Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of I Heart Radio. Hey you, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh. There's Chuck, and this is Stuff you should Know about pythons. Take it, Chuck, You mean take my two pythons to the vet because I have two sick pythons. Do you have two sick pythons? You never heard that joke? No, but muscles? No, let's here. Well, I mean that's just kind of it. It's just a not just way to say you have big biceps, so you like, I need a vet because I've got two sick pythons. Oh no, I've never heard anything like that. I don't think that joke even made it into The Hangover. It's like two tickets to the gun show. Yeah, I've heard that one. You haven't heard two sick pythons. No, no, No, that's terrible. I think it was in The Hangover too. Oh I never saw that one. It was not good. Was the first one good? Yeah? It was. In fact, I just watched some of that recently on a plane flight because I just needed some comfort food and that movie was really really funny. No, yeah, did you see it? Yeah? Oh, dude, Zach Alifanakos was great. Ed Helms was great. Ken Uh, what's his name? Ken Burns was awesome. No, main guy Ken, the guy who's the doctor in real life, the Asian actor. Oh Ken Jung, yeah Jung. He was hysterical. Yeah, he's funny. Okay, Mike Tyson so funny. Tyson was funny that you know. Actually he wasn't that good in it? Now, never mind, I'm not gonna talk about that. Okay, correction wrong. I'll let everyone guess who I didn't think was good out of all the remaining characters. Oh, man, you're so hard on that guy. Why what did you don't even know what I'm talking about? I do too, of course I know who you're talking about. Should we talk about pythons? I think we should, And we're not talking about the muscles, as the joke everybody knows goes. No. Instead, we're talking about snakes, realize, snakes that will mess you up. Yeah. I'm not so scared of pythons, no, uh, largely because I'm never around them. But there's something my snake fear. And I don't have that much of a snake fear, but uh, my snake fears around having bangs of a snake enter my body. But pythons are you know, they have been known to kill people every once a while. But from what I read, get this, chuck every single person that's ever been killed in the United States by a python, and take that with a grain of salt, because they're not native to the United States. Um was a cap was was it killed by their own by a captive python? Usually it was their pet, and they messed up by not fall following the proper procedures for feeding it right, or they like went to sleep with it wrapped around their neck yau they thought it was comforting, or sadly they didn't keep their snake in an enclosure like you're supposed to, and the python got ahold of a kid in the house. That is, I can't I can't even like put my mind there. Nightmare. But we don't want to give python's bad name because UM in a lot of cases there are definitely um plenty of them that are pretty docile, nice friendly UM and UM if they if a python does try to eat you, it's probably a case of mistaken identity to begin with. But also there's differences, UM that that make pythons seem less threatening. They moved just like one mile an hour. They're very slow. Um, they're not venomous. That's another big one, right, sure, yeah, I think you know, Andy, I'm scared of any venomous steak, like really scared of any venomous snake, not like a phobia or anything. I think that's just like a legitimate fear, that's right. Uh. They're found in Asia, Africa, and Australia. They are Old World snakes and there are forty one species of python. Um, we're going to concentrate on just a few of these, but these are you know, they along with the anaconda, which um, maybe we should do like a shorty on anaconis at some point. But these are these are the big daddies that are just amazing. You can you can see a python that's twenty to thirty ft long, and to see a snake that big and that heavy, it's just it's it looks like a holdover from ancient times. Yeah. Um, there are very small pythons too, though. It turns out there's one called the antil python. It's only about two feet long and it's adult size. Um. But for the most part, if you're talking about pythons. One of the ways to I think this is probably one of the reasons why they do seem so impressive too. They're bulk two length ratio is substantial, which means they're like pretty big around. Even though they're really long, they're also really big around. Um. So when you see a snake like that, like, it definitely stands out in your mind. Yeah. And even among big ones, there's not the same um, the same color pattern or anything there. They can really really differ depending on where they are and what they need to camouflage themselves. Sometimes you see those really pretty pattern scales that look almost like a copper head in some ways. Uh. Sometimes they're solid though. You've seen those big, gigantic bright green ones or brown ones that are solid brown. Yeah, yeah, really good looking snakes. Yeah, that's the green tree python, right, that's right. Um. One thing I found, Chuck that I found totally fascinating is um. A lot of python species eat warm blooded um pray. Right. Yes, So they've developed what are called labial pits, which are these little heat sensing organs in their face around their mouth. Um, and it allows them to sense uh. It's basically like the predator remember UM, they would switch to what looked like like thermal imaging. That's what those labial pits pick up. But these UM snakes still also see visible light too, so they use their eyes, but that the labial pit information is transferred up their trigeminal nerve through their face and eventually hits like their optics the optics center in their brain. So and this is really tough to wrap your head around. UM, but the the thermal imaging from the labial pits and the visible information from their eyes is superimposed so that they see in a way that UM at this one site put It's impossible for us to imagine. Isn't that awesome unless you've seen the movie Predator? And that the um labial pits are so sensitive they can detect changes in temperature of as little as point zero zero one degree celsius. It's amazing, I think so too. Good luck if you're a rabbit, I know you don't stay in a chance. Sadly, no none, because if you do get a python around a rabbit, they will grab ahold of it with its triangular shaped head and they have these sharp backward curving teeth. If you ever looked at a Um, if you just look up pictures of python teeth, they have a lot of sharp fangs that are kind of pointing in the backwards direction. They don't because they're not venomous. They don't have those two giant, big daddy venom injectors at the front, which those are the things that really scare me when it comes to snakes. So pythons don't have those, but uh, they do, some of them. Arboreal pythons have these prehensible tails that, um, you know, there are legends of pythons like leaping from trees to kill people or kill prey. That is not true because that would hurt the snake to eat from a tree. But they said in the articles I read, they're like, well, they don't do that, but so don't worry. But but they can really hang from the tree and then come down and grab you. Right. They're famous for wearing a hat and swinging down in front of your face and going hello yeah. Basically, um, So there's some other things about pythons that um stand out even amongst snakes. One of the things that they have that most snakes don't is two lungs, which is weird because it makes them primitive. Then that seems odd we have two long as we'd think, well, it's evolving towards humanity. Of course, that's that's not primitive, that's the opposite. But apparently, um, all snakes, or at least pythons I should say, evolved from four legged, uh two long vertebrates of some sort in the great distant past, and they just haven't evolved into just a single lung like plenty of other snake families have. That's right. And because of that evolution, they all so have remnants of that stuff. They have remnants of a pelvis and these little hind limbs and they're called spurs located on the back, on the sides beside the cloaca, and they use those for a bunch of different things. But one of the things they do, and we'll talk a little bit more about mating, they'll kind of kind of stroke the ladies with the what's what's left over of their vestigial limbs? I like that? Does that creep you out? Yes? It does? It seems very sweet. So, um, if you wanted to find a python in the wild, chuck, where would you go? Well, already said Asia, Africa and Australia. But what parts of those continents you would go to where it's warm and wet. You would go maybe to a rainforest, maybe in the woodlands or grasslands or the swamps. They like to hide in under rocks and things. They like to hide in little animal burrows. Like I said, they can't hang from tree branches. Uh, this should scare everyone, and we'll get a little bit more into how they've made their way to Florida in the United States. But when they are found in urban areas, they shelter in urban debris. So you could, uh, you could pick up a spare tire or turn over a wheelbarrow and find a python into there. And if you were in the in the wrong place at the wrong time, somewhere in Florida right in the inner cities are littered with overturned wheelbarrows, well you never know. So remember I said that python's moved about one mile an hour. There's a reason for this. That's really slow, just if you stop and think about it. The reason they are so slow is because they're using a form of movement called rectilinear progression um, which is where they brace themselves on the ground with their ribs and then lift their body up a little bit in front and then push themselves forward and then just keep repeating this. It's just kind of like, um uh, like herky jerky moving forward in a herky jerky motion. Yeah. I was looking at python movement and it looked like a slither to me. It didn't stand out as much as I thought it. What is looking really different? I guess I should say, well, that's how they fool you. Well, I guess so. I mean, they were definitely slow, but I think I expected a lot more of a straight line, and they do go in a straight line like as opposed to like a really big S shaped slither. But there was still some slither to their diather, you know what I'm saying. Sure, I mean they are snakes after all. To um they're also like frequently you can find them in water. Apparently pythons can stay submerged in water for up to half an hour. And one of the ways that they they hunt is by basically hanging out in water and waiting for something to come over to get a little drinking and copal. And they're a will to do this because they're um. Their their skin tones really camouflaged well with like muddy mucky bottom. So it's really tough to see a python, especially a Burmese python. Yeah, there was a lot of alligators similarity. Uh, it's interesting when I was studying this stuff. Hey, yeah, that hadn't stuck out to me. But absolutely you're right, including how to get away from him, which we'll get to, um, But maybe we should take a break and we'll come back and talk a little bit about uh they're hunting and feeding and more detail right after this. Y yea, so chok, we're talking about their hunting and feeding habits and um. Like I said, they they sometimes hang out underwater waiting for something to come up. They might also just be hanging out on a tree branch. They might just be hanging out under some brush. But what they're doing every time they're hanging out is um performing the type of hunting they do, which is ambush. They just wait around for some prey to come and then come bout. They get your alligators. Yeah, it is, it's like alligators. You're right, man, Um, Please stop proving your point now. But that's what they do. They ambush hunt, they bite, and then they constrict bite and constrict back into the left. That's right. If you're a little python, like the little guys that are two or three ft long, you're gonna eat mice and rats and things like that. Uh, lizards, Maybe some birds might get in there if they're not paying attention. If they're bigger, you name it man um, pigs, antelope, monkeys. I think they found a rock python that had a leopard in its stomach, A small leopard. Yeah, but that's that's terrifying. That leopard doesn't win that battle. Well, So that's something that pythons are known for, and we'll talk more about it in a second. But they are capable of eating things that are even bigger than they are, which doesn't make sense even for snakes, Like that's really crazy. Some of the stuff that they've eaten. Um. I saw a picture, it's a really sad, terrible picture of a python that tried to eat an alligator and it was too big, and the python actually burst into in half and the alligator was spilled out. But they are willing to eat really large things because their body actually changes to accommodate this huge um load of food that they've just now taken on. It's got too big for a stomach exactly, and now the body's like, now I gotta change in adjust because this guy doesn't know his own size. So you mentioned constriction. They are constrictors, and we'll talk a little bit about how what they have in common with BoA's a little bit later. But I think for many, many years they thought that, um, well, they thought a few things. Constriction. At first they thought was like they were crushing their prey and like breaking their bones. That's not true. Uh. Then for a while they thought that they suffocated their prey and just like tightened up on the lung so much that you can't breathe. That makes sense. All of this sort of makes sense. But in two thousand fifteen, uh, there was a scientific paper that came out that basically said, hey, with boa constrictors, we now know that what they do is they they don't suffocate you. What they do is they cut off your brain or your blood circulation basically, so you don't get any blood to your brain and that's how you die. So it may be true for pythons as well, because they are also constrictors. Obviously, yeah, it would make a lot of sense. Um, And that actually makes even more sense than than preventing you from breathing, because you would lose consciousness much faster if they can cut off the blood supply to your brain, which is what you want to happen, because when they when they capture you by biting your head like you're eating head first by a python, you would probably hope, no matter whether you're a person or a buddy, that you have lost consciousness by the time it starts to swallow you head first. Yeah. I saw a video of someone feeding a dead bunny to this python on a porch and it was, you know, it's just it was it's just not fun to watch. I mean's super interesting, but uh and again it wasn't a lie bunny. But you know, when you when you see an animal consuming, like unhinging that jaw and working this bunny's body into its mouth, it's just it's amazing in a nature sense. But I didn't watch at all, let's put it that way. I don't blame you, so, Chuck, I think we should talk about the studies of trying to figure out how pythons can eat things that are so much bigger than it, or just so enormous to begin with, not necessarily even bigger than the snake, but way bigger than anything you or I could eat proportionately, right, that's right. And they've figured out thanks to um genetic sequencing, they see they sequence the genome of the Burmese python um and found out that it's actually their genes changed. The way that their genes express um things like proteins or affect their metabolism. All this stuff actually changes when they eat, and it happens really fast, and the changes that it creates are really really dramatic. Yeah, I mean the fact that this was naturally selected over I mean they think that happenedically as well, right, yeah, yeah, like the that during its evolution it started picking up these these positive adaptations like really fast. And the main thing they found out that it was allows pythons to eat things that are as big as they are is their their organs shrink when they're eating to to make room in there, like their liver and their kidneys and their intestines. They act in their heart even get smaller while they're eating these things to create space. And after like some of these things, I think the liver actually doubles in mass in the two days after they're done eating. Yeah, their heart actually increases in size by about in the two days after they eat, which is like that that is very unusual, but it actually has to happen because the metabolism that's required to eat this huge thing, because we didn't I don't know if we said, like they'll go like a week without eating, they'll eat once a week. So the rest of the time they're their metabolism is just going along doing whatever. Then all of a sudden it's presented with this huge piece of food that it needs to digest. So it's a huge increase in metabolic demand, and the heart actually increases in size to accommodate that increase in metabolic demand. It's amazing, it really is. And they figured out that it's their genes just become super active and start producing way more proteins and um just doing all this stuff that under normal circumstances when they're not digesting food just doesn't. It's just not how their genes behave. And if you're wondering how they're breathing with a rabbit stuff down their throats, they have a windpipe that opens at the front of the mouth so they can breathe while they're doing this stuff. Yeah, I saw it described as kind of popping up like a periscope. Yeah, that's amazing. So what about reproduction. I know that you really like how they court. Do you want to talk some more about that. Yeah. When they make kind of depends on which species it is. It's not set in stone, but they do. Those males use those spurs that were originally limbs to stroke the female, and once they impregnate them, the ladies they lay eggs. Actually, um, which is another thing that's different than other boas even is that they give birth to live young, but pythons give give birth to little egg Well, I guess big eggs because some of these things are a couple of feet long when they come out when they hatch. I saw there about the size of chicken eggs. Well, how could they be two ft long? I don't know, crazy, I don't know, I don't know. I guess maybe they eat themselves while they're in the egg. Uh. They do provide most of the time some parental care, and they make little nest Mama does and keep some warm and like protected spaces under logs and stuff like that, and you know, sort of burrowed areas and they coil around them. Um. If they since temperature changing whatever, the mother will sort of flex her muscles and sort of can tracked in place to heat up her own body to warm up the eggs. That's called shivering thermogenesis. And they're not feeding when this is going on. They're only leaving their nest if they want to really warm up, and they call that basking, just like we do. Yeah, and then the eggs hatch and the mom says, see you, and that's that um. And depending on the species, like they they will um reproduce fairly frequently. I think a female snake um produces about forty eggs every two years. They start breeding at about three to four years old, so like they're you know, a pretty successful family of snakes. They reproduce pretty frequently. And then I guess because the hatchlings are so big when they're born, they don't really need to be raised or nurtured or protected. They're just on their own from the moment they come out of the egg, and they can live decades. They can live a long long time, which is why a lot of snake enthusiasts love him as pets. I think the San Diego zeus says about thirty five years, which is that's a long time. Yeah, that's