Borneo short-tailed python
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Borneo short-tailed python ( Python broadsteini ) |
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| Steindachner , 1880 |
The Borneo short-tailed python ( Python broadsteini ), also Borneo blood python , belongs to the family of pythons (Pythonidae) and is part of the genus of actual pythons ( Python ). It is a stocky, short-tailed snake. The species lives exclusively on Borneo and inhabits moist rainforests and swamps there. Its closest relatives are the Sumatran short-tailed python and the blood python .
description
Borneo short-tailed pythons have a long, flattened head, a strong, muscular neck, a stocky body, and a short tail. Despite the German name, their tail is longer than that of blood pythons. The body tapers towards the spine and appears triangular in cross-section. There is a sexual dimorphism with regard to body length and weight: females are on average slightly larger and heavier than males. The maximum length of the Borneo short-tailed python is just over two meters. Exceptionally, large females weigh between 15 and 20 kilograms. Both sexes have prominent anal spurs. In adult males these are thicker and more curved towards the abdomen than in adult females. Typically, the anal spurs of adult males are more worn, blunt, and therefore shorter than those of females.
Scaling
The rostral (nose plate) has, as with most other pythons also two deep Labialgruben . An uninterrupted seam runs centrally from the muzzle to the occiput. Large paired plates on the top of the head are in contact with it. From the snout, these are the internasalia (intermediate nasal shields ), the anterior and posterior prefrontalia (forehead shields), the frontalia (forehead shields), and the anterior large and 2 to 4 posterior small parietals (crown shields ). The nostrils are arranged upwards and backwards and are each surrounded by a large nasal (nasal shield). Towards the middle of the head, the nasals are separated by a pair of smaller internalsals (intermediate nasal shields ). In the side view, the nasal scales in the direction of the eye are followed by a pit with small Lorealia (rein shields). A large rein shield usually adjoins the front part of this pit below. However, it can also be divided into a large front and a smaller rear shield. About two eyes is ever a great Supraoculare (via eye shield). It can rarely be divided into two parts. There are 1 to 3 Präocularia (Voraugenschild) of which the top is the largest and extends to the top of the head. Postocularia (posterior eye shields) are 1 to 4, with the top one being by far the largest. There are 0 to 5 subocularia (under eye shields). In the rare cases where they are absent, this area consists of pure skin. Of the 9 to 11 supralabials (shields of the upper lip), the foremost two bear deep labial pits. In the 14 to 19 infralabialia (lower lip shields ) there are typically 4 anterior and 5 to 6 posterior labial pits from the second lower lip shield.
The number of ventral scales (ventral shields) varies between 154 and 165, the number of dorsal rows of scales in the middle of the body between 50 and 57. From the cloaca to the tip of the tail, there are 27 to 33 subcaudalia (underside shields) on the abdomen .
Coloring and patterning
This python shows a variable pattern. The top of the head is light yellow-brown to brown in color. A fine, dark central stripe runs from the tip of the nose to the occiput. Here it can run out at right angles to the temple on both sides. The median strip widens towards the neck, includes a light spot in the center and then merges with the dark mark on the neck. The side of the muzzle is often orange to salmon-colored and, due to a mottling, is darker in color than the top of the head. The extent of this mottling varies between individuals and can range from very little to completely black. A thin black triangle that widens towards the back runs from the nose to the eye. A thin, light yellow-brown, purple-brown or dark yellow stripe extends from the back of the eye to the corner of the mouth. This is followed by a black band, which runs from the back of the eye on the side of the head to the neck. A long, bright spot is integrated in the neck area of this tape. The lower edge of the upper lip is drawn uniformly light. The front section of the lower lip edge consists of a series of dark spots and optionally merges into numerous dark spots in the area below the eye. The chin is white and not dotted.
The Borneo short-tailed python can have two different types of back patterns: In the most common variant, irregular, rectangular, chestnut brown, dark brown to black saddle spots run along the back. These correspond roughly to the width of the back in the respective segment. They tend to get darker on the back of the body and fuse with one another. In the second variant, the top of the neck and the back to the tip of the tail are maroon, light brown to black in color and provided with small, light points along the spine. Typically, the dark markings on the back of the body become even darker or even completely black. The small, bright spots on the spine also become more numerous, elongated towards the tail and often connect to form a long strip that usually ends at cloaca level. They are yellow or yellow-brown and turn light brown, gray-brown to gray towards the flanks. The basic color of the flanks is light, but darkens towards the back. Around the edge of the back pattern as well as around the flank spots, however, it clearly brightens again.
The yellow-brown, orange-brown, green-brown patches on the flank are large, provided with a 2 to 4 scale black border on top and on the sides and lightened from the center to the belly. They reach up to about half the height of the flanks at the front of the body. On the back of the body they connect and merge with the dark drawing on the back. The tail is dark all around and sometimes has 1 to 2 small, irregular light spots on its upper side. The underside can also have light spots. The belly is uniformly cream-colored. Paraventralia (secondary abdominal shields) have gray speckles.
The color of the iris ranges from yellow to orange to orange-brown. A black spot on the lower edge of the iris makes the pupil appear wider in the lower area.
Color change
During postnatal development, Borneo short-tailed pythons undergo an ontogenetically determined color change. The head of young animals is usually dark yellow, their saddle spots are usually dark brown and the centers of the flank spots are orange-brown. With increasing age, the dark back markings on the front of the body become lighter, while the basic color on the back becomes darker and darker. Some individuals from Sarawak are known to darken their heads and bodies with age. These animals are a melanistic form of this species.
distribution and habitat
This python lives on the island of Borneo . More precisely, these are the geopolitical regions of Kalimantan , Sarawak , Sabah and Brunei . On this tropical island, it inhabits marshland , swamp forest, dense jungle and secondary forest . He also lives along streams and rivers.
In Borneo, the Borneo short-tailed python lives sympathetically with the reticulated python in some places .
Way of life
Almost nothing is known about the behavior of this python. There are no studies on the way of life of the species in the field. It is generally described as loyal to its location and active at twilight and night. In order to hide or ambush prey, he likes to dig himself into the damp ground or lie under dense vegetation.
Studies on the nutrition of the Borneo short-tailed python have not been carried out either. So far, the same prey animals have always been named about this stalker as for the Sumatran short-tailed python and the blood python.
There is also no information on reproduction in the field. Captive observations on the breeding season, the clutches and the breeding season have so far only been published collectively for both short-tailed python species and the blood python. According to this, eggs are laid about 2 to 3 months after mating and then incubated for about 75 days. During this time, the female lies curled up over the eggs and ensures uniform temperatures through muscle tremors. Brood care ends when the young hatch. Freshly hatched pythons of the blood python and the short-tailed python have so far been described as 30 to 48 centimeters long.
Age and life expectancy
Information on the average and maximum ages of individuals living in the wild is unknown; in captivity there are individuals among blood pythons and short-tailed pythons that are over 27 years old.
Danger
Borneo and Sumatran short-tailed pythons as well as blood pythons are heavily exploited for the leather industry in their area of distribution. On Sumatra and Borneo, 70,000 to 200,000 blood and short-tailed pythons are slaughtered and exported every year. The consequences of commercial exploitation and habitat changes by humans on the Borneo short-tailed python population have not yet been investigated.
Systematics
The Borneo short-tailed python got its scientific name Python Breitensteini in honor of Dr. Heinrich Breitenstein. This was a German regimental doctor who served with the Dutch army in the Dutch East Indies . When he was stationed in Borneo, he made a collection of Borneo's amphibian and reptile wealth . The Natural History Museum Vienna later acquired this collection, which was then examined by Franz Steindachner .
In 1872 Schlegel described the species Python curtus after an animal caught in Sumatra. 1880 Python breitensteini of Steindachner described as a separate species and Python curtus split. With the re-description of Python curtus brongersmai in 1938, Stull granted these three Pythons subspecies status. In 2001 all three subspecies were granted species status.
The blood python ( Python brongersmai ), the Borneo short-tailed python ( Python breitsteini ) and the Sumatran short-tailed python ( Python curtus ) clearly differ from one another due to their body size, scale, color and geographical distribution . Using a section of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene , it was shown that the Borneo short-tailed python and the Sumatran short-tailed python are more closely related than to the blood python. On the genetic level, the differences in relationship between the blood python and the short-tailed python are almost as great as that of the reticulated python. Phylogenetically, the blood python is the sister group of the two short-tailed pythons.
It is believed that several million years ago a common ancestor inhabited the mainland of Southeast Asia and, across land bridges, Borneo . The exchange of genes was stopped by a rise in the sea and the blood python developed on the mainland and an ancestor of the two short-tailed pythons on Borneo. The latter also immigrated to West Sumatra via land bridges . The rest of Sumatra was then still under water. The land bridges later sank, dividing the population into Borneo short-tailed pythons and Sumatran short-tailed pythons. When the eastern part of Sumatra later rose from the sea, it made it possible for the blood pythons living on the mainland to immigrate to this island. Because a high central mountain range always stretched over the entire length of Sumatra, it was never possible for the blood python to spread to the east and vice versa of the Sumatran short-tailed python to the west.
Blood and short-tailed pythons differ from all other pythons by a pit with small scales, which runs from the back of the nose to the eye. Their tails are also significantly shorter than other pythons.
See also
swell
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o J. Scott Keogh, David G. Barker and Richard Shine: Heavily exploited but poorly known: systematics and biogeography of commercially harvested pythons (Python curtus group) in Southeast Asia . Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 73: 113-129, 2001.
- ↑ Richard Shine, Ambariyanto, Peter S. Harlow and Mumpuni: Ecological Attributes of Two Commercially-Harvested Python Species in Northern Sumatra . Journal of Herpetology, Vol. 33, No. 2 (Jun., 1999), pp. 249-257.
- ^ A b B. Groombridge, L. Luxmoore: "Pythons in South-East Asia - A review of distribution, status and trade in three selected species"; Lausanne, Switzerland: Secretariat of CITES, 1991.
- ↑ a b c d e JG Walls: The Living Pythons - A complete guide to the Pythons of the World . TFH Publications, 1998: pp. 122-128; ISBN 0-7938-0467-1 .
literature
- JS Keogh, DG Barker, R. Shine: Heavily exploited but poorly known: systematics and biogeography of commercially harvested pythons (Python curtus group) in Southeast Asia. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 73, 2001, online, pdf , pp. 113-129.
Web links
- Python Breitensteini in The Reptile Database
- Python Breitensteini in the Red List of Endangered Species of the IUCN 2013.2. Posted by: Inger, RF, Iskandar, D., Lilley, R., Jenkins, H. & Das, I., 2011. Retrieved March 26, 2014.