Meet LSC's Animals: Calabar Python

Snakes, like other reptiles, are covered in scales which must shed regularly throughout their lifetime. When snakes shed, their entire top layer of scales molts altogether, leaving one long piece of skin – including their eye scales!

Check out this video of LSC's Calabar Python shedding its scales:

Endemic to western and southern tropical Africa, these snakes spend most of their time underground hunting young rodents.

Calabar Pythons have skin that is tougher to penetrate than any other snake of their size. Scientists believe they have evolved to have tougher skin to withstand bites from mother rodents.

Their heads and tails look very similar, an adaptation they use to protect the most sensitive part of their bodies – their brain!

More News