2. Ball Pythons are fascinating animals. They… *Live in Africa and prefer to hide in the grasslands and savannahs. *Have no legs, but clench their belly muscles to move. This is called rectilinear locomotion. *Catch their prey, constrict their food and then eat it whole.

3. Kingdom - Anamilia Phylum- Chordata Class - Reptilia Classification of Ball Pythons

4. Order- Squamata Family- Pythonidae

5. Genus – Python Species – Python regius

6. Ball pythons constrict their prey using muscles in their abdomen. After they suffocate their catch, they swallow it whole. * They are carnivorous, but most of these amazing snakes prefer to eat small rodents such as mice or rats. In the wild, they will eat a variety of small birds, chickens, lizards and the like. A Ball Python’s Diet

7. *Ball Pythons do NOT dislocate their jaws. They disarticulate their jaws. Their mouth has a stretchy ligament in the back that lets their mouth open wide. *An adaptation of ball python’s is that its dark - colored scales lets it blend into its environment. *They are peaceful snakes and are generally not aggressive. When they feel threatened, they curl up into a ball, hence their name. Fun Facts about pythons

8. *Ball pythons can be female or male. The females tend to be less temperamental than the males. *Since they cannot see very well and are deaf, they have to rely on heat sensors, a great sense of smell and vibrations to tell where their prey is. *In captivity, these amazing snakes can live for more than fifty years! That is a long time! (cont.)

10. I was sunning myself on a warm rock when suddenly I smelled…MOUSE! I sniffed again just to be sure that I am really smelling dinner. Yes, I smell what I have been waiting for over two months. I do not usually hunt during the day and can survive without eating longer than this, though. I slowly slither off my rock and into the grass. Oh, no! An eagle, one of my predators, circles above me. I hope it will not see me, for it will swoop out of the sky and eat me once it does. But that mouse would have made a fine dinner! I decide to hide beneath a bushy shrub and wait for the eagle to fly away. But- wait! The mouse is right in front of me! I pounce on the mouse silently before the eagle will see me. The mouse tries to scamper away, but I pounce on it before it can. Yum! I see the eagle out of the corner of my eye, so I silently slither away with the tail of the rodent in my jaws. As the eagle dove out of the sky, I hid in the weeds to avoid being dinner. That was one of the everyday adventures in my life. A Day In the Life of a Ball Python

11. The End!