Ball pythons in a huddle, with white arrows to indicate their heads.Credit...Noam Miller and Morgan Skinner/Wilfrid Laurier University
We have learned that a variety of snakes from rattlesnakes to some colubrid species have social lives in the wild and now a recent study is showing that pythons are social creatures too! Morgan Skinner, a quantitative ecologist who studied at Wilfrid Laurier University in Ontario created an environment with 4 hides and set to work with several different ball pythons to see exactly what happened. He published his results in Behavior Ecology and Sociobiology in November.

Because ball pythons lay eggs and don’t have live births and have no need to hibernate, they seemed like the perfect study candidate. In 2020, Dr. Skinner and his colleague Tamara Kumpan placed a mixed-sex group of six pythons for 10 days in a large enclosure — one with enough plastic shelters for each snake — and left a camera running.

To Dr. Skinner’s shock, all six snakes quickly squeezed together in the same shelter and spent over 60 percent of their time together. Assuming that all of the snakes had simply liked something about that specific shelter, the team removed it. But after some initial confusion, the snakes eventually chose another home base in which to curl up together.

To read the full article and see the video, be sure to visit the New York Times here. There is a link to the study in the article.

In 2016 the US Fish and Wildlife Service published a temporary rule on 201 Salamander species and as of this January that rule is finalized. The 201 species covering 16 genre are now listed as injurious under the Lacey Act meaning they no longer can be imported into the country or transport or sold across state lines in the US. From the USARK Alert:

The interim rule applies to all species in these 16 genera: Ambystoma, Andrias, Aneides, Aquiloeurycea, Calotriton, Chiropterotriton, Cryptobranchus, Desmognathus, Ensatina, Eurycea, Laotriton, Ommatotriton, Pachytriton, Proteus, Pseudobranