The Northwestern Carpet Python (Morelia spilota variegata) is a non-venomous constrictor snake, and a reptile. It is also known as the Darwin Python or the Diamond Python.
The Northwestern Carpet Python is creamy-beige or brown with blackish or grey blotches, cross-bands or stripes, or a combination of patterns. It has yellow flower-type or irregular patterns in each band of markings. Its main colour and markings can be varied, in yellow, gold, rust, or grey.
Northwestern Carpet Python
It measures up to 200 centimetres (78 inches) in length.
The Northwestern Carpet Python is native to Papua New Guinea and north-western Australia in the states of Western Australia and the Northern Territory.
It is mostly arboreal, living in trees.
It is carnivorous, feeding on birds and mammals, such as possums. It kills its prey by constriction (squeezing it to death) before swallowing it.
It is oviparous. The female lays 10-15 eggs in a hollow log, which hatch after about 40-60 days. The baby snakes are called hatchlings or snakelets.
Northwestern Carpet Python
Northwestern Carpet Python
Northwestern Carpet Python
Northwestern Carpet Python
[Location of photographs: Tbilisi Zoo, Georgia and Paris Jardin du Plantes Zoo, France]
Photographer: Martina Nicolls
Martina Nicolls: SIMILAR BUT DIFFERENT IN THE ANIMAL KINGDOM