Python brongersmai

Common names for P. brongersmai include blood python, Brongersma's short-tailed python, Malaysian blood python, red blood python, red short-tailed python, and Sumatran blood python.

The specific name, brongersmai, is in honor of Dutch herpetologist Leo Brongersma.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. {{ISBN|978-1-4214-0135-5}}. (Python brongersmai, p. 39).

P. brongersmai is found in peninsular (Western) Malaysia, Sumatra east of the central dividing range of mountains, Bangka Island and other islands in the Strait of Malacca, including the Lingga Islands, Riau islands, and Pinang, Thailand, and Vietnam.

The preferred natural habitat of P. brongersmai is marshes and tropical swamps in forest, at altitudes from sea level to {{convert|650|m|ft|abbr=on}}.

Python brongersmai is a primarily crepuscular species (usually active around dawn and dusk).{{citation needed|date=November 2021}}

Hatchlings of P. brongersmai range from {{convert|10|-|17|in|cm|disp=flip|abbr=on}} in total length (including tail). Adult males typically range from {{convert|36|-|60|in|cm|disp=flip|abbr=on}} in total length, and females between {{convert|48|-|72|in|cm|disp=flip|abbr=on}} although a few have been recorded at {{convert|96|in|cm|disp=flip|abbr=on}}. These snakes generally look overweight due to their robust structure.{{citation needed|date=November 2021}}

P. brongersmai can live up to about 20 years in captivity.{{cite web |url=http://www.pondturtle.com/lsnakea.html#Python |title=Blood Python |work=Reptiles and Amphibians in Captivity – Longevity |first1=Frank L. |last1=Slavens |first2=Kate |last2=Slavens |year=2003}}

The color pattern of P. brongersmai consists of rich, bright red to orange to a duller rusty red ground color, although populations with yellow and brown are known. This is overlaid with yellow and tan blotches and stripes that run the length of the body, as well as tan and black spots that extend up the flanks. The belly is white, often with small black markings. The head is usually a shade of grey; individual snakes can change how light and dark the head is. A white postocular stripe runs down and back from the posterior edge of the eye.{{citation needed|date=November 2021}}

Python brongersmai is oviparous, with up to 30 eggs being laid at a time.{{citation needed|date=November 2021}} The female coils around her eggs and shivers her body, producing heat to incubate the eggs properly.{{citation needed|date=November 2021}}

Once widely considered to be generally unpredictable and aggressive, P. brongersmai is gradually becoming more common among herpetoculturists. Formerly, many of the specimens in captivity were wild-caught adults from Malaysia. These are known to be more aggressive than those from Indonesia (Sumatra), from which most of the wild-caught, wild-bred, and captive-bred stock are now descended. Captive-raised juveniles generally become mild-tempered, somewhat-predictable adults. This, combined with several new brightly colored captive bloodlines, is helping to boost the popularity of these much-maligned snakes among reptile hobbyists.{{Citation needed|date=August 2009}}

Python brongersmai is part of a commercial harvest for leather.{{cite journal|doi=10.1111/j.1095-8312.2001.tb01350.x|author=Keogh JS, Barker D, Shine R|year=2001|title=Heavily exploited but poorly known: systematics and biogeography of commercially harvested pythons (Python curtus group) in Southeast Asia (abstract)|pages=113|journal=Biological Journal of the Linnean Society|volume=73|issue=1|doi-access=free}} There is evidence to suggest that there are clear indications of misdeclared, underreported and illegal trade involving tens of thousands of blood pythons, and there are questions whether this trade is sustainable.{{Cite journal |last=Nijman |first=Vincent |date=2022-11-05 |title=Harvest quotas, free markets and the sustainable trade in pythons |url=https://zenodo.org/records/6544927/files/NC_article_80988.pdf |journal=Nature Conservation |language=en |volume=48 |pages=99–121 |doi=10.3897/natureconservation.48.80988 |issn=1314-3301|doi-access=free }}

This species was first described by Olive Griffith Stull in 1938 as Python curtus brongersmai, a subspecies of Python curtus.Stull OG (1938). "Three New Subspecies of the Family Boidae". [https://archive.org/stream/occasionalpapers08bost#page/296/mode/2up Occasional Papers of the Boston Society of Natural History 8: 297-300.] (Python curtus brongersmai, new subspecies, pp. 297-298). This taxon has since been elevated and recognised as a full species, Python brongersmai, by Pauwels et al. (2000).{{NRDB species|genus=Python|species=brongersmai|date=15 September|year=2007}}

{{Reflist}}

• Barker, Dave; Barker, Tracy (November 2007). "Blood Pythons". Reptiles Magazine. Bowtie Publishing.
• McDiarmid RW, Campbell JA, Touré TA (1999). Snake Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference, Volume 1. Washington, District of Columbia: Herpetologists' League. 511 pp. {{ISBN|1-893777-00-6}} (series). {{ISBN|1-893777-01-4}} (volume).
• Pauwels OSG, Laohawat O-A, David P, Bour R, Dangsee P, Puangjit C, Chimsunchart C (2000). "Herpetological investigations in Phang-Nga Province, southern Peninsular Thailand, with a list of reptile species and notes on their biology". Dumerilia 4 (2): 123-154. (Python brongersmai, p. 138).
• Shine R, Ambariyanto, Harlow PS, Mumpuni (1999). "Ecological attributes of two commercially harvested Python species in Northern Sumatra". Journal of Herpetology 33 (2): 249-257. (Python brongersmai, new combination).

{{commons category|Python brongersmai}}

• [http://www.herpherphooray.com Herp Radio] at [http://www.herpherphooray.com/ Herp Herp Hooray]. Accessed 15 January 2013.
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20130711011221/http://bloodypythons.com/ Blood Python Care] at [https://web.archive.org/web/20130711011221/http://bloodypythons.com/ Bloody Pythons By: David Weimert]. Accessed 15 January 2013.

{{Pythonidae}}

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brongersmai

Category:Reptiles described in 1938

Category:Taxa named by Olive Griffith Stull