Morelia spilota

Walter, I suspect that this is an escapee. If not an very interesting sighting. GeoffR

Wow. Geoff is this a python ?

It is a Morelia spilota python but his seems to be the Carpet Python sub-species rather than the Diamond Python sub-species that would be local to our area

I have had advice that it is a Carpet Python, it is probably an escapee, but that the carpet python was the local sub-species.

Hi @GeoffRobertson, @MichaelMulvaney, and @AAronClausen,
This is the Inland, or Murray-Darling, colour form of Carpet Python. Old records from Cuppacumbalong record the number of Diamond Pythons and Carpet Pythons shot on sight by early settlers. The latter were encountered more often. That is, this colour form or sub-species was the main one occurring naturally in the ACT. Pythons might appear to be extinct locally but they are an extremely cryptic species so maybe there are still a few - just like Lace Monitors, one of which is being seen every few years in the ACT now, compared to one per 20-30 years previously. The information here does not establish for certain that this individual was an escapee from an illegal collection. In future the authorities should be discouraged from automatically collecting such animals and taking them into captivity like this one was.

Fascinating info thanks @DonFletcher.

So it sounds like this could have been a very lucky and special sighting of one of the last snakes in the wild.

@MichaelMulvaney would this be a significant sighting?

I am adding just a cautionary comment to those above. I am not sure that we can conclude that this is Morelia spilota metcalfei (inland cs) and not M. s. mcdowelli (coastal cs) based on these submitted photos.

Distinctive features of metcalfei include for example:

Reddish brown with transverse pale greenish grey (black-edged) patches which tend to be divided into two by black scales, mostly along the along the midline of each dorsal patch. The very wide midlateral pale zone extends for at least two-thirds the body length and is usually broken in two or three places along the length. (Ehmann 1992)

Shades of grey with a reddish flush and dark-edged pale grey blotches, nearly circular and arranged roughly in pairs dorsally, and coalesced to form broken stripes laterally. Wilson and Swan 2021)

Pale to dark grey above, often with a reddish brown flush. A series of roughly paired, pale grey, round blotches, which may sometimes be joined, runs down the back. Blotches on the side are joined to form a longitudinal stripe.
(Swan Sadlier and Shea.2017)

This appears to be a young snake and it has chosen a poor refuge site (perhaps because it is, as suggested, an escapee or released individual) . By now Inland Carpet snakes would have found an overwintering refuge deep in a burrow, hollow log, tree hollow, or deep within rock fissures and piles of rocks. This individual will be very exposed to predators (including dogs and foxes).

Interested to hear John Wombeys thoughts on this.

Ok very good to know @WillO, thanks for weighing in with this info.

I have nothing to add to Will's comments. I am not particularly tuned in to the subspecies variations but I do agree this struck me as an unusual refuge for an animal assuming it is an endemic relic. It looks a lot like an escapee in a very vulnerable situation to me.

No Aaron not a significant sighting - unfortunately we do have reports of escaped/released diamond pythons reasonably regularly

I remember that someone took a photograph of a carpet python years ago and sent it to Friends of Mt Majura; from memory, the photo was taken in the Mt Majura reserve east of Antill Street; I think it was before CNM times but I couldn't find a reference in my archives. We thought at that time that it was a pet snake that had either escaped or was set free.