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The Woma python is one of the fifteen different species of python endemic to Australia. It is now a threatened species and is no longer found in one third of its former range.
Woma pythons can grow up to 2.7 metres in length. They spend all their time on the ground and when threatened, will raise their head off the ground in an ‘S-shaped’ pose. Like all reptiles, Woma pythons shed their skin as they grow. This is called sloughing.
Woma pythons lay their eggs anywhere hidden and humid enough so that the eggs and baby snakes don’t dry out. Suitable locations for nests include rabbit warrens, hollow logs or even under an old piece of corrugated iron. The female stays coiled around the clutch of 4 to 28 eggs for 50 to 70 days until they hatch. When the baby snakes hatch they are fully independent from their parents.
Woma pythons are found in sandy arid habitats including desert sand hills and dunes as well as in a variety of other subtropical, temperate, arid and semi-arid regions. Specimens have been discovered in rocky areas, grasslands, shrublands and woodlands.
Generally Woma pythons are strongly associated with the red desert sand and spinifex. They are very well camouflaged for their desert environment. Being a nocturnal species they spend the day resting in the shelter of burrows of other animals, rock crevices, hollow logs or dense vegetation, particularly spinifex. Woma pythons can burrow into sand to escape their predators or to protect themselves from the heat or cold.
The south-western populations of Woma pythons are facing extinction and are possibly already extinct with no specimens being received at the Western Australian museum since 1980. Habitat destruction is the most likely cause of the Woma python’s decline with clearance of their natural habitat to make way for agriculture and predation by foxes and cats.
The body of a Woma python is very strong and flexible. If you held a Woma python by the tail it would be strong enough to raise its head all the way up to the same height. Not all snakes can do this. Woma pythons have this ability because they are constricting snakes. This means they kill their prey by wrapping their body so tightly around it that the animal cannot breathe. When the prey is dead, the python opens it mouth very wide by dislocating its jaw and swallows the prey whole. It won’t need another meal for at least two weeks.
Woma pythons don’t need to eat very often because they are ecto-therms (cold blooded) and so don’t use up energy on keeping warm or keeping cool. They are most active at dawn and dusk. This is probably because their prey is most active at these times.
Woma pythons are carnivores; they consume about equal amounts of mammals and reptiles. Their main prey includes lizards, small mammals and birds. Large Woma python’s may eat rabbits. When prey is caught in a burrow the space is often not large enough for the python to effectively constrict the prey with its body. To combat this problem the snake uses its nose to push the animal against the side of the burrow, strangling it that way.
Woma pythons use the end of their narrow tail as a lure to attract prey. They wriggle the tip of their tail slowly, making it look like potential prey for other animals, catching them in their mouth if they venture close enough.
Woma Pythons are a threatened species mainly due to land clearance and habitat destruction. By removing the native vegetation, people remove nesting places, hiding places and food supply for Woma Pythons.
Other threats to the survival of the Woma python include predation by introduced species like cats, dogs and foxes as well as natural predation by dingos, birds, goannas and other large lizards and snakes.
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