the Burmese python, which have been
really successful in setting up shop in the Everglades specifically. UM.
But they're an invasive species because they're not supposed to
be there. There haven't been snakes this large native to
the to the America's since long before humans were around.
(23:36):
So they came in and there they have no predators
there themselves, like an apex predator, and um, they've been
eating everything they can get their hands on, basically. And
the crazy thing about this is that they set up
shop in the Everglades because people started releasing them um
as pets. They were pets that got released and abandoned,
(23:58):
and now they're huge problem in Florida. Yeah. And and
not just like oh, you know there's been a decline
in in this roadent or this species. There was a
study and this is in twelve even Uh, the raccoon
population dropped nine three percent, possums almost extinct ninety eight
(24:20):
point nine percent, bobcats eighty seven point five percent, and
this from to two thousand twelve. Uh. And essentially foxes
and and rabbits have all but disappeared in the Everglades. Yeah,
so again that's an ecological catastrophe because not only is
it eating all of these important like um animals, they're
(24:42):
also competing with other larger stuff for food too, so
they're having an effect on like the local alligators and
other like probably the whatever panthers are down there. Um.
So it's a huge problem that they're there, and as
a result they're finding that um that Lord is basically
trying to figure out anything it can do to handle
(25:03):
this stuff. And I read that there's this thing called
the Python Challenge, the Annual Python Challenge, where they basically say, hey,
anybody and everybody who has a gun or a stick
or a knife or whatever you want to use to
kill a python, will give ten thousand dollars to the
person who kills the most pythons this year during this
(25:26):
Python Challenge. That's the level that Florida is at right now,
and it's having almost no effect because there's number one,
so many of them, but also because it is so
hard to see a python, even when you're basically standing
on top of it. It's that good. A Burmese python
is that good at camouflaging itself in the Everglades. Well, yeah,
(25:48):
that in the twenty eggs a year, right, Well that
was another thing to chuck is because the hatchlings are
so big. Do you remember when we talked about alligators
and how their numbers are kept in check because rack
coons will eat their hatchlings. Well, these Burmese pythons hatchlings
are so big. There's nothing in the Everglades that is
going to eat them. So they're incredibly successful at reproducing too.
(26:12):
That's a really good point. I'm trying to imagine something
thirty six inches long coming out of a chicken egg.
I know, even if it was, I guess it would
have to be the width of like a worm. Yeah,
it would be a little bit bigger, it would have
to be thin. But again, pythons are known for their
bulky nous, right, So I don't know. I just saw
I read a I believe it was a Smithsonian article
(26:33):
that was kind of the journalist was embedded with people who,
you know, hunt and track Burmese pythons in the Everglades.
Apparently there's an all women tracking team called the Everglades
Avengers um and like they somebody who knows what they're
talking about, describes it as the size of a chicken egg.
So that's where I got that from. So act if
(26:54):
I'm wrong, they were wrong. They look a little bigger,
but not much bigger. I guess they're just wrapped up.
They must just be really thin and bulk up really fast.
It goes stroying when they come out of their egg.
So you mentioned the Everglades. You're definitely all over the Everglades,
but they're expanding their territory. They're also in Big Cypress
(27:17):
National Preserve. They are in Collier Seminole State Forest. They
have been found in Miami, mh. They have been found
in the Florida Keys, which is means one of two things.
Either someone brought them there and release them there, or
they can tolerate saltwater. They were python swimming in the ocean. Yeah,
(27:39):
apparently that's been documented that they're you know, they're good
swimmers and they comp apparently tolerate saltwater, so it's entirely
possible they swim under the keys. Could you imagine doing
a little ocean swimming and seeing a freaking python. Yeah,
Because I mean these things get big, like in their
native habitat um in Southeast Asia. They it up to
(28:00):
about twenty six and two pounds. Apparently the ones in
Florida usually are average about eight to ten feet, so
that's still a very significant bulky snake that you would
see coming swimming at you while you're waiting in the water,
going how are you? I think those are I think
the ones in Miami those are African pythons are right, yes,
(28:23):
which apparently are almost indistinguishable from Burmese pythons to the
average person. So suburban and urban areas of Miami have pythons. Yeah,
they also have boa constrictors. Apparently there's a big iguana
problem down there as well, all from just jerks releasing
their pets that they don't want any longer because they
there's there's a really big problem with in scrupulous um
(28:46):
snake dealers, backyard breeders, people who actually have storefronts um
even like corporate chain pet stores selling snakes um and
and being like you have to kill a mouse to
feed this thing. Um. There's a lot of like this.
It's not just intuitive how to keep a snake happy
and healthy, and so people get overwhelmed by snakes and
(29:06):
they don't know what to do with them. So if
you're in Florida around Miami. You just release it in
your backyard and say see you later, and the snake
takes off and becomes a problem in the Everglades with
a tear rolling down its cheek. That's right through Pastco
Pasco and don't look back, right, and it turns around
and you have to punch a snake in the face
and go go right. I'd never liked you to begin with. Uh,
(29:31):
I think we need to take a second break, stol Right, yeah,
all right, let's do that, and we'll talk a little
bit more about what you can do if you do
see a python in the wild, and all about pet pythons,
the sweetest kind right after this. All right, we've established
(30:14):
that you're probably not in danger of being attacked by
a python in the wild in the United States. Um,
as far as we know, that has not happened. I
don't even think once. Right, that's my understanding. All right, good,
let's just keep that going. Let's keep that record intact. Uh,
if you do see a python in the wild, if
you're living in Florida, they have apps. Now, they have
(30:37):
hot lines. I've got one is the name of the program.
There's a hot line eight one or smartphone applications. I've
got one. You can just get that app if you
live in the area, and you just report that thing.
If you don't have the app, just go to the
National Park ranger say hey, I saw python over there.
By that time, it's probably way too late. Um, they're
(30:58):
probably out of there, but you should definitely report it
because it's a big, big issue and it's not you know,
I guess it sounds a little awful that they're just saying,
go kill as many as you can for ten thousand bucks.
But it is, like you said, it is wrecking the
ecosystem down there, and that's that's not good for anyone, know,
and the people like it's still sad for the Burmese pythons.