at the tippy top. So, Chuck, I believe that we should speak uh at length about the Burmese python because this is as far as pythons go, it's very very beautiful snake. It's actually highly prized for its skin. Sad for the Burmese python, but it also has a really interesting story here in the United States. That's right. Um. They have pale tan, sort of gray bodies sometimes yellow brown. They have these big sort of reddish splotches. Uh. And they have their sort of um almost like they were drawn around their outlined in different colors white or yellow usually, and they are really pretty. And they are in Florida. Um, just like uh, we were talking about the alligators. There's I don't I mean, I guess you would call it a python problem. In one sense, it's it's not as much of a problem in that they're not really like coming out of the wild and attacking people really um, but they're they're make wreaking havoc on the local ecosystem there as far as mammals go, it's an ecological disaster as a matter of fact. Like it's if you're in the Everglades and you care about biodiversity, you you have a real problem with the Burmese python, which have been really successful in setting up shop in the Everglades specifically. UM. But they're an invasive species because they're not supposed to be there. There haven't been snakes this large native to the to the America's since long before humans were around. So they came in and there they have no predators there themselves, like an apex predator, and um, they've been eating everything they can get their hands on, basically. And the crazy thing about this is that they set up shop in the Everglades because people started releasing them um as pets. They were pets that got released and abandoned, and now they're huge problem in Florida. Yeah. And and not just like oh, you know there's been a decline in in this roadent or this species. There was a study and this is in twelve even Uh, the raccoon population dropped nine three percent, possums almost extinct ninety eight point nine percent, bobcats eighty seven point five percent, and this from to two thousand twelve. Uh. And essentially foxes and and rabbits have all but disappeared in the Everglades. Yeah, so again that's an ecological catastrophe because not only is it eating all of these important like um animals, they're also competing with other larger stuff for food too, so they're having an effect on like the local alligators and other like probably the whatever panthers are down there. Um. So it's a huge problem that they're there, and as a result they're finding that um that Lord is basically trying to figure out anything it can do to handle this stuff. And I read that there's this thing called the Python Challenge, the Annual Python Challenge, where they basically say, hey, anybody and everybody who has a gun or a stick or a knife or whatever you want to use to kill a python, will give ten thousand dollars to the person who kills the most pythons this year during this Python Challenge. That's the level that Florida is at right now, and it's having almost no effect because there's number one, so many of them, but also because it is so hard to see a python, even when you're basically standing on top of it. It's that good. A Burmese python is that good at camouflaging itself in the Everglades. Well, yeah, that in the twenty eggs a year, right, Well that was another thing to chuck is because the hatchlings are so big. Do you remember when we talked about alligators and how their numbers are kept in check because rack coons will eat their hatchlings. Well, these Burmese pythons hatchlings are so big. There's nothing in the Everglades that is going to eat them. So they're incredibly successful at reproducing too. That's a really good point. I'm trying to imagine something thirty six inches long coming out of a chicken egg. I know, even if it was, I guess it would have to be the width of like a worm. Yeah, it would be a little bit bigger, it would have to be thin. But again, pythons are known for their bulky nous, right, So I don't know. I just saw I read a I believe it was a Smithsonian article that was kind of the journalist was embedded with people who, you know, hunt and track Burmese pythons in the Everglades. Apparently there's an all women tracking team called the Everglades Avengers um and like they somebody who knows what they're talking about, describes it as the size of a chicken egg. So that's where I got that from. So act if I'm wrong, they were wrong. They look a little bigger, but not much bigger. I guess they're just wrapped up. They must just be really thin and bulk up really fast. It goes stroying when they come out of their egg. So you mentioned the Everglades. You're definitely all over the Everglades, but they're expanding their territory. They're also in Big Cypress National Preserve. They are in Collier Seminole State Forest. They have been found in Miami, mh. They have been found in the Florida Keys, which is means one of two things. Either someone brought them there and release them there, or they can tolerate saltwater. They were python swimming in the ocean. Yeah, apparently that's been documented that they're you know, they're good swimmers and they comp apparently tolerate saltwater, so it's entirely possible they swim under the keys. Could you imagine doing a little ocean swimming and seeing a freaking python. Yeah, Because I mean these things get big, like in their native habitat um in Southeast Asia. They it up to about twenty six and two pounds. Apparently the ones in Florida usually are average about eight to ten feet, so that's still a very significant bulky snake that you would see coming swimming at you while you're waiting in the water, going how are you? I think those are I think the ones in Miami those are African pythons are right, yes, which apparently are almost indistinguishable from Burmese pythons to the average person. So suburban and urban areas of Miami have pythons. Yeah, they also have boa constrictors. Apparently there's a big iguana problem down there as well, all from just jerks releasing their pets that they don't want any longer because they there's there's a really big problem with in scrupulous um snake dealers, backyard breeders, people who actually have storefronts um even like corporate chain pet stores selling snakes um and and being like you have to kill a mouse to feed this thing. Um. There's a lot of like this. It's not just intuitive how to keep a snake happy and healthy, and so people get overwhelmed by snakes and they don't know what to do with them. So if you're in Florida around Miami. You just release it in your backyard and say see you later, and the snake takes off and becomes a problem in the Everglades with a tear rolling down its cheek. That's right through Pastco Pasco and don't look back, right, and it turns around and you have to punch a snake in the face and go go right. I'd never liked you to begin with. Uh, I think we need to take a second break, stol Right, yeah, all right, let's do that, and we'll talk a little bit more about what you can do if you do see a python in the wild, and all about pet pythons, the sweetest kind right after this. All right, we've established that you're probably not in danger of being attacked by a python in the wild in the United States. Um, as far as we know, that has not happened. I don't even think once. Right, that's my understanding. All right, good, let's just keep that going. Let's keep that record intact. Uh, if you do see a python in the wild, if you're living in Florida, they have apps. Now, they have hot lines. I've got one is the name of the program. There's a hot line eight one or smartphone applications. I've got one. You can just get that app if you live in the area, and you just report that thing. If you don't have the app, just go to the National Park ranger say hey, I saw python over there. By that time, it's probably way too late. Um, they're probably out of there, but you should definitely report it because it's a big, big issue and it's not you know, I guess it sounds a little awful that they're just saying, go kill as many as you can for ten thousand bucks. But it is, like you said, it is wrecking the ecosystem down there, and that's that's not good for anyone, know, and the people like it's still sad for the Burmese pythons. They're just doing their thing. They just happen to be very successful. It's the people who released them that are really at fault and deserve everyone's scorn. Sure, but we should talk about the ball python, which and this is sort of the uh, the the go to pet. If you want a constrictor and you don't want to Boa, you can go with the old ball python. Yeah, they're a lot more docile, they're much smaller, they grow maybe to five or six feet. They don't move around much. They don't they're not super active, so they are as if you're going to have a snake as a pet, a ball python is a good way to go for sure. Yeah. They've got little dark uh stripes a lot times on their face. You have like through like through their eyes. It's very pretty, Yeah, very pretty snake. Uh. They have these again those dark blotches that are outlined in a lighter color. Very attractive skins. And again it's very sad that their skins are being used for you know, bipoachers or whatever to sell. Uh. They there are albino pythons as well, which has become such a favorite snake that they're actually breeding this into them. Yeah, they don't have albini is. Um, they have a melotint ism, a melan a melan is ism they I think that proves that doesn't have quite the ring though melanists DoSM whatever. But one of the there's actually some types of ball pythons that um, they'll have like a yellow body and then their stripes are actually lacking in pigments so it looks like yellow and white. Um. There's ones that have black stripes but they're lacking pig men in their body, so it's like this black and white the really gorgeous