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REPTILIA:
SQUAMATA: PYTHONIDAE: Morelia
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Morelia viridis
(Schlegel, 1872)
Green tree python
Photos
& text by Dr. Robert Sprackland.
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Range: Most of lowland New Guinea, outlying islands, and
the forests of Australia's Cape York Peninsula.
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Diagnosis:
A snake with a distinctly triangular head, with
rounded swollen temples, a green or greenish-blue dorsum (in adults), and
greatly enlarged anterior teeth. The belly is immaculate white, often with
a thin yellow border separating it from the green dorsum.
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Description:
A small python that grows to 2.5 meters/8 feet in
total length. The head is muscular with large rounded contours. The
nostrils are positioned in small mounds at the snout tip. Both upper and
lower lips have heat-sensitive pits. The eyes have a marbled coloring of
gold and brown, with vertical pupils. The tail is very short and strongly
prehensile.
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Natural History:
Green tree pythons are arboreal from hatchling
to adult size, and all age classes exhibit a characteristic repose when
resting on tree limbs (see photo above). They are nocturnal snakes that
use heat-sensitive pits to detect infrared signatures from mammals and
birds, and rapidly uncoil as they strike passing prey. The huge teeth
allow the python to penetrate the protection of bird's feathers.
Female pythons lay eggs on or near the ground,
often in leaf litter between tree rots. The mother coils around the eggs
and provides some temperature control during incubation. When the young
hatch, they are bright yellow, brick red or grayish-brown in color. They
start turning green later in life, but there does not seem to be any
direct correlation between the color change and either age or size of the
snake. A rare adult will be turquoise instead of green in color.
Though found in a variety of climates within the
Australian-New Guinean rainforests, green tree pythons are tolerant of a
great range of temperatures, from 40° F/ 5° C to a high of 102° F/ 39°
C. They rarely stay in direct sunlight for prolonged periods.
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Reproduction:
Lays eggs.
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Taxonomy & Relationships:
This species has been placed in a variety of genera during the 1990s. It
has long been classified as the sole species in the genus Chondropython
(for which reason it is frequently referred to as
"chondro"), but has subsequently been put into both Python
and Morelia.
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Variation:
There is limited variation among adults of this species. Adults are some
shade of green, some being turquoise. New Guinean animals have yellow and
white spots on the body, while Australian animals have predominantly white
markings.
Juvenile coloring may be lemon yellow (shown
below), brick red,
or grayish-brown. As in adults, the belly is white with yellow lateral
trim.
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Additional Comments:
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Type Specimen:
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Literature:
Kluge, Arnold. 1993. Aspidites and the
phylogeny of pythonine snakes. Records of the Australian Museum
Supplement 19.
O'Shea,
Mark. 1996. A guide to the snakes of Papua New Guinea. Independent
Publishing, Port Moresby, PNG. ISBN: 981-00-7836-6.
Walls,
Jerry. 1998. The living pythons: a complete guide to pythons of the
world. TFH Publications. ISBN: 0-7938-0467-1
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