Why Ball Pythons have such narrow environmental ranges

[WingedWolfPsion]

http://my.gorongosa.net/staff/wurste...ltural_gr.html

I found this interesting, and thought some of you may, as well. While not all ball pythons live inside termite mounds, they are an ideal habitat for these snakes, and they are found there quite frequently. They prefer them for egg incubation.

Within a termite mound, temperatures and humidity are kept at a constant these snakes find ideal. What temperature to termites keep their nests at? 31 C (87.8 F). Yes, that's the exact ideal temperature for incubating ball python eggs--mine are cooking right now at 88F.

The humidity inside of a termite mound stays near 100%, so our estimation of a ball python's comfortable humidity range is probably on the low side. The difficulty in eliminating wetness while maintaining high humidity is probably the primary problem--they are prone to skin problems whenever there is excessive dampness or direct moisture, and a very high humidity will lead to a lot of condensation, and make things too wet. So, we probably really keep them at the lower end of their humidity tolerance.

On the other hand, entry to a termite mound is usually gained through a rodent, aardvark, or other animal's digging into the base of the mound, which upsets the internal environment at that point. So the humidity MAY be lower in a compromised cellar--I'm not sure on that point, and wasn't able to find any information.