snakes for sure. Yes, and like you said, they are docile. They're good. If you have never even had a snake before, it could be a good place to start if you've never if you didn't even know snakes existed. The bald python is a great place to start. It is. They're called ball pythons because if they get threatened, they curl up and roll up in a little ball. It's very cute. It's very sensible too. So um, if you are going to buy a snake, you probably do not want a wild caught ball python because when they're caught, they don't really want to leave their home in the wilderness and come to your home, so they're going to be stressed out. Snakes, like all other captive animals, who get bored and they're not cared for, can just can um display zookosis and other terrible habits. Um. So you would probably want to get one from a breeder or a pet store or something like that. But again you should consider um you're taking something out of the wild, even if it wasn't born in the wild, and keeping it in a little twenty gallon aquarium in your house. So I think that part through first. Yeah, and they don't, Um, it's not mean to keep them in a smaller enclosure. They like tight spaces, So you don't need to get this huge thing for your ball python. Um no, you would, that would be mean, actually is from what Yeah, I mean they need a little bit of room, but they like they're not real active again, and they like tight spaces. Uh. They it has to be really secure because they are great at getting out of those cages and exploring your apartment. I think one of the reasons we talked about their lifespan. I think one of the reasons people um release them sometimes is even though they know this getting into it, it's hard to make a thirty year commitment to something. So if you're you know, if you're some forty to fifty year old dude and you're like get into snakes all of a sudden, you're not thinking about what's going to be going on when you're eighty, Uh, you might us away, your family may not know what to do with it, and release it. So this is a long term commitment that you really really need to think through, right if you're going to do this, Let's say you're under the age of fifty and you're like, I'm into snakes now, Um, there are some things you want to do. Um. You want to keep your snake nice and warm. Uh. And in fact, you want to have basically dual climate zones in your twenty gallon or thirty gallon aquarium, depending on the size of the snake. Um. You want to keep it somewhere in the neighborhood of seventy eight degrees in the in the tank in general. And then you want to fahrenheit thank you, Celsie's I think would melt the snake. Um. And then you want to keep a little area for basking even hotter. Remember you talked about how snakes like to bask. Um this one. This is going to be more like eight eight to ninety two degrees fahrenheight, so the snake can be like, I'm gonna go warm up over here on my nice little rock. And Um. If you do that and you keep track of your temperatures, like you have to really make sure it stays like this, then it will be much happier than otherwise. Yeah, but you want to screen those lights off. You don't want it actually touching the bulb because that can burn their little skin. And there was one of the thing that um they really love is as branches. They love to hang on tree branches. So if you could outfit your aquarium, it's got to be sturdy. Don't just put like some sort of lightweight limb from your yard. But if you can affix like a really sturdy limb in your your python cage, they're gonna be pretty happy with you as an owner. And it will also probably give them a place to hide too. They want to have a place to hide UM so that they can feel safe and secure. And then they also like to soak too, apparently also when they're molting um shedding their skin, they like to soak. So you want a little tub, but they want to feel secure when they're in their little tub of water too, So you probably want to have like a lidded plastic container that you've cut a hole out in the top and smooth the edges out. You could be sure to do that UM so that the snake can go inside it's little tub and soak but also feel and closed in there too. Right And finally, uh, part of being the owner of a constrictor that you've got to feed these things. And when you have them in your house and their domesticated, there's not snake food that you shake out like a fish. Right as you have this big can in just a bunch of mice shake count Yeah, well that's what you gotta do, man, You gotta you gotta feed them. Uh, they need to be fed every week or maybe every two weeks, kind of depending on their appetite. If they're young, you gotta start out with a little tiny mice about every five to seven days, and then as they get bigger, their diet's gonna grow. So if you end up with a six ft python, you're gonna have to feed it something that will fill it up. In judging by this this person feeding it this dead rabbit, it's not a fun task. I'm sure they don't mind. They're up for that, but I'm not sure. Um one of the other things too. Like this is all if you have a bald python, which is manageable and is not going to be able to harm you even if it tried. But if you say, have a Burmese python, there's entire steps that you have to follow through that you wouldn't with other kinds of um, smaller pythons, like, for example, when you're feeding it, you never ever want to dangle its food in front of your face, in front of its face with your hands, because it might bite your hand and start to get ahold of you. Um. Apparently, when it's feeding time and they've sensed food, all of those genes start going crazy and they like just they get a little bit of like food fever, and they're not they're not behaving in a way that you might expect them to. Write UM, So you never want to dangle it with your bare hands or your hands. You want to use like force ups or something like that. And then also if you have a Burmese python, you never feed it by yourself. You always have to have at least one other adult around with you, just in case something bad does happen. It does happen from time to time. There's a guy in the Bronx who was found dead in his apartment and his pound eleven ft Burmese python was wrapped around him still. He apparently had gone to feed it outside of its cage a chicken that he had used his hand to dangle in front of it, and it just went bad. But that is extremely rare. But the point is that can happen, so you have to be extra safe and smart when you're feeding a Burmese python. Yeah, it happens quick, like when this rabbit was dangled there. There's such a chill sort of species, the way they move around. And you know, we've all been to the nature center and some people have held them and petted them. They look very relaxed. But when that rabbit was dangled it, when it popped at it and wrapped around it, it it happened very very fast. And they will bite you too. Even though it's not like a venomous bite. Um, it still hurts, like their teeth can break off into your hand or your arm or wherever. So it's not a pleasant sensation from what I understand, even though it's not going to kill you. That's right. And then finally, finally, as far as endangerment goes, there are thirteen species on the International Union of Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened species, and I think the Ramsey's python is endangered. The Burmese and the mean mar are vulnerable, so is the Indian python too, apparently, but plentiful and Florida it sounds like. Yeah, I was surprised that the Burmese pythons still on that list for as good as it seeing Florida. But maybe they're just thinking of the natural range of it. That's right. And the biggest threat to pythons you guessed it stars, Yes, not sharks. Ah you got anything else? I don't have anything else. Thanks for putting this one together. Shout out to definitely Live Science UM for that one article about the guy who found out how you could sequence the genes of pythons and just be amazed at what you find. Yeah, thanks to Life Science. And there were there were a bunch of different snake specialty websites that we dug into for this sweet um. And if you want to know more about pythons and just start reading about pythons and think really long and hard before you actually get one as a pet. But if you do, take good care of it and tell it that we said high. And since I said that, it's time for listener mail, I'm gonna call this Salem Witch Family Trial Family Connection. Hey, guys, have been listening to the show for a few years, thoroughly enjoyed them. Recently listened to Salem witchcraft trials and something towards the instruct me. You mentioned that Salem was in Essex County. My mother's family settled in Essex in the mid seventeenth century. So I did a little research and found out that there was an Elizabeth Morris in Newbury who was convicted of witchcraft in eighteen I'm sorry, sixteen eighty. She was originally sentenced to death, but that was changed to home confinement after a second trial, and it turns out she is my seventh great grandmother. Pretty cool. That was a bit of fun family history to share with the Fens, with the friends and family this Halloween season. And that is from George Oaks. That is a great email, George Oakes. We actually heard from a lot of people who were related to people who were executed at the Salem witchcraft trials. Did you know? I think we heard from a Corey and a bunch of other people. So shout out to all of you guys carrying the family lying on for those old witches. But none of those matters, no, Now they don't tell people. Um, well, if you want to get in touch with us, you can Who was that that wrote in George George Ookes If you want to get in touch with us like George did, you can send us an email like George did, to Stuff Podcasts at iHeart radio dot com. Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeart Radio. For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of I Heart Radio. Hey you, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh. There's Chuck, and this is Stuff you should Know about pythons. Take it, Chuck, You mean take my two pythons to the vet because I have two sick pythons. Do you have two sick pythons? You never heard that joke? No, but muscles? No, let's here. Well, I mean that's just kind of it. It's just a not just way to say you have big biceps, so you like, I need a vet because I've got two sick pythons. Oh no, I've never heard anything like that. I don't think that joke even made it into The Hangover. It's like two tickets to the gun show. Yeah, I've heard that one. You haven't heard two sick pythons. No, no, No, that's terrible. I think it was in The Hangover too. Oh I never saw that one. It was not good. Was the first one good? Yeah? It was. In fact, I just watched some of that recently on a plane flight because I just needed some comfort food and that movie was really really funny. No, yeah, did you see it? Yeah? Oh, dude, Zach Alifanakos was great. Ed Helms was great. Ken Uh, what's his name? Ken Burns was awesome. No, main guy Ken, the guy who's the doctor in real life, the Asian actor. Oh Ken Jung, yeah Jung. He was hysterical. Yeah, he's funny. Okay, Mike Tyson so funny. Tyson was funny that you know. Actually he wasn't that good in it? Now, never mind, I'm not gonna talk about that. Okay, correction wrong. I'll let everyone guess who I didn't think was good out of all the remaining characters. Oh, man, you're so hard on that guy. Why what did you don't even know what I'm talking about? I do too, of course I know who you're talking about. Should we talk about pythons? I think we should, And we're not talking about the muscles, as the joke everybody knows goes. No. Instead, we're talking about snakes, realize, snakes that will mess you up. Yeah. I'm not so scared of pythons, no, uh, largely because I'm never around them. But there's something my snake fear. And I don't have that much of a snake fear, but uh, my snake fears around having bangs of a snake enter my body. But pythons are you know, they have been known to kill people every once a while. But from what I read, get this, chuck every single person that's ever been killed in the United States by a python, and take that with a grain of salt, because they're not native to the United States. Um was a cap was was it killed by their own by a captive python? Usually it was their pet, and they messed up by not fall following the proper procedures for feeding it right, or they like went to sleep with it wrapped around their neck yau they thought it was comforting, or sadly they didn't keep their snake in an enclosure like you're supposed to, and the python got ahold of a kid in the house. That is, I can't I can't even like put my mind there. Nightmare. But we don't want to give python's bad name because UM in a lot of cases there are definitely um plenty of them that are pretty docile, nice friendly UM and UM if they if a python does try to eat you, it's probably a case of mistaken identity to begin with. But also there's differences, UM that that make pythons seem less threatening. They moved just like one mile an hour. They're very slow. Um, they're not venomous. That's another big one, right, sure, yeah, I think you know, Andy, I'm scared of any venomous steak, like really scared of any venomous snake, not like a phobia or anything. I think that's just like a legitimate fear, that's right. Uh. They're found in Asia, Africa, and Australia. They are Old World snakes and there are forty one species of python. Um, we're going to concentrate on just a few of these, but these are you know, they along with the anaconda, which um, maybe we should do like a shorty on anaconis at some point. But these are these are the big daddies that are just amazing. You can you can see a python that's twenty to thirty ft long, and to see a snake that big and that heavy, it's just it's it looks like a holdover from ancient times. Yeah. Um, there are very small pythons too, though. It turns out there's one called the antil python. It's only about two feet long and it's adult size. Um. But for the most part, if you're talking about pythons. One of the ways to I think this is probably one of the reasons why they do seem so impressive too. They're bulk two length ratio is substantial, which means they're like pretty big around. Even though they're really long, they're also really big around. Um. So when you see a snake like that, like, it definitely stands out in your mind. Yeah. And even among big ones, there's not the same um, the same color pattern or anything there. They can really really differ depending on where they are and what they need to camouflage themselves. Sometimes you see those really pretty pattern scales that look almost like a copper head in some ways. Uh. Sometimes they're solid though. You've seen those big, gigantic bright green ones or brown ones that are solid brown. Yeah, yeah, really good looking snakes. Yeah, that's the green tree python, right, that's right. Um. One thing I found, Chuck that I found totally fascinating is um. A lot of python species eat warm blooded um pray. Right. Yes, So they've developed what are called labial pits, which are these little heat sensing organs in their face around their mouth. Um, and it allows them to sense uh. It's basically like the predator remember UM, they would switch to what looked like like thermal imaging. That's what those labial pits pick up. But these UM snakes still also see visible light too, so they use their eyes, but that the labial pit information is transferred up their trigeminal nerve through their face and eventually hits like their optics the optics center in their brain. So and this is really tough to wrap your head around. UM, but the the thermal imaging from the labial pits and the visible information from their eyes is superimposed so that they see in a way that UM at this one site put It's impossible for us to imagine. Isn't that awesome unless you've seen the movie Predator? And that the um labial pits are so sensitive they can detect changes in temperature of as little as point zero zero one degree celsius. It's amazing, I think so too. Good luck if you're a rabbit, I know you don't stay in a chance. Sadly, no none, because if you do get a python around a rabbit, they will grab ahold of it with its triangular shaped head and they have these sharp backward curving teeth. If you ever looked at a Um, if you just look up pictures of python teeth, they have a lot of sharp fangs that are kind of pointing in the backwards direction. They don't because they're not venomous. They don't have those two giant, big daddy venom injectors at the front, which those are the things that really scare me when it comes to snakes. So pythons don't have those, but uh, they do, some of them. Arboreal pythons have these prehensible tails that, um, you know, there are legends of pythons like leaping from trees to kill people or kill prey. That is not true because that would hurt the snake to eat from a tree. But they said in the articles I read, they're like, well, they don't do that, but so don't worry. But but they can really hang from the tree and then come down and grab you. Right. They're famous for wearing a hat and swinging down in front of your face and going hello yeah. Basically, um, So there's some other things about pythons that um stand out even amongst snakes. One of the things that they have that most snakes don't is two lungs, which is weird because it makes them primitive. Then that seems odd we have two long as we'd think, well, it's evolving towards humanity. Of course, that's that's not primitive, that's the opposite. But apparently, um, all snakes, or at least pythons I should say, evolved from four legged, uh two long vertebrates of some sort in the great distant past, and they just haven't evolved into just a single lung like plenty of other snake families have. That's right. And because of that evolution, they all so have remnants of that stuff. They have remnants of a pelvis and these little hind limbs and they're called spurs located on the back, on the sides beside the cloaca, and they use those for a bunch of different things. But one of the things they do, and we'll talk a little bit more about mating, they'll kind of kind of stroke the ladies with the what's what's left over of their vestigial limbs? I like that? Does that creep you out? Yes? It does? It seems very sweet. So, um, if you wanted to find a python in the wild, chuck, where would you go? Well, already said Asia, Africa and Australia. But what parts of those continents you would go to where it's warm and wet. You would go maybe to a rainforest, maybe in the woodlands or grasslands or the swamps. They like to hide in under rocks and things. They like to hide in little animal burrows. Like I said, they can't hang from tree branches. Uh, this should scare everyone, and we'll get a little bit more into how they've made their way to Florida in the United States. But when they are found in urban areas, they shelter in urban debris. So you could, uh, you could pick up a spare tire or turn over a wheelbarrow and find a python into there. And if you were in the in the wrong place at the wrong time, somewhere in Florida right in the inner cities are littered with overturned wheelbarrows, well you never know. So remember I said that python's moved about one mile an hour. There's a reason for this. That's really slow, just if you stop and think about it. The reason they are so slow is because they're using a form of movement called rectilinear progression um, which is where they brace themselves on the ground with their ribs and then lift their body up a little bit in front and then push themselves forward and then just keep repeating this. It's just kind of like, um uh, like herky jerky moving forward in a herky jerky motion. Yeah. I was