(31:21):
They're just doing their thing. They just happen to be
very successful. It's the people who released them that are
really at fault and deserve everyone's scorn. Sure, but we
should talk about the ball python, which and this is
sort of the uh, the the go to pet. If
you want a constrictor and you don't want to Boa,
you can go with the old ball python. Yeah, they're
(31:42):
a lot more docile, they're much smaller, they grow maybe
to five or six feet. They don't move around much.
They don't they're not super active, so they are as
if you're going to have a snake as a pet,
a ball python is a good way to go for sure. Yeah.
They've got little dark uh stripes a lot times on
their face. You have like through like through their eyes.
(32:03):
It's very pretty, Yeah, very pretty snake. Uh. They have
these again those dark blotches that are outlined in a
lighter color. Very attractive skins. And again it's very sad
that their skins are being used for you know, bipoachers
or whatever to sell. Uh. They there are albino pythons
(32:24):
as well, which has become such a favorite snake that
they're actually breeding this into them. Yeah, they don't have
albini is. Um, they have a melotint ism, a melan
a melan is ism they I think that proves that
doesn't have quite the ring though melanists DoSM whatever. But
(32:46):
one of the there's actually some types of ball pythons
that um, they'll have like a yellow body and then
their stripes are actually lacking in pigments so it looks
like yellow and white. Um. There's ones that have black
stripes but they're lacking pig men in their body, so
it's like this black and white the really gorgeous snakes
for sure. Yes, and like you said, they are docile.
(33:07):
They're good. If you have never even had a snake before,
it could be a good place to start if you've
never if you didn't even know snakes existed. The bald
python is a great place to start. It is. They're
called ball pythons because if they get threatened, they curl
up and roll up in a little ball. It's very cute.
It's very sensible too. So um, if you are going
to buy a snake, you probably do not want a
(33:30):
wild caught ball python because when they're caught, they don't
really want to leave their home in the wilderness and
come to your home, so they're going to be stressed out. Snakes,
like all other captive animals, who get bored and they're
not cared for, can just can um display zookosis and
other terrible habits. Um. So you would probably want to
(33:51):
get one from a breeder or a pet store or
something like that. But again you should consider um you're
taking something out of the wild, even if it wasn't
born in the wild, and keeping it in a little
twenty gallon aquarium in your house. So I think that
part through first. Yeah, and they don't, Um, it's not
mean to keep them in a smaller enclosure. They like
(34:12):
tight spaces, So you don't need to get this huge
thing for your ball python. Um no, you would, that
would be mean, actually is from what Yeah, I mean
they need a little bit of room, but they like
they're not real active again, and they like tight spaces. Uh.
They it has to be really secure because they are
great at getting out of those cages and exploring your apartment.
(34:35):
I think one of the reasons we talked about their lifespan.
I think one of the reasons people um release them
sometimes is even though they know this getting into it,
it's hard to make a thirty year commitment to something.
So if you're you know, if you're some forty to
fifty year old dude and you're like get into snakes
all of a sudden, you're not thinking about what's going
(34:56):
to be going on when you're eighty, Uh, you might
us away, your family may not know what to do
with it, and release it. So this is a long
term commitment that you really really need to think through,
right if you're going to do this, Let's say you're
under the age of fifty and you're like, I'm into
snakes now, Um, there are some things you want to do. Um.
You want to keep your snake nice and warm. Uh.
(35:17):
And in fact, you want to have basically dual climate
zones in your twenty gallon or thirty gallon aquarium, depending
on the size of the snake. Um. You want to
keep it somewhere in the neighborhood of seventy eight degrees
in the in the tank in general. And then you
want to fahrenheit thank you, Celsie's I think would melt
the snake. Um. And then you want to keep a
(35:38):
little area for basking even hotter. Remember you talked about
how snakes like to bask. Um this one. This is
going to be more like eight eight to ninety two
degrees fahrenheight, so the snake can be like, I'm gonna
go warm up over here on my nice little rock.
And Um. If you do that and you keep track
of your temperatures, like you have to really make sure
(35:58):
it stays like this, then it will be much happier
than otherwise. Yeah, but you want to screen those lights off.
You don't want it actually touching the bulb because that
can burn their little skin. And there was one of
the thing that um they really love is as branches.
They love to hang on tree branches. So if you
could outfit your aquarium, it's got to be sturdy. Don't
(36:19):
just put like some sort of lightweight limb from your yard.
But if you can affix like a really sturdy limb
in your your python cage, they're gonna be pretty happy
with you as an owner. And it will also probably
give them a place to hide too. They want to
have a place to hide UM so that they can
feel safe and secure. And then they also like to
soak too, apparently also when they're molting um shedding their skin,
(36:41):
they like to soak. So you want a little tub,
but they want to feel secure when they're in their
little tub of water too, So you probably want to
have like a lidded plastic container that you've cut a
hole out in the top and smooth the edges out.
You could be sure to do that UM so that
the snake can go inside it's little tub and soak
but also feel and closed in there too. Right And finally, uh,
(37:04):
part of being the owner of a constrictor that you've
got to feed these things. And when you have them
in your house and their domesticated, there's not snake food
that you shake out like a fish. Right as you
have this big can in just a bunch of mice
shake count Yeah, well that's what you gotta do, man,
You gotta you gotta feed them. Uh, they need to
(37:26):
be fed every week or maybe every two weeks, kind
of depending on their appetite. If they're young, you gotta
start out with a little tiny mice about every five
to seven days, and then as they get bigger, their
diet's gonna grow. So if you end up with a
six ft python, you're gonna have to feed it something
that will fill it up. In judging by this this
(37:48):
person feeding it this dead rabbit, it's not a fun task.
I'm sure they don't mind. They're up for that, but
I'm not sure. Um one of the other things too.
Like this is all if you have a bald python,
which is manageable and is not going to be able
to harm you even if it tried. But if you say,
have a Burmese python, there's entire steps that you have
(38:11):
to follow through that you wouldn't with other kinds of um,
smaller pythons, like, for example, when you're feeding it, you
never ever want to dangle its food in front of
your face, in front of its face with your hands,
because it might bite your hand and start to get
ahold of you. Um. Apparently, when it's feeding time and
they've sensed food, all of those genes start going crazy
(38:34):
and they like just they get a little bit of
like food fever, and they're not they're not behaving in
a way that you might expect them to. Write UM,
So you never want to dangle it with your bare
hands or your hands. You want to use like force
ups or something like that. And then also if you
have a Burmese python, you never feed it by yourself.
