Green Tree Pythons (Morelia viridis)

Green tree pythons or chondros are some of the most beautiful snakes in the world. Long considered a "specialist" species and hard to care for. However due to recent advances in the collective knowledge of reptile keepers, more people are discovering the joys of keeping chondros.

(I would highly recommend Greg Maxwell's "More Complete Chondro" book if you want to know about caring for these outstanding animals)

 Chondros are becoming increasingly rare in the wild. Indonesia, the natural habitat of most chondros, is one of the worst culprits when it comes for caring for its jungles. The equivalent of 300 soccer fields of Indonesian jungles is destroyed every hour !

This kind of long term deforestation is even worst than the damage Brazil is allowing to the Amazon jungle. This coupled with the rather dubious "captive farmed" practices of many Indonesian wildlife exporters if left unchecked will see the eventual demise of some localities of Chondros in the wild.

If you really want to be "green" write a letter to your MP and ask them what they are doing to stop Indonesia & Brazil destroying the worlds largest green belts.

See links for more info: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Study/AmazonFireRise/

http://www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefings/indonesian_forest_fires.html

Merauke Green Tree python (Morelia viridis)

Merauke chondros are from the southern mainland area of Papua New Guinea and are similar to the chondros found on the Australian Cape York Peninsula.

Still somewhat rare in collections, Merauke chondros come in various shades of green and many have spectacular broken white dorsal stripes from interconnected white scales along their spine. Individuals may also have attractive blue and yellow markings. Generally Merauke chondros are considered to be non aggressive snakes.

When out-crossed Meraukes produced some of the nicer looking Designer chondros.

Kofiau island (Morelia viridis)

 Kofiau island chondros are from the island of Kofiau off the west coast of Papua New Guinea. They are also referred to as Canary chondros.

They are considered a naturally tame locality of Green Tree python. They don't all retain their bright yellow as adults but even the off yellow, greenish ones are nice. Kofiau island chondros are also known for their daily color changes.

All of the original Kofiau island green tree pythons were wild caught Indonesian imports. Since then several breeders have produced them in captivity.

Tri color Designer chondro (Morelia viridis)

Nice tri-color 2005 male produced by Brandon Osborne*

Parents: Valveeta (SCZ line) & Sweetie (Jayapura type).

* Brandon is a top rated chondro breeder. I highly recommend him if you are looking for a designer  chondro.

Python spp "hybrids"

We are currently working with a few Python hybrids. Most python hybrids are fertile when backcrossed and many produce fertile offspring from hybrid to hybrid breeding as well.

Many so called "purists" get all bent out shape when it comes to hybrids, thinking they are some how, not "natural". What most of those who don't agree with hybrids fail to appreciate is that the whole concept of "species" is simply a man-made classification system and doesn't always make sense.

If a "species" can breed with another "species" and produce fertile offspring, that is evidence that the founder stock of that particular "species" at some time in the past came from the same "kind" of animal. In other words, they are related and will have the similar DNA even if their phenotype is different.

Many hybrids occur in the wild where territories overlap. Of course if enough hybrids occur, a new species or variation is established. As long as breeders and keepers maintain good records to satisfy the purists, I don't see any problem with hybrids at all . After all they are like the stunning variants and cultivars we see in the botanical world many of which are now readily accepted and totally established as new kinds (or species) of plant but are in fact totally "artificially" produced through selective, captive propagation.

check this link from National Geographic for more info on naturally occurring hybrids creating new variations within a type ... or as they put it a new species :

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/03/070314-hybrids.html

(Please note this is NOT some new evidence for MACRO evolution as all the types remained the same .. birds are still birds, snakes are still snakes, etc It is however evidence of natural selection at work which of course ALL CREATIONISTS* totally agree with)

* Creationists believe the Biblical account of creation

Carpondro (Morelia spp hybrid)

Carpondro, morelia spp hybrid. Carpondros are the result from breeding a Carpet python with a Green tree python. This male was produced from an Aru locality chondro and a Jungle Carpet python.

 I like hybrids that make sense and these guys do. Carpondros are highly variable (just like Green trees pythons are). As more are produced we will start to see some truly spectacular line bred animals. Carpondros have been proven fertile when backcrossed to both Carpet pythons and Green trees.

Burmball (Python spp hybrid)

The BurmBall is python hybrid which resulted from the breeding of a Burmese python (Python molurus bivittatus) with a Ball python (Python regius). Produced in 2007 by a German breeder.

We have high hopes to produce 75% Ball python, BurmBalls in the future.

This is a joint project between ourselves and Scot Wilkinson of CaptiveBred in the UK.