looking at python movement and it looked like a slither to me. It didn't stand out as much as I thought it. What is looking really different? I guess I should say, well, that's how they fool you. Well, I guess so. I mean, they were definitely slow, but I think I expected a lot more of a straight line, and they do go in a straight line like as opposed to like a really big S shaped slither. But there was still some slither to their diather, you know what I'm saying. Sure, I mean they are snakes after all. To um they're also like frequently you can find them in water. Apparently pythons can stay submerged in water for up to half an hour. And one of the ways that they they hunt is by basically hanging out in water and waiting for something to come over to get a little drinking and copal. And they're a will to do this because they're um. Their their skin tones really camouflaged well with like muddy mucky bottom. So it's really tough to see a python, especially a Burmese python. Yeah, there was a lot of alligators similarity. Uh, it's interesting when I was studying this stuff. Hey, yeah, that hadn't stuck out to me. But absolutely you're right, including how to get away from him, which we'll get to, um, But maybe we should take a break and we'll come back and talk a little bit about uh they're hunting and feeding and more detail right after this. Y yea, so chok, we're talking about their hunting and feeding habits and um. Like I said, they they sometimes hang out underwater waiting for something to come up. They might also just be hanging out on a tree branch. They might just be hanging out under some brush. But what they're doing every time they're hanging out is um performing the type of hunting they do, which is ambush. They just wait around for some prey to come and then come bout. They get your alligators. Yeah, it is, it's like alligators. You're right, man, Um, Please stop proving your point now. But that's what they do. They ambush hunt, they bite, and then they constrict bite and constrict back into the left. That's right. If you're a little python, like the little guys that are two or three ft long, you're gonna eat mice and rats and things like that. Uh, lizards, Maybe some birds might get in there if they're not paying attention. If they're bigger, you name it man um, pigs, antelope, monkeys. I think they found a rock python that had a leopard in its stomach, A small leopard. Yeah, but that's that's terrifying. That leopard doesn't win that battle. Well, So that's something that pythons are known for, and we'll talk more about it in a second. But they are capable of eating things that are even bigger than they are, which doesn't make sense even for snakes, Like that's really crazy. Some of the stuff that they've eaten. Um. I saw a picture, it's a really sad, terrible picture of a python that tried to eat an alligator and it was too big, and the python actually burst into in half and the alligator was spilled out. But they are willing to eat really large things because their body actually changes to accommodate this huge um load of food that they've just now taken on. It's got too big for a stomach exactly, and now the body's like, now I gotta change in adjust because this guy doesn't know his own size. So you mentioned constriction. They are constrictors, and we'll talk a little bit about how what they have in common with BoA's a little bit later. But I think for many, many years they thought that, um, well, they thought a few things. Constriction. At first they thought was like they were crushing their prey and like breaking their bones. That's not true. Uh. Then for a while they thought that they suffocated their prey and just like tightened up on the lung so much that you can't breathe. That makes sense. All of this sort of makes sense. But in two thousand fifteen, uh, there was a scientific paper that came out that basically said, hey, with boa constrictors, we now know that what they do is they they don't suffocate you. What they do is they cut off your brain or your blood circulation basically, so you don't get any blood to your brain and that's how you die. So it may be true for pythons as well, because they are also constrictors. Obviously, yeah, it would make a lot of sense. Um, And that actually makes even more sense than than preventing you from breathing, because you would lose consciousness much faster if they can cut off the blood supply to your brain, which is what you want to happen, because when they when they capture you by biting your head like you're eating head first by a python, you would probably hope, no matter whether you're a person or a buddy, that you have lost consciousness by the time it starts to swallow you head first. Yeah. I saw a video of someone feeding a dead bunny to this python on a porch and it was, you know, it's just it was it's just not fun to watch. I mean's super interesting, but uh and again it wasn't a lie bunny. But you know, when you when you see an animal consuming, like unhinging that jaw and working this bunny's body into its mouth, it's just it's amazing in a nature sense. But I didn't watch at all, let's put it that way. I don't blame you, so, Chuck, I think we should talk about the studies of trying to figure out how pythons can eat things that are so much bigger than it, or just so enormous to begin with, not necessarily even bigger than the snake, but way bigger than anything you or I could eat proportionately, right, that's right. And they've figured out thanks to um genetic sequencing, they see they sequence the genome of the Burmese python um and found out that it's actually their genes changed. The way that their genes express um things like proteins or affect their metabolism. All this stuff actually changes when they eat, and it happens really fast, and the changes that it creates are really really dramatic. Yeah, I mean the fact that this was naturally selected over I mean they think that happenedically as well, right, yeah, yeah, like the that during its evolution it started picking up these these positive adaptations like really fast. And the main thing they found out that it was allows pythons to eat things that are as big as they are is their their organs shrink when they're eating to to make room in there, like their liver and their kidneys and their intestines. They act in their heart even get smaller while they're eating these things to create space. And after like some of these things, I think the liver actually doubles in mass in the two days after they're done eating. Yeah, their heart actually increases in size by about in the two days after they eat, which is like that that is very unusual, but it actually has to happen because the metabolism that's required to eat this huge thing, because we didn't I don't know if we said, like they'll go like a week without eating, they'll eat once a week. So the rest of the time they're their metabolism is just going along doing whatever. Then all of a sudden it's presented with this huge piece of food that it needs to digest. So it's a huge increase in metabolic demand, and the heart actually increases in size to accommodate that increase in metabolic demand. It's amazing, it really is. And they figured out that it's their genes just become super active and start producing way more proteins and um just doing all this stuff that under normal circumstances when they're not digesting food just doesn't. It's just not how their genes behave. And if you're wondering how they're breathing with a rabbit stuff down their throats, they have a windpipe that opens at the front of the mouth so they can breathe while they're doing this stuff. Yeah, I saw it described as kind of popping up like a periscope. Yeah, that's amazing. So what about reproduction. I know that you really like how they court. Do you want to talk some more about that. Yeah. When they make kind of depends on which species it is. It's not set in stone, but they do. Those males use those spurs that were originally limbs to stroke the female, and once they impregnate them, the ladies they lay eggs. Actually, um, which is another thing that's different than other boas even is that they give birth to live young, but pythons give give birth to little egg Well, I guess big eggs because some of these things are a couple of feet long when they come out when they hatch. I saw there about the size of chicken eggs. Well, how could they be two ft long? I don't know, crazy, I don't know, I don't know. I guess maybe they eat themselves while they're in the egg. Uh. They do provide most of the time some parental care, and they make little nest Mama does and keep some warm and like protected spaces under logs and stuff like that, and you know, sort of burrowed areas and they coil around them. Um. If they since temperature changing whatever, the mother will sort of flex her muscles and sort of can tracked in place to heat up her own body to warm up the eggs. That's called shivering thermogenesis. And they're not feeding when this is going on. They're only leaving their nest if they want to really warm up, and they call that basking, just like we do. Yeah, and then the eggs hatch and the mom says, see you, and that's that um. And depending on the species, like they they will um reproduce fairly frequently. I think a female snake um produces about forty eggs every two years. They start breeding at about three to four years old, so like they're you know, a pretty successful family of snakes. They reproduce pretty frequently. And then I guess because the hatchlings are so big when they're born, they don't really need to be raised or nurtured or protected. They're just on their own from the moment they come out of the egg, and they can live decades. They can live a long long time, which is why a lot of snake enthusiasts love him as pets. I think the San Diego zeus says about thirty five years, which is that's a long time. Yeah, that's at the tippy top. So, Chuck, I