You always have to have at least one other adult
(38:55):
around with you, just in case something bad does happen.
It does happen from time to time. There's a guy
in the Bronx who was found dead in his apartment
and his pound eleven ft Burmese python was wrapped around
him still. He apparently had gone to feed it outside
of its cage a chicken that he had used his
(39:16):
hand to dangle in front of it, and it just
went bad. But that is extremely rare. But the point
is that can happen, so you have to be extra
safe and smart when you're feeding a Burmese python. Yeah,
it happens quick, like when this rabbit was dangled there.
There's such a chill sort of species, the way they
move around. And you know, we've all been to the
(39:36):
nature center and some people have held them and petted them.
They look very relaxed. But when that rabbit was dangled it,
when it popped at it and wrapped around it, it it
happened very very fast. And they will bite you too.
Even though it's not like a venomous bite. Um, it
still hurts, like their teeth can break off into your
hand or your arm or wherever. So it's not a
(39:57):
pleasant sensation from what I understand, even though it's not
going to kill you. That's right. And then finally, finally,
as far as endangerment goes, there are thirteen species on
the International Union of Conservation of Nature's Red List of
Threatened species, and I think the Ramsey's python is endangered.
The Burmese and the mean mar are vulnerable, so is
(40:21):
the Indian python too, apparently, but plentiful and Florida it
sounds like. Yeah, I was surprised that the Burmese pythons
still on that list for as good as it seeing Florida.
But maybe they're just thinking of the natural range of it.
That's right. And the biggest threat to pythons you guessed
it stars, Yes, not sharks. Ah you got anything else?
(40:43):
I don't have anything else. Thanks for putting this one together.
Shout out to definitely Live Science UM for that one
article about the guy who found out how you could
sequence the genes of pythons and just be amazed at
what you find. Yeah, thanks to Life Science. And there
were there were a bunch of different snake specialty websites
that we dug into for this sweet um. And if
(41:04):
you want to know more about pythons and just start
reading about pythons and think really long and hard before
you actually get one as a pet. But if you do,
take good care of it and tell it that we
said high. And since I said that, it's time for
listener mail, I'm gonna call this Salem Witch Family Trial
(41:24):
Family Connection. Hey, guys, have been listening to the show
for a few years, thoroughly enjoyed them. Recently listened to
Salem witchcraft trials and something towards the instruct me. You
mentioned that Salem was in Essex County. My mother's family
settled in Essex in the mid seventeenth century. So I
did a little research and found out that there was
an Elizabeth Morris in Newbury who was convicted of witchcraft
(41:46):
in eighteen I'm sorry, sixteen eighty. She was originally sentenced
to death, but that was changed to home confinement after
a second trial, and it turns out she is my
seventh great grandmother. Pretty cool. That was a bit of
fun family history to share with the Fens, with the
friends and family this Halloween season. And that is from
George Oaks. That is a great email, George Oakes. We
(42:09):
actually heard from a lot of people who were related
to people who were executed at the Salem witchcraft trials.
Did you know? I think we heard from a Corey
and a bunch of other people. So shout out to
all of you guys carrying the family lying on for
those old witches. But none of those matters, no, Now
(42:29):
they don't tell people. Um, well, if you want to
get in touch with us, you can Who was that
that wrote in George George Ookes If you want to
get in touch with us like George did, you can
send us an email like George did, to Stuff Podcasts
at iHeart radio dot com. Stuff you Should Know is
a production of iHeart Radio. For more podcasts my heart Radio,
(42:53):
visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of I
Heart Radio. Hey you, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh.
There's Chuck, and this is Stuff you should Know about pythons.
Take it, Chuck, You mean take my two pythons to
(00:24):
the vet because I have two sick pythons. Do you
have two sick pythons? You never heard that joke? No,
but muscles? No, let's here. Well, I mean that's just
kind of it. It's just a not just way to
say you have big biceps, so you like, I need
a vet because I've got two sick pythons. Oh no,
I've never heard anything like that. I don't think that
(00:45):
joke even made it into The Hangover. It's like two
tickets to the gun show. Yeah, I've heard that one.
You haven't heard two sick pythons. No, no, No, that's terrible.
I think it was in The Hangover too. Oh I
never saw that one. It was not good. Was the
first one good? Yeah? It was. In fact, I just
watched some of that recently on a plane flight because
(01:08):
I just needed some comfort food and that movie was
really really funny. No, yeah, did you see it? Yeah? Oh, dude,
Zach Alifanakos was great. Ed Helms was great. Ken Uh,
what's his name? Ken Burns was awesome. No, main guy Ken,
(01:29):
the guy who's the doctor in real life, the Asian actor.
Oh Ken Jung, yeah Jung. He was hysterical. Yeah, he's funny. Okay,
Mike Tyson so funny. Tyson was funny that you know.
Actually he wasn't that good in it? Now, never mind,
I'm not gonna talk about that. Okay, correction wrong. I'll
(01:51):
let everyone guess who I didn't think was good out
of all the remaining characters. Oh, man, you're so hard
on that guy. Why what did you don't even know
what I'm talking about? I do too, of course I
know who you're talking about. Should we talk about pythons?
I think we should, And we're not talking about the muscles,
as the joke everybody knows goes. No. Instead, we're talking
(02:12):
about snakes, realize, snakes that will mess you up. Yeah.
I'm not so scared of pythons, no, uh, largely because
I'm never around them. But there's something my snake fear.
And I don't have that much of a snake fear,
but uh, my snake fears around having bangs of a
(02:32):
snake enter my body. But pythons are you know, they
have been known to kill people every once a while.
But from what I read, get this, chuck every single
person that's ever been killed in the United States by
a python, and take that with a grain of salt,
because they're not native to the United States. Um was
a cap was was it killed by their own by
(02:53):
a captive python? Usually it was their pet, and they
messed up by not fall following the proper procedures for
feeding it right, or they like went to sleep with
it wrapped around their neck yau they thought it was comforting,
or sadly they didn't keep their snake in an enclosure
like you're supposed to, and the python got ahold of
(03:15):
a kid in the house. That is, I can't I
can't even like put my mind there. Nightmare. But we
don't want to give python's bad name because UM in
a lot of cases there are definitely um plenty of
them that are pretty docile, nice friendly UM and UM
if they if a python does try to eat you,
it's probably a case of mistaken identity to begin with.
