Author Gary Taylor ◦
So I’m on a quiet little single lane country road, come flyin’ around a corner and see a snake on the road, body in the most beautiful series of “s” curves (7 maybe?) but in the worst possible spot on the road, just soakin’ up the rays… Odd for this time year I thought, then as I swerved to go around it (praying no one was coming the other way on the blind corner 😄) I got a better look…
Awww… A gorgeous little Stimsons’s python… These guys are sooo sweet, so placid and friendly that around here they’re often called “Children’s pythons”… 🙂 Not a great spot to be snoozin’ little mate… Think I’ll find somewhere to turn around and I’ll pick you up and put you somewhere safer… 😃 Yeah… or NOT… 😆😂🤣 2nd Grumpiest python I’ve ever met… 😄 He was still on the road when I’d turned around, gone back and pulled up…
As I walked up to him I saw the last few inches of his tail (that skinny bit seen in the 3rd pic) wagging like a puppy happy to see his “owner” home from work 💕 Yeah nah, waggy tail has a different meaning in snakes 😄 This guy outright took a full on lunge at me straight up, then another… Good thing was, with each lunge at me he was getting closer to being off the road 😃, and he just kept lunging… By the fourth lunge we were off the road so I snapped a few pics as he just kept coming at me… 🙂
Seriously cool, he was so tightly sprung in the second pic (wish I had a camera that could have caught it…) that he launched himself hard enough to get airborne… Awesome sight… Anyway, the point was to get him off the road and although not quite how I’d imagined it, the desired outcome was achieved 😄 So I backed off and walked around him back to the car and (3rd pic) he also spun around and kept coming at me… Dude! Chill out! I get it! I’m going! I was just trying to help!… 😂
Geraldton (ish), Midwest WA
Photographs © Gary Taylor
John
Information about this non-venomous species can be found on this page:- http://reptilesofaustralia.com/snakes/pythons/achildreni.html
Gary
Thanks John, this one is Antaresia stimsoni, different python, the term I used “Childrens python” is only a local nick name for it (quite likely originating from childreni) but now associated to this one’s usual placidness and calm temperament… 🙂
John
Gary – Anteresia stimsoni is no longer a valid name- was changed back to Anteresia childreni about 2 or 3 years ago.
Gary
Oh wow, cheers John, yet another name change I hadn’t heard about… 👍
El
Children’s python and Stimson’s python are of the same species (antaresia) but they are two different types. And Children’s python is named after the dude who discovered it, not because they are placid. Stimson’s are actually a bit more feisty than Children’s. Great pics though.
Gary
El as a 55 year old native wildlife lover (and have been all my life) I’ve long known that “Children’s python” was named after John George Children 🙂 Gotta be honest tho’ I’ve always thought they were different pythons, Children’s seem sleeker, longer in the face… But John (a moderator, pointed out earlier there had been a reclassification 2-3 years ago and they were now classified as the same species), yeah missed that one 😄 I don’t find out ’til I post a pic… Apparently, The Golden Whistler is now the Western Whistler, Lycosa is now Tasmanicosa and Dryandras are Banksias…😆 Anyway, in the post I said “around here they’re often called…because..” Well about 20 years ago, they (Stimsons) became “The Pet to have” here for the “cool but different” kids, firstly one young country chick took one to school, see how friendly it is… then more kids had them, and the reason their parents let them play with them is because the kids/locals were calling them “Childrens pythons” and it was clearly considered to be a reference to their placidness… “Childrens python? Sure, chuck it in the cot…” 😆Yes, I knew it was wrong, in fact to me at that stage they were still totally different species so even wronger 😅 As I said to John, all I can guess is it is/was a local nick name highly likely derived from a misnomer 😄 I was just telling a story, all truth but trying to keep it short (poetic licence 😄), trying to convey that this behaviour (in my vast experience) is fairly rare and they’re generally pretty cruisy dudes… 🙂
Sally
Did it immediately go back to the warm spot? He was clearly not in a good mood
Gary
Not sure Sally, he was still standing up hissing at the car when I left… 😄 But I don’t think so… it was 2 in the arvo, so not a morning warm up, he’s a solid littler bugger so clearly well fed… he was perpendicular to the road, lying across it, but directly behind him (if he’d travelled a straight line), about 150 metres down the valley are a couple of hay sheds (prime cattle country)… So I reckon he’s had a big long summer saving the farmer heaps on mouse and rat baits, and now as a testosterone fuelled teenager he’s heading up to the breakaway country where all the little caves are (and the bush is natural ‘cos the stock can’t get there) to impress some chicks… 😃 He was just practicing/showing off his fighting ability (I gave him an A+, mate you’re gonna be a hit with the chicks, no guy’s gonna come near ya…😆)… One comment made was “they do this when they’re scared…” yeah, but nah, not like this… This guy was showing all the moves, flicking the tail like a rattlesnake while doing the cobra coil rise and the Mulga snake nose dip (where they look like a cranky old school teacher looking over their glasses at you 😄), the underbelly flash… It’s all in the body language (I was once a testosterone fuelled teenager 😂), he was having a great time, I reckon he went on his way with even more confidence… 🙂
Sally
Gary doing what snakes/pythons are meant to do 😁👍a cool experience for you.
Source dialog: Extract from Facebook group Australian Native Animals
Checkout our Reptiles section: Children’s Python and the Stimson’s Python
Check out more blogs and contribution by Gary Taylor.