Pythons are not poisonous, are generally large, and can be found in Africa, Asia, and Australia.
The super ball python is one of the newest species in a long line of hybrid ball pythons, each with its own characteristic appearance and behavior. These snakes are a mix between a ball python and a Borneo marble or short-tailed blood python, displaying a green, black, and brown pattern that is a mix of the two species. Reportedly created in 2002 by herpetologists at New York-based Roussis Reptiles, the first official superball python was reportedly born in 2005.
Roussis Reptiles’ first super ball python was created by the parents of the ball python and the Borneo short-tailed python. It took three years to produce a litter of babies. This points to the genetic difficulties inherent in breeding commercially engineered snakes.
Like other more established python breeds, this new line of snake could be an improvement over its parents. According to the Roussis Reptiles website, the super ball python hybrid eats better than ball pythons, doesn’t require strict humidity controls like blood pythons, and grows faster than either of its parents. It is also capable of creating a new superball with either parent’s race, as well as other cousins of the superball. It can begin to mate productively at 18 months of age.
The company that created the super ball python is careful about trying to breed the new species at home. Herpetology associations commonly recommend that hybrid species be microchipped, identifying where they were created and by what kind of parents. This manipulation of genetic traits can lead to species degradation in the wild if captive species are released, either deliberately or accidentally.
This is far from the first time that the ball python, a common pet reptile, has created a new hybrid species. This happens in nature from time to time, but not in such large and concentrated numbers. The list of hybrid varieties is long, with as many as 56 recognized ball python hybrids and nearly as many awaiting official recognition from established herpetology organizations.
These snakes vary greatly in appearance. A spotted ball python, for example, has unpatterned patches of pale white fur that abruptly alternate with the ball python’s iconic camouflage pattern elsewhere on its body. Others have altered colors or patterns, such as chalk stripe, pastel blonde, broad stripe harlequin, calico, yellow belly, spider, bee, mojave, minor platinum, killer bee, and variations of tin. Some are completely white or yellow, with or without a guard pattern.