(03:37):
But also there's differences, UM that that make pythons seem
less threatening. They moved just like one mile an hour.
They're very slow. Um, they're not venomous. That's another big one, right, sure, yeah,
I think you know, Andy, I'm scared of any venomous steak,
like really scared of any venomous snake, not like a
(04:00):
phobia or anything. I think that's just like a legitimate fear,
that's right. Uh. They're found in Asia, Africa, and Australia.
They are Old World snakes and there are forty one
species of python. Um, we're going to concentrate on just
a few of these, but these are you know, they
along with the anaconda, which um, maybe we should do
(04:22):
like a shorty on anaconis at some point. But these
are these are the big daddies that are just amazing.
You can you can see a python that's twenty to
thirty ft long, and to see a snake that big
and that heavy, it's just it's it looks like a
holdover from ancient times. Yeah. Um, there are very small
(04:44):
pythons too, though. It turns out there's one called the
antil python. It's only about two feet long and it's
adult size. Um. But for the most part, if you're
talking about pythons. One of the ways to I think
this is probably one of the reasons why they do
seem so impressive too. They're bulk two length ratio is substantial,
which means they're like pretty big around. Even though they're
(05:07):
really long, they're also really big around. Um. So when
you see a snake like that, like, it definitely stands
out in your mind. Yeah. And even among big ones,
there's not the same um, the same color pattern or
anything there. They can really really differ depending on where
they are and what they need to camouflage themselves. Sometimes
(05:27):
you see those really pretty pattern scales that look almost
like a copper head in some ways. Uh. Sometimes they're
solid though. You've seen those big, gigantic bright green ones
or brown ones that are solid brown. Yeah, yeah, really
good looking snakes. Yeah, that's the green tree python, right,
that's right. Um. One thing I found, Chuck that I
found totally fascinating is um. A lot of python species
(05:51):
eat warm blooded um pray. Right. Yes, So they've developed
what are called labial pits, which are these little heat
sensing organs in their face around their mouth. Um, and
it allows them to sense uh. It's basically like the
predator remember UM, they would switch to what looked like
(06:12):
like thermal imaging. That's what those labial pits pick up.
But these UM snakes still also see visible light too,
so they use their eyes, but that the labial pit
information is transferred up their trigeminal nerve through their face
and eventually hits like their optics the optics center in
their brain. So and this is really tough to wrap
(06:33):
your head around. UM, but the the thermal imaging from
the labial pits and the visible information from their eyes
is superimposed so that they see in a way that
UM at this one site put It's impossible for us
to imagine. Isn't that awesome unless you've seen the movie Predator?
(06:53):
And that the um labial pits are so sensitive they
can detect changes in temperature of as little as point
zero zero one degree celsius. It's amazing, I think so too.
Good luck if you're a rabbit, I know you don't
stay in a chance. Sadly, no none, because if you
do get a python around a rabbit, they will grab
(07:16):
ahold of it with its triangular shaped head and they
have these sharp backward curving teeth. If you ever looked
at a Um, if you just look up pictures of
python teeth, they have a lot of sharp fangs that
are kind of pointing in the backwards direction. They don't
because they're not venomous. They don't have those two giant,
big daddy venom injectors at the front, which those are
(07:39):
the things that really scare me when it comes to snakes.
So pythons don't have those, but uh, they do, some
of them. Arboreal pythons have these prehensible tails that, um,
you know, there are legends of pythons like leaping from
trees to kill people or kill prey. That is not
true because that would hurt the snake to eat from
(08:00):
a tree. But they said in the articles I read,
they're like, well, they don't do that, but so don't worry.
But but they can really hang from the tree and
then come down and grab you. Right. They're famous for
wearing a hat and swinging down in front of your
face and going hello yeah. Basically, um, So there's some
other things about pythons that um stand out even amongst snakes.
(08:23):
One of the things that they have that most snakes
don't is two lungs, which is weird because it makes
them primitive. Then that seems odd we have two long
as we'd think, well, it's evolving towards humanity. Of course,
that's that's not primitive, that's the opposite. But apparently, um,
all snakes, or at least pythons I should say, evolved
(08:44):
from four legged, uh two long vertebrates of some sort
in the great distant past, and they just haven't evolved
into just a single lung like plenty of other snake
families have. That's right. And because of that evolution, they
all so have remnants of that stuff. They have remnants
of a pelvis and these little hind limbs and they're
(09:06):
called spurs located on the back, on the sides beside
the cloaca, and they use those for a bunch of
different things. But one of the things they do, and
we'll talk a little bit more about mating, they'll kind
of kind of stroke the ladies with the what's what's
left over of their vestigial limbs? I like that? Does
(09:26):
that creep you out? Yes? It does? It seems very sweet. So, um,
if you wanted to find a python in the wild, chuck,
where would you go? Well, already said Asia, Africa and Australia.
But what parts of those continents you would go to
where it's warm and wet. You would go maybe to
(09:48):
a rainforest, maybe in the woodlands or grasslands or the swamps.
They like to hide in under rocks and things. They
like to hide in little animal burrows. Like I said,
they can't hang from tree branches. Uh, this should scare everyone,
and we'll get a little bit more into how they've
made their way to Florida in the United States. But
(10:10):
when they are found in urban areas, they shelter in
urban debris. So you could, uh, you could pick up
a spare tire or turn over a wheelbarrow and find
a python into there. And if you were in the
in the wrong place at the wrong time, somewhere in
Florida right in the inner cities are littered with overturned wheelbarrows,
(10:31):
well you never know. So remember I said that python's
moved about one mile an hour. There's a reason for this.
That's really slow, just if you stop and think about it.
The reason they are so slow is because they're using
a form of movement called rectilinear progression um, which is
where they brace themselves on the ground with their ribs
(10:54):
and then lift their body up a little bit in
front and then push themselves forward and then just keep
repeating this. It's just kind of like, um uh, like
herky jerky moving forward in a herky jerky motion. Yeah.
I was looking at python movement and it looked like
a slither to me. It didn't stand out as much
(11:16):
as I thought it. What is looking really different? I
guess I should say, well, that's how they fool you. Well,
I guess so. I mean, they were definitely slow, but
I think I expected a lot more of a straight line,
and they do go in a straight line like as
opposed to like a really big S shaped slither. But
there was still some slither to their diather, you know
(11:36):
what I'm saying. Sure, I mean they are snakes after all.