believe that we should speak uh at length about the Burmese python because this is as far as pythons go, it's very very beautiful snake. It's actually highly prized for its skin. Sad for the Burmese python, but it also has a really interesting story here in the United States. That's right. Um. They have pale tan, sort of gray bodies sometimes yellow brown. They have these big sort of reddish splotches. Uh. And they have their sort of um almost like they were drawn around their outlined in different colors white or yellow usually, and they are really pretty. And they are in Florida. Um, just like uh, we were talking about the alligators. There's I don't I mean, I guess you would call it a python problem. In one sense, it's it's not as much of a problem in that they're not really like coming out of the wild and attacking people really um, but they're they're make wreaking havoc on the local ecosystem there as far as mammals go, it's an ecological disaster as a matter of fact. Like it's if you're in the Everglades and you care about biodiversity, you you have a real problem with the Burmese python, which have been really successful in setting up shop in the Everglades specifically. UM. But they're an invasive species because they're not supposed to be there. There haven't been snakes this large native to the to the America's since long before humans were around. So they came in and there they have no predators there themselves, like an apex predator, and um, they've been eating everything they can get their hands on, basically. And the crazy thing about this is that they set up shop in the Everglades because people started releasing them um as pets. They were pets that got released and abandoned, and now they're huge problem in Florida. Yeah. And and not just like oh, you know there's been a decline in in this roadent or this species. There was a study and this is in twelve even Uh, the raccoon population dropped nine three percent, possums almost extinct ninety eight point nine percent, bobcats eighty seven point five percent, and this from to two thousand twelve. Uh. And essentially foxes and and rabbits have all but disappeared in the Everglades. Yeah, so again that's an ecological catastrophe because not only is it eating all of these important like um animals, they're also competing with other larger stuff for food too, so they're having an effect on like the local alligators and other like probably the whatever panthers are down there. Um. So it's a huge problem that they're there, and as a result they're finding that um that Lord is basically trying to figure out anything it can do to handle this stuff. And I read that there's this thing called the Python Challenge, the Annual Python Challenge, where they basically say, hey, anybody and everybody who has a gun or a stick or a knife or whatever you want to use to kill a python, will give ten thousand dollars to the person who kills the most pythons this year during this Python Challenge. That's the level that Florida is at right now, and it's having almost no effect because there's number one, so many of them, but also because it is so hard to see a python, even when you're basically standing on top of it. It's that good. A Burmese python is that good at camouflaging itself in the Everglades. Well, yeah, that in the twenty eggs a year, right, Well that was another thing to chuck is because the hatchlings are so big. Do you remember when we talked about alligators and how their numbers are kept in check because rack coons will eat their hatchlings. Well, these Burmese pythons hatchlings are so big. There's nothing in the Everglades that is going to eat them. So they're incredibly successful at reproducing too. That's a really good point. I'm trying to imagine something thirty six inches long coming out of a chicken egg. I know, even if it was, I guess it would have to be the width of like a worm. Yeah, it would be a little bit bigger, it would have to be thin. But again, pythons are known for their bulky nous, right, So I don't know. I just saw I read a I believe it was a Smithsonian article that was kind of the journalist was embedded with people who, you know, hunt and track Burmese pythons in the Everglades. Apparently there's an all women tracking team called the Everglades Avengers um and like they somebody who knows what they're talking about, describes it as the size of a chicken egg. So that's where I got that from. So act if I'm wrong, they were wrong. They look a little bigger, but not much bigger. I guess they're just wrapped up. They must just be really thin and bulk up really fast. It goes stroying when they come out of their egg. So you mentioned the Everglades. You're definitely all over the Everglades, but they're expanding their territory. They're also in Big Cypress National Preserve. They are in Collier Seminole State Forest. They have been found in Miami, mh. They have been found in the Florida Keys, which is means one of two things. Either someone brought them there and release them there, or they can tolerate saltwater. They were python swimming in the ocean. Yeah, apparently that's been documented that they're you know, they're good swimmers and they comp apparently tolerate saltwater, so it's entirely possible they swim under the keys. Could you imagine doing a little ocean swimming and seeing a freaking python. Yeah, Because I mean these things get big, like in their native habitat um in Southeast Asia. They it up to about twenty six and two pounds. Apparently the ones in Florida usually are average about eight to ten feet, so that's still a very significant bulky snake that you would see coming swimming at you while you're waiting in the water, going how are you? I think those are I think the ones in Miami those are African pythons are right, yes, which apparently are almost indistinguishable from Burmese pythons to the average person. So suburban and urban areas of Miami have pythons. Yeah, they also have boa constrictors. Apparently there's a big iguana problem down there as well, all from just jerks releasing their pets that they don't want any longer because they there's there's a really big problem with in scrupulous um snake dealers, backyard breeders, people who actually have storefronts um even like corporate chain pet stores selling snakes um and and being like you have to kill a mouse to feed this thing. Um. There's a lot of like this. It's not just intuitive how to keep a snake happy and healthy, and so people get overwhelmed by snakes and they don't know what to do with them. So if you're in Florida around Miami. You just release it in your backyard and say see you later, and the snake takes off and becomes a problem in the Everglades with a tear rolling down its cheek. That's right through Pastco Pasco and don't look back, right, and it turns around and you have to punch a snake in the face and go go right. I'd never liked you to begin with. Uh, I think we need to take a second break, stol Right, yeah, all right, let's do that, and we'll talk a little bit more about what you can do if you do see a python in the wild, and all about pet pythons, the sweetest kind right after this. All right, we've established that you're probably not in danger of being attacked by a python in the wild in the United States. Um, as far as we know, that has not happened. I don't even think once. Right, that's my understanding. All right, good, let's just keep that going. Let's keep that record intact. Uh, if you do see a python in the wild, if you're living in Florida, they have apps. Now, they have hot lines. I've got one is the name of the program. There's a hot line eight one or smartphone applications. I've got one. You can just get that app if you live in the area, and you just report that thing. If you don't have the app, just go to the National Park ranger say hey, I saw python over there. By that time, it's probably way too late. Um, they're probably out of there, but you should definitely report it because it's a big, big issue and it's not you know, I guess it sounds a little awful that they're just saying, go kill as many as you can for ten thousand bucks. But it is, like you said, it is wrecking the ecosystem down there, and that's that's not good for anyone, know, and the people like it's still sad for the Burmese pythons. They're just doing their thing. They just happen to be very successful. It's the people who released them that are really at fault and deserve everyone's scorn. Sure, but we should talk about the ball python, which and this is sort of the uh, the the go to pet. If you want a constrictor and you don't want to Boa, you can go with the old ball python. Yeah, they're a lot more docile, they're much smaller, they grow maybe to five or six feet. They don't move around much. They don't they're not super active, so they are as if you're going to have a snake as a pet, a ball python is a good way to go for sure. Yeah. They've got little dark uh stripes a lot times on their face. You have like through like through their eyes. It's very pretty, Yeah, very pretty snake. Uh. They have these again those dark blotches that are outlined in a lighter color. Very attractive skins. And again it's very sad that their skins are being used for you know, bipoachers or whatever to sell. Uh. They there are albino pythons as well, which has become such a favorite snake that they're actually breeding this into them. Yeah, they don't have albini is. Um, they have a melotint ism, a melan a melan is ism they I think that proves that doesn't have quite the ring though melanists DoSM whatever. But one of the there's actually some types of ball pythons that um, they'll have like a yellow body and then their stripes are actually lacking in pigments so it looks like yellow and white. Um. There's ones that have black stripes but they're lacking pig men in their body, so it's like this black and white the really gorgeous snakes for sure. Yes, and