Carpet Python

Morelia spilota

Carpet Pythons are occasionally found in suburban Brisbane but are more often found in dry forests near rock outcrops, cliffs and caves.

Carpet Pythons can reach a length of four metres. Their skin is made up of scales in various patterns and differing shapes depending on what part of the body they appear. These scales range from olive and brown to fawn blotches and stripes.

Carpet Pythons mostly feed on smaller animals such as rats, possums and birds. Smaller pythons often feed on lizards.

These snakes possess heat-sensitive areas located at the bottom of their jaw that help them track other animals by registering their body warmth. Once located they do not poison their prey, instead they use strangulation and swallow them whole. Female pythons can lay up to 20 eggs at a time, which they coil around to guard until they hatch. Once the young emerge from the egg it is independent.