To um they're also like frequently you can find them
in water. Apparently pythons can stay submerged in water for
up to half an hour. And one of the ways
that they they hunt is by basically hanging out in
water and waiting for something to come over to get
(11:57):
a little drinking and copal. And they're a will to
do this because they're um. Their their skin tones really
camouflaged well with like muddy mucky bottom. So it's really
tough to see a python, especially a Burmese python. Yeah,
there was a lot of alligators similarity. Uh, it's interesting
when I was studying this stuff. Hey, yeah, that hadn't
(12:20):
stuck out to me. But absolutely you're right, including how
to get away from him, which we'll get to, um,
But maybe we should take a break and we'll come
back and talk a little bit about uh they're hunting
and feeding and more detail right after this. Y yea,
(13:02):
so chok, we're talking about their hunting and feeding habits
and um. Like I said, they they sometimes hang out
underwater waiting for something to come up. They might also
just be hanging out on a tree branch. They might
just be hanging out under some brush. But what they're
doing every time they're hanging out is um performing the
type of hunting they do, which is ambush. They just
(13:23):
wait around for some prey to come and then come bout.
They get your alligators. Yeah, it is, it's like alligators.
You're right, man, Um, Please stop proving your point now.
But that's what they do. They ambush hunt, they bite,
and then they constrict bite and constrict back into the left.
(13:43):
That's right. If you're a little python, like the little
guys that are two or three ft long, you're gonna
eat mice and rats and things like that. Uh, lizards,
Maybe some birds might get in there if they're not
paying attention. If they're bigger, you name it man um, pigs, antelope, monkeys.
I think they found a rock python that had a
(14:06):
leopard in its stomach, A small leopard. Yeah, but that's
that's terrifying. That leopard doesn't win that battle. Well, So
that's something that pythons are known for, and we'll talk
more about it in a second. But they are capable
of eating things that are even bigger than they are,
which doesn't make sense even for snakes, Like that's really crazy.
(14:28):
Some of the stuff that they've eaten. Um. I saw
a picture, it's a really sad, terrible picture of a
python that tried to eat an alligator and it was
too big, and the python actually burst into in half
and the alligator was spilled out. But they are willing
to eat really large things because their body actually changes
(14:49):
to accommodate this huge um load of food that they've
just now taken on. It's got too big for a
stomach exactly, and now the body's like, now I gotta
change in adjust because this guy doesn't know his own size.
So you mentioned constriction. They are constrictors, and we'll talk
a little bit about how what they have in common
(15:10):
with BoA's a little bit later. But I think for many,
many years they thought that, um, well, they thought a
few things. Constriction. At first they thought was like they
were crushing their prey and like breaking their bones. That's
not true. Uh. Then for a while they thought that
they suffocated their prey and just like tightened up on
the lung so much that you can't breathe. That makes sense.
(15:32):
All of this sort of makes sense. But in two
thousand fifteen, uh, there was a scientific paper that came
out that basically said, hey, with boa constrictors, we now
know that what they do is they they don't suffocate you.
What they do is they cut off your brain or
your blood circulation basically, so you don't get any blood
to your brain and that's how you die. So it
(15:54):
may be true for pythons as well, because they are
also constrictors. Obviously, yeah, it would make a lot of sense. Um,
And that actually makes even more sense than than preventing
you from breathing, because you would lose consciousness much faster
if they can cut off the blood supply to your brain,
which is what you want to happen, because when they
when they capture you by biting your head like you're
(16:16):
eating head first by a python, you would probably hope,
no matter whether you're a person or a buddy, that
you have lost consciousness by the time it starts to
swallow you head first. Yeah. I saw a video of
someone feeding a dead bunny to this python on a
(16:36):
porch and it was, you know, it's just it was
it's just not fun to watch. I mean's super interesting,
but uh and again it wasn't a lie bunny. But
you know, when you when you see an animal consuming,
like unhinging that jaw and working this bunny's body into
its mouth, it's just it's amazing in a nature sense.
(16:58):
But I didn't watch at all, let's put it that way.
I don't blame you, so, Chuck, I think we should
talk about the studies of trying to figure out how
pythons can eat things that are so much bigger than it,
or just so enormous to begin with, not necessarily even
bigger than the snake, but way bigger than anything you
(17:21):
or I could eat proportionately, right, that's right. And they've
figured out thanks to um genetic sequencing, they see they
sequence the genome of the Burmese python um and found
out that it's actually their genes changed. The way that
their genes express um things like proteins or affect their metabolism.
(17:45):
All this stuff actually changes when they eat, and it
happens really fast, and the changes that it creates are
really really dramatic. Yeah, I mean the fact that this
was naturally selected over I mean they think that happenedically
as well, right, yeah, yeah, like the that during its
evolution it started picking up these these positive adaptations like
(18:07):
really fast. And the main thing they found out that
it was allows pythons to eat things that are as
big as they are is their their organs shrink when
they're eating to to make room in there, like their
liver and their kidneys and their intestines. They act in
their heart even get smaller while they're eating these things
to create space. And after like some of these things,
(18:27):
I think the liver actually doubles in mass in the
two days after they're done eating. Yeah, their heart actually
increases in size by about in the two days after
they eat, which is like that that is very unusual,
but it actually has to happen because the metabolism that's
required to eat this huge thing, because we didn't I
(18:50):
don't know if we said, like they'll go like a
week without eating, they'll eat once a week. So the
rest of the time they're their metabolism is just going
along doing whatever. Then all of a sudden it's presented
with this huge piece of food that it needs to digest.
So it's a huge increase in metabolic demand, and the
heart actually increases in size to accommodate that increase in
(19:10):
metabolic demand. It's amazing, it really is. And they figured
out that it's their genes just become super active and
start producing way more proteins and um just doing all
this stuff that under normal circumstances when they're not digesting
food just doesn't. It's just not how their genes behave.
And if you're wondering how they're breathing with a rabbit
(19:32):
stuff down their throats, they have a windpipe that opens
at the front of the mouth so they can breathe
while they're doing this stuff. Yeah, I saw it described
as kind of popping up like a periscope. Yeah, that's amazing.
