With the aliases of south snake and Qin snake, it is a member of the Boide family of Serpentiformes order. Its Latin scientific name is Python molurus and English name is Indian Python.
Python is China's largest snake. Its body is 6 to 7 meters long, with a clear division between head and neck. There are remains of the posterior limbs on both sides of anus hole, which is claw-like. Its back is beige and yellow. There is a line of large quadrate red brown blotches with black edges in the center of back. Both sides of the back also lined with a row of minor blotches. The blotch on the top back of head is spear-shaped. Its belly is yellowish white mixed with a few pitchy spots. It has small oval eyes with upright pupils.
Python inhabits in the jungles of the tropical and subtropical zones. It is good at climbing but also able to dwell in water. It likes moonlighting. Various backboned animals are its food. It can swallow a calf of dozens of kilograms in weight. When catching food, it entangles its preys until they are suffocated to death. It spawns during April and Jun every year, laying 10 to 100 eggs each brood. The female python coil its body around the eggs for incubation.
Python is distributed in Yunnan, Guizhou, Fujian, Guangdong, and Hainan provinces, and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. There are few left in the fields at present. It has been listed inAppendix I ofInternational Trade Convention on Endangered Wild Plant and Animal Species.
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