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Reticulated Python

Malayopython reticulatus · medium

The reticulated python is the longest snake in the world, with reliable records past six metres and credible historical accounts of larger. The name refers to the net-like pattern along its back, which looks conspicuous laid flat in a photograph and disappears completely against dappled forest floor.

It is an ambush hunter, taking prey by seizing it and throwing coils around the body. Constriction does not work by crushing or by preventing breathing so much as by raising internal pressure until circulation fails, which happens far faster than the older explanations assumed.

The species is an excellent swimmer, and that is the likeliest reason it occupies so many islands across Southeast Asia — populations on separate islands have diverged noticeably in size and pattern.

Reticulated pythons are unusually tolerant of disturbed habitat, and are frequently found in plantations, drainage systems and the edges of towns, where rats are abundant. That adaptability keeps them common, but it also brings them into regular contact with people, and enormous numbers are killed each year for the skin trade — a harvest whose sustainability is difficult to assess.

Where it lives

Worml lists the reticulated python as native to 10 countries — Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. Its habitat is rainforest, woodland and nearby rivers.

Ranges here are reduced to whole countries for playability and exclude introduced populations — see about the data for what that simplification leaves out.

In the game

Reticulated Python is rated medium and appears on Worm Wednesday. To solve the round you need to find any 5 of its 10 listed countries. How scoring works →

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