So what about reproduction. I know that you really like
how they court. Do you want to talk some more
about that. Yeah. When they make kind of depends on
(19:54):
which species it is. It's not set in stone, but
they do. Those males use those spurs that were originally
limbs to stroke the female, and once they impregnate them,
the ladies they lay eggs. Actually, um, which is another
thing that's different than other boas even is that they
give birth to live young, but pythons give give birth
(20:18):
to little egg Well, I guess big eggs because some
of these things are a couple of feet long when
they come out when they hatch. I saw there about
the size of chicken eggs. Well, how could they be
two ft long? I don't know, crazy, I don't know,
I don't know. I guess maybe they eat themselves while
they're in the egg. Uh. They do provide most of
(20:39):
the time some parental care, and they make little nest
Mama does and keep some warm and like protected spaces
under logs and stuff like that, and you know, sort
of burrowed areas and they coil around them. Um. If
they since temperature changing whatever, the mother will sort of
flex her muscles and sort of can tracked in place
(21:00):
to heat up her own body to warm up the eggs.
That's called shivering thermogenesis. And they're not feeding when this
is going on. They're only leaving their nest if they
want to really warm up, and they call that basking,
just like we do. Yeah, and then the eggs hatch
and the mom says, see you, and that's that um.
And depending on the species, like they they will um
(21:24):
reproduce fairly frequently. I think a female snake um produces
about forty eggs every two years. They start breeding at
about three to four years old, so like they're you know,
a pretty successful family of snakes. They reproduce pretty frequently.
And then I guess because the hatchlings are so big
(21:44):
when they're born, they don't really need to be raised
or nurtured or protected. They're just on their own from
the moment they come out of the egg, and they
can live decades. They can live a long long time,
which is why a lot of snake enthusiasts love him
as pets. I think the San Diego zeus says about
thirty five years, which is that's a long time. Yeah,
(22:05):
that's at the tippy top. So, Chuck, I believe that
we should speak uh at length about the Burmese python
because this is as far as pythons go, it's very
very beautiful snake. It's actually highly prized for its skin.
Sad for the Burmese python, but it also has a
really interesting story here in the United States. That's right. Um.
(22:30):
They have pale tan, sort of gray bodies sometimes yellow brown.
They have these big sort of reddish splotches. Uh. And
they have their sort of um almost like they were
drawn around their outlined in different colors white or yellow usually,
and they are really pretty. And they are in Florida. Um,
just like uh, we were talking about the alligators. There's
(22:53):
I don't I mean, I guess you would call it
a python problem. In one sense, it's it's not as
much of a problem in that they're not really like
coming out of the wild and attacking people really um,
but they're they're make wreaking havoc on the local ecosystem
there as far as mammals go, it's an ecological disaster
as a matter of fact. Like it's if you're in
(23:13):
the Everglades and you care about biodiversity, you you have
a real problem with the Burmese python, which have been
really successful in setting up shop in the Everglades specifically. UM.
But they're an invasive species because they're not supposed to
be there. There haven't been snakes this large native to
the to the America's since long before humans were around.
(23:36):
So they came in and there they have no predators
there themselves, like an apex predator, and um, they've been
eating everything they can get their hands on, basically. And
the crazy thing about this is that they set up
shop in the Everglades because people started releasing them um
as pets. They were pets that got released and abandoned,
(23:58):
and now they're huge problem in Florida. Yeah. And and
not just like oh, you know there's been a decline
in in this roadent or this species. There was a
study and this is in twelve even Uh, the raccoon
population dropped nine three percent, possums almost extinct ninety eight
(24:20):
point nine percent, bobcats eighty seven point five percent, and
this from to two thousand twelve. Uh. And essentially foxes
and and rabbits have all but disappeared in the Everglades. Yeah,
so again that's an ecological catastrophe because not only is
it eating all of these important like um animals, they're
(24:42):
also competing with other larger stuff for food too, so
they're having an effect on like the local alligators and
other like probably the whatever panthers are down there. Um.
So it's a huge problem that they're there, and as
a result they're finding that um that Lord is basically
trying to figure out anything it can do to handle
(25:03):
this stuff. And I read that there's this thing called
the Python Challenge, the Annual Python Challenge, where they basically say, hey,
anybody and everybody who has a gun or a stick
or a knife or whatever you want to use to
kill a python, will give ten thousand dollars to the
person who kills the most pythons this year during this
(25:26):
Python Challenge. That's the level that Florida is at right now,
and it's having almost no effect because there's number one,
so many of them, but also because it is so
hard to see a python, even when you're basically standing
on top of it. It's that good. A Burmese python
is that good at camouflaging itself in the Everglades. Well, yeah,
(25:48):
that in the twenty eggs a year, right, Well that
was another thing to chuck is because the hatchlings are
so big. Do you remember when we talked about alligators
and how their numbers are kept in check because rack
coons will eat their hatchlings. Well, these Burmese pythons hatchlings
are so big. There's nothing in the Everglades that is
going to eat them. So they're incredibly successful at reproducing too.
(26:12):
That's a really good point. I'm trying to imagine something
thirty six inches long coming out of a chicken egg.
I know, even if it was, I guess it would
have to be the width of like a worm. Yeah,
it would be a little bit bigger, it would have
to be thin. But again, pythons are known for their
bulky nous, right, So I don't know. I just saw
I read a I believe it was a Smithsonian article
(26:33):
that was kind of the journalist was embedded with people who,
you know, hunt and track Burmese pythons in the Everglades.
Apparently there's an all women tracking team called the Everglades
Avengers um and like they somebody who knows what they're
talking about, describes it as the size of a chicken egg.
So that's where I got that from. So act if
(26:54):
I'm wrong, they were wrong. They look a little bigger,
but not much bigger. I guess they're just wrapped up.
They must just be really thin and bulk up really fast.
It goes stroying when they come out of their egg.
So you mentioned the Everglades. You're definitely all over the Everglades,
but they're expanding their territory. They're also in Big Cypress
(27:17):
National Preserve. They are in Collier Seminole State Forest. They
have been found in Miami, mh. They have been found
in the Florida Keys, which is means one of two things.
Either someone brought them there and release them there, or
they can tolerate saltwater. They were python swimming in the ocean. Yeah,
(27:39):
apparently that's been documented that they're you know, they're good
swimmers and they comp apparently tolerate saltwater, so it's entirely
possible they swim under the keys. Could you imagine doing
a little ocean swimming and seeing a freaking python. Yeah,
Because I mean these things get big, like in their
native habitat um in Southeast Asia. They it up to
(28:00):
about twenty six and two pounds. Apparently the ones in
Florida usually are average about eight to ten feet, so
that's still a very significant bulky snake that you would
see coming swimming at you while you're waiting in the water,
going how are you? I think those are I think
the ones in Miami those are African pythons are right, yes,
(28:23):
which apparently are almost indistinguishable from Burmese pythons to the
average person. So suburban and urban areas of Miami have pythons. Yeah,
they also have boa constrictors. Apparently there's a big iguana
problem down there as well, all from just jerks releasing
their pets that they don't want any longer because they
there's there's a really big problem with in scrupulous um
(28:46):
snake dealers, backyard breeders, people who actually have storefronts um
even like corporate chain pet stores selling snakes um and
and being like you have to kill a mouse to
feed this thing. Um. There's a lot of like this.
It's not just intuitive how to keep a snake happy
and healthy, and so people get overwhelmed by snakes and
(29:06):
they don't know what to do with them. So if
you're in Florida around Miami. You just release it in
your backyard and say see you later, and the snake
takes off and becomes a problem in the Everglades with
a tear rolling down its cheek. That's right through Pastco
Pasco and don't look back, right, and it turns around
and you have to punch a snake in the face
and go go right. I'd never liked you to begin with. Uh,
(29:31):
I think we need to take a second break, stol Right, yeah,
all right, let's do that, and we'll talk a little
bit more about what you can do if you do
see a python in the wild, and all about pet pythons,
the sweetest kind right after this. All right, we've established
(30:14):
that you're probably not in danger of being attacked by
a python in the wild in the United States. Um,
as far as we know, that has not happened. I
don't even think once. Right, that's my understanding. All right, good,
let's just keep that going. Let's keep that record intact. Uh,
if you do see a python in the wild, if
you're living in Florida, they have apps. Now, they have
(30:37):
hot lines. I've got one is the name of the program.
There's a hot line eight one or smartphone applications. I've
got one. You can just get that app if you
live in the area, and you just report that thing.
If you don't have the app, just go to the
National Park ranger say hey, I saw python over there.
By that time, it's probably way too late. Um, they're
(30:58):
probably out of there, but you should definitely report it
because it's a big, big issue and it's not you know,
I guess it sounds a little awful that they're just saying,
go kill as many as you can for ten thousand bucks.
But it is, like you said, it is wrecking the
ecosystem down there, and that's that's not good for anyone, know,
and the people like it's still sad for the Burmese pythons.
(31:21):
They're just doing their thing. They just happen to be
very successful. It's the people who released them that are
really at fault and deserve everyone's scorn. Sure, but we
should talk about the ball python, which and this is
sort of the uh, the the go to pet. If
you want a constrictor and you don't want to Boa,
you can go with the old ball python. Yeah, they're
(31:42):
a lot more docile, they're much smaller, they grow maybe
to five or six feet. They don't move around much.
They don't they're not super active, so they are as
if you're going to have a snake as a pet,
a ball python is a good way to go for sure. Yeah.
They've got little dark uh stripes a lot times on
their face. You have like through like through their eyes.
(32:03):
It's very pretty, Yeah, very pretty snake. Uh. They have
these again those dark blotches that are outlined in a
lighter color. Very attractive skins. And again it's very sad
that their skins are being used for you know, bipoachers
or whatever to sell. Uh. They there are albino pythons
(32:24):
as well, which has become such a favorite snake that
they're actually breeding this into them. Yeah, they don't have
albini is. Um, they have a melotint ism, a melan
a melan is ism they I think that proves that
doesn't have quite the ring though melanists DoSM whatever. But
(32:46):
one of the there's actually some types of ball pythons
that um, they'll have like a yellow body and then
their stripes are actually lacking in pigments so it looks
like yellow and white. Um. There's ones that have black
stripes but they're lacking pig men in their body, so
it's like this black and white the really gorgeous snakes
for sure. Yes, and like you said, they are docile.
(33:07):
They're good. If you have never even had a snake before,
it could be a good place to start if you've
never if you didn't even know snakes existed. The bald
python is a great place to start. It is. They're
called ball pythons because if they get threatened, they curl
up and roll up in a little ball. It's very cute.
It's very sensible too. So um, if you are going
to buy a snake, you probably do not want a
(33:30):
wild caught ball python because when they're caught, they don't
really want to leave their home in the wilderness and
come to your home, so they're going to be stressed out. Snakes,
like all other captive animals, who get bored and they're
not cared for, can just can um display zookosis and
other terrible habits. Um. So you would probably want to
(33:51):
get one from a breeder or a pet store or
something like that. But again you should consider um you're
taking something out of the wild, even if it wasn't
born in the wild, and keeping it in a little
twenty gallon aquarium in your house. So I think that
part through first. Yeah, and they don't, Um, it's not
mean to keep them in a smaller enclosure. They like
(34:12):
tight spaces, So you don't need to get this huge
thing for your ball python. Um no, you would, that
would be mean, actually is from what Yeah, I mean
they need a little bit of room, but they like
they're not real active again, and they like tight spaces. Uh.
They it has to be really secure because they are
great at getting out of those cages and exploring your apartment.
(34:35):
I think one of the reasons we talked about their lifespan.
I think one of the reasons people um release them
sometimes is even though they know this getting into it,
it's hard to make a thirty year commitment to something.
So if you're you know, if you're some forty to
fifty year old dude and you're like get into snakes
all of a sudden, you're not thinking about what's going
(34:56):
to be going on when you're eighty, Uh, you might
us away, your family may not know what to do
with it, and release it. So this is a long
term commitment that you really really need to think through,
right if you're going to do this, Let's say you're
under the age of fifty and you're like, I'm into
snakes now, Um, there are some things you want to do. Um.
You want to keep your snake nice and warm. Uh.
(35:17):
And in fact, you want to have basically dual climate
zones in your twenty gallon or thirty gallon aquarium, depending
on the size of the snake. Um. You want to
keep it somewhere in the neighborhood of seventy eight degrees
in the in the tank in general. And then you
want to fahrenheit thank you, Celsie's I think would melt
the snake. Um. And then you want to keep a
(35:38):
little area for basking even hotter. Remember you talked about
how snakes like to bask. Um this one. This is
going to be more like eight eight to ninety two
degrees fahrenheight, so the snake can be like, I'm gonna
go warm up over here on my nice little rock.
And Um. If you do that and you keep track
of your temperatures, like you have to really make sure
(35:58):
it stays like this, then it will be much happier
than otherwise. Yeah, but you want to screen those lights off.
You don't want it actually touching the bulb because that
can burn their little skin. And there was one of
the thing that um they really love is as branches.
They love to hang on tree branches. So if you
could outfit your aquarium, it's got to be sturdy. Don't
(36:19):
just put like some sort of lightweight limb from your yard.
But if you can affix like a really sturdy limb
in your your python cage, they're gonna be pretty happy
with you as an owner. And it will also probably
give them a place to hide too. They want to
have a place to hide UM so that they can
feel safe and secure. And then they also like to
soak too, apparently also when they're molting um shedding their skin,
(36:41):
they like to soak. So you want a little tub,
but they want to feel secure when they're in their
little tub of water too, So you probably want to
have like a lidded plastic container that you've cut a
hole out in the top and smooth the edges out.
You could be sure to do that UM so that
the snake can go inside it's little tub and soak
but also feel and closed in there too. Right And finally, uh,
(37:04):
part of being the owner of a constrictor that you've
got to feed these things. And when you have them
in your house and their domesticated, there's not snake food
that you shake out like a fish. Right as you
have this big can in just a bunch of mice
shake count Yeah, well that's what you gotta do, man,
You gotta you gotta feed them. Uh, they need to
(37:26):
be fed every week or maybe every two weeks, kind
of depending on their appetite. If they're young, you gotta
start out with a little tiny mice about every five
to seven days, and then as they get bigger, their
diet's gonna grow. So if you end up with a
six ft python, you're gonna have to feed it something
that will fill it up. In judging by this this
(37:48):
person feeding it this dead rabbit, it's not a fun task.
I'm sure they don't mind. They're up for that, but
I'm not sure. Um one of the other things too.
Like this is all if you have a bald python,
which is manageable and is not going to be able
to harm you even if it tried. But if you say,
have a Burmese python, there's entire steps that you have
(38:11):
to follow through that you wouldn't with other kinds of um,
smaller pythons, like, for example, when you're feeding it, you
never ever want to dangle its food in front of
your face, in front of its face with your hands,
because it might bite your hand and start to get
ahold of you. Um. Apparently, when it's feeding time and
they've sensed food, all of those genes start going crazy
(38:34):
and they like just they get a little bit of
like food fever, and they're not they're not behaving in
a way that you might expect them to. Write UM,
So you never want to dangle it with your bare
hands or your hands. You want to use like force
ups or something like that. And then also if you
have a Burmese python, you never feed it by yourself.
You always have to have at least one other adult
(38:55):
around with you, just in case something bad does happen.
It does happen from time to time. There's a guy
in the Bronx who was found dead in his apartment
and his pound eleven ft Burmese python was wrapped around
him still. He apparently had gone to feed it outside
of its cage a chicken that he had used his
(39:16):
hand to dangle in front of it, and it just
went bad. But that is extremely rare. But the point
is that can happen, so you have to be extra
safe and smart when you're feeding a Burmese python. Yeah,
it happens quick, like when this rabbit was dangled there.
There's such a chill sort of species, the way they
move around. And you know, we've all been to the
(39:36):
nature center and some people have held them and petted them.
They look very relaxed. But when that rabbit was dangled it,
when it popped at it and wrapped around it, it it
happened very very fast. And they will bite you too.
Even though it's not like a venomous bite. Um, it
still hurts, like their teeth can break off into your
hand or your arm or wherever. So it's not a
(39:57):
pleasant sensation from what I understand, even though it's not
going to kill you. That's right. And then finally, finally,
as far as endangerment goes, there are thirteen species on
the International Union of Conservation of Nature's Red List of
Threatened species, and I think the Ramsey's python is endangered.
The Burmese and the mean mar are vulnerable, so is
(40:21):
the Indian python too, apparently, but plentiful and Florida it
sounds like. Yeah, I was surprised that the Burmese pythons
still on that list for as good as it seeing Florida.
But maybe they're just thinking of the natural range of it.
That's right. And the biggest threat to pythons you guessed
it stars, Yes, not sharks. Ah you got anything else?
(40:43):
I don't have anything else. Thanks for putting this one together.
Shout out to definitely Live Science UM for that one
article about the guy who found out how you could
sequence the genes of pythons and just be amazed at
what you find. Yeah, thanks to Life Science. And there
were there were a bunch of different snake specialty websites
that we dug into for this sweet um. And if
(41:04):
you want to know more about pythons and just start
reading about pythons and think really long and hard before
you actually get one as a pet. But if you do,
take good care of it and tell it that we
said high. And since I said that, it's time for
listener mail, I'm gonna call this Salem Witch Family Trial
(41:24):
Family Connection. Hey, guys, have been listening to the show
for a few years, thoroughly enjoyed them. Recently listened to
Salem witchcraft trials and something towards the instruct me. You
mentioned that Salem was in Essex County. My mother's family
settled in Essex in the mid seventeenth century. So I
did a little research and found out that there was
an Elizabeth Morris in Newbury who was convicted of witchcraft
(41:46):
in eighteen I'm sorry, sixteen eighty. She was originally sentenced
to death, but that was changed to home confinement after
a second trial, and it turns out she is my
seventh great grandmother. Pretty cool. That was a bit of
fun family history to share with the Fens, with the
friends and family this Halloween season. And that is from
George Oaks. That is a great email, George Oakes. We
(42:09):
actually heard from a lot of people who were related
to people who were executed at the Salem witchcraft trials.
Did you know? I think we heard from a Corey
and a bunch of other people. So shout out to
all of you guys carrying the family lying on for
those old witches. But none of those matters, no, Now
(42:29):
they don't tell people. Um, well, if you want to
get in touch with us, you can Who was that
that wrote in George George Ookes If you want to
get in touch with us like George did, you can
send us an email like George did, to Stuff Podcasts
at iHeart radio dot com. Stuff you Should Know is
a production of iHeart Radio. For more podcasts my heart Radio,
(42:53):
visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows.
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