like you said, they are docile. They're good. If you have never even had a snake before, it could be a good place to start if you've never if you didn't even know snakes existed. The bald python is a great place to start. It is. They're called ball pythons because if they get threatened, they curl up and roll up in a little ball. It's very cute. It's very sensible too. So um, if you are going to buy a snake, you probably do not want a wild caught ball python because when they're caught, they don't really want to leave their home in the wilderness and come to your home, so they're going to be stressed out. Snakes, like all other captive animals, who get bored and they're not cared for, can just can um display zookosis and other terrible habits. Um. So you would probably want to get one from a breeder or a pet store or something like that. But again you should consider um you're taking something out of the wild, even if it wasn't born in the wild, and keeping it in a little twenty gallon aquarium in your house. So I think that part through first. Yeah, and they don't, Um, it's not mean to keep them in a smaller enclosure. They like tight spaces, So you don't need to get this huge thing for your ball python. Um no, you would, that would be mean, actually is from what Yeah, I mean they need a little bit of room, but they like they're not real active again, and they like tight spaces. Uh. They it has to be really secure because they are great at getting out of those cages and exploring your apartment. I think one of the reasons we talked about their lifespan. I think one of the reasons people um release them sometimes is even though they know this getting into it, it's hard to make a thirty year commitment to something. So if you're you know, if you're some forty to fifty year old dude and you're like get into snakes all of a sudden, you're not thinking about what's going to be going on when you're eighty, Uh, you might us away, your family may not know what to do with it, and release it. So this is a long term commitment that you really really need to think through, right if you're going to do this, Let's say you're under the age of fifty and you're like, I'm into snakes now, Um, there are some things you want to do. Um. You want to keep your snake nice and warm. Uh. And in fact, you want to have basically dual climate zones in your twenty gallon or thirty gallon aquarium, depending on the size of the snake. Um. You want to keep it somewhere in the neighborhood of seventy eight degrees in the in the tank in general. And then you want to fahrenheit thank you, Celsie's I think would melt the snake. Um. And then you want to keep a little area for basking even hotter. Remember you talked about how snakes like to bask. Um this one. This is going to be more like eight eight to ninety two degrees fahrenheight, so the snake can be like, I'm gonna go warm up over here on my nice little rock. And Um. If you do that and you keep track of your temperatures, like you have to really make sure it stays like this, then it will be much happier than otherwise. Yeah, but you want to screen those lights off. You don't want it actually touching the bulb because that can burn their little skin. And there was one of the thing that um they really love is as branches. They love to hang on tree branches. So if you could outfit your aquarium, it's got to be sturdy. Don't just put like some sort of lightweight limb from your yard. But if you can affix like a really sturdy limb in your your python cage, they're gonna be pretty happy with you as an owner. And it will also probably give them a place to hide too. They want to have a place to hide UM so that they can feel safe and secure. And then they also like to soak too, apparently also when they're molting um shedding their skin, they like to soak. So you want a little tub, but they want to feel secure when they're in their little tub of water too, So you probably want to have like a lidded plastic container that you've cut a hole out in the top and smooth the edges out. You could be sure to do that UM so that the snake can go inside it's little tub and soak but also feel and closed in there too. Right And finally, uh, part of being the owner of a constrictor that you've got to feed these things. And when you have them in your house and their domesticated, there's not snake food that you shake out like a fish. Right as you have this big can in just a bunch of mice shake count Yeah, well that's what you gotta do, man, You gotta you gotta feed them. Uh, they need to be fed every week or maybe every two weeks, kind of depending on their appetite. If they're young, you gotta start out with a little tiny mice about every five to seven days, and then as they get bigger, their diet's gonna grow. So if you end up with a six ft python, you're gonna have to feed it something that will fill it up. In judging by this this person feeding it this dead rabbit, it's not a fun task. I'm sure they don't mind. They're up for that, but I'm not sure. Um one of the other things too. Like this is all if you have a bald python, which is manageable and is not going to be able to harm you even if it tried. But if you say, have a Burmese python, there's entire steps that you have to follow through that you wouldn't with other kinds of um, smaller pythons, like, for example, when you're feeding it, you never ever want to dangle its food in front of your face, in front of its face with your hands, because it might bite your hand and start to get ahold of you. Um. Apparently, when it's feeding time and they've sensed food, all of those genes start going crazy and they like just they get a little bit of like food fever, and they're not they're not behaving in a way that you might expect them to. Write UM, So you never want to dangle it with your bare hands or your hands. You want to use like force ups or something like that. And then also if you have a Burmese python, you never feed it by yourself. You always have to have at least one other adult around with you, just in case something bad does happen. It does happen from time to time. There's a guy in the Bronx who was found dead in his apartment and his pound eleven ft Burmese python was wrapped around him still. He apparently had gone to feed it outside of its cage a chicken that he had used his hand to dangle in front of it, and it just went bad. But that is extremely rare. But the point is that can happen, so you have to be extra safe and smart when you're feeding a Burmese python. Yeah, it happens quick, like when this rabbit was dangled there. There's such a chill sort of species, the way they move around. And you know, we've all been to the nature center and some people have held them and petted them. They look very relaxed. But when that rabbit was dangled it, when it popped at it and wrapped around it, it it happened very very fast. And they will bite you too. Even though it's not like a venomous bite. Um, it still hurts, like their teeth can break off into your hand or your arm or wherever. So it's not a pleasant sensation from what I understand, even though it's not going to kill you. That's right. And then finally, finally, as far as endangerment goes, there are thirteen species on the International Union of Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened species, and I think the Ramsey's python is endangered. The Burmese and the mean mar are vulnerable, so is the Indian python too, apparently, but plentiful and Florida it sounds like. Yeah, I was surprised that the Burmese pythons still on that list for as good as it seeing Florida. But maybe they're just thinking of the natural range of it. That's right. And the biggest threat to pythons you guessed it stars, Yes, not sharks. Ah you got anything else? I don't have anything else. Thanks for putting this one together. Shout out to definitely Live Science UM for that one article about the guy who found out how you could sequence the genes of pythons and just be amazed at what you find. Yeah, thanks to Life Science. And there were there were a bunch of different snake specialty websites that we dug into for this sweet um. And if you want to know more about pythons and just start reading about pythons and think really long and hard before you actually get one as a pet. But if you do, take good care of it and tell it that we said high. And since I said that, it's time for listener mail, I'm gonna call this Salem Witch Family Trial Family Connection. Hey, guys, have been listening to the show for a few years, thoroughly enjoyed them. Recently listened to Salem witchcraft trials and something towards the instruct me. You mentioned that Salem was in Essex County. My mother's family settled in Essex in the mid seventeenth century. So I did a little research and found out that there was an Elizabeth Morris in Newbury who was convicted of witchcraft in eighteen I'm sorry, sixteen eighty. She was originally sentenced to death, but that was changed to home confinement after a second trial, and it turns out she is my seventh great grandmother. Pretty cool. That was a bit of fun family history to share with the Fens, with the friends and family this Halloween season. And that is from George Oaks. That is a great email, George Oakes. We actually heard from a lot of people who were related to people who were executed at the Salem witchcraft trials. Did you know? I think we heard from a Corey and a bunch of other people. So shout out to all of you guys carrying the family lying on for those old witches. But none of those matters, no, Now they don't tell people. Um, well, if you want to get in touch with us, you can Who was that that wrote in George George Ookes If you want to get in touch with us like George did, you can send us an email like George did, to Stuff Podcasts at iHeart radio dot com. Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeart Radio. For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.