Ball python
Amazing fact
Ball pythons pull back their head and neck before striking prey quickly.
University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web
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An illustration based on the real animal.
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Ball pythons pull back their head and neck before striking prey quickly.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Ball python
- Scientific name
- Python regius
- Japanese name
- ボールニシキヘビ（ボールパイソン）
- Group
- Amphibians and reptiles
- Class
- Reptilia
- Order
- Squamata
- Family
- Pythonidae
- Genus
- Python
A snake of the grasslands and open forests of West and Central Africa. It spends its time on the ground or underground in burrows.
When threatened, it curls up into a tight ball with its head in the middle. That is how it got its name.
It waits quietly to ambush its prey. Its food is almost all rodents, and it does not eat very often.
How the Ball python lives
They are most active at dawn and dusk. They use chemical and visual cues to hunt prey. They swallow prey alive or immobilize it by constriction.
University of Michigan Animal Diversity WebBasic data
- Size
- 1–1.83 m
- Active
- At night (nocturnal)
- Range
- West and Central Africa
Where the Ball python has been recorded
Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF
Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.
Names around the world
- 简体中文
- 球蟒
- 繁體中文
- 球蟒
- 한국어
- 공비단뱀
- Español
- Pitón bola
- Français
- Python royal
- Deutsch
- Königspython
- Português (Brasil)
- Píton-real
- Italiano
- Pitone reale
- العربية
- ثعبان الكرة
- Bahasa Indonesia
- Sanca bola
- Tiếng Việt
- Trăn hoàng gia
- Русский
- Королевский питон
- Türkçe
- Kraliyet Pitonu
- ไทย
- งูหลามบอล
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web — Python regiusChecked: 2026-11-03
We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.
The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.
The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.
This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.
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