NEWS103
41
he wild-colored youngsters that are
available year-round at a lowprice in
the trade, are usually so-called farm-bred
specimens, mostly from the West African
countries of Togo and Benin. By farm-bred
isunderstoodeggs collected from thewild
and hatched under controlled conditions
on farms. Some of the young are released
again,while someendup in thepet trade.
Speciesprotection in theRoyalPython
Like all giant snakes the Royal Python is
protected under international law, under
which all Royal Pythons traded in Europe
must have an export permit from their
T
The Royal Python (
Python regius
) is themost popular giant snake in the
terrarium hobby. The species has lots of good points: it doesn’t grow
particularly large,looksgorgeous,and isusually ratherdefensivebynature
andhencebitesonly inexceptional cases.
Theemperor’snewclothes
byThorstenHoltmann
Anaxanthic specimen.
Piebald specimens, iepartial albinos,alwayshaveavery interestingappearance.
country of origin and an import permit
from theEU.Thisprocedure,which is in line
with the so-calledWashingtonConvention
on Endangered Species (CITES), prevents
any country from releasing excessively
large numbers for export for economic
reasons, because without the appropriate
import permit the animals can’t find their
way into the trade.
TheRoyal Python is listed inAppendix II of
the Washington Convention. This means
that it can be traded freely, but each
individualmust haveproof of origin, a sort
of personal certificate, from which it can
always be ascertained whether it entered
the trade legally. In Germany, where
everything is always done especially
thoroughly, in addition to the need for
certification there is usually a legal
requirement to declare protected animals,
in other words anyone keeping such an
animalmustnotify the relevantauthorities.
But even German officialdom has realized
that this makes no sense in the case of a
speciesaspopularas theRoyalPython.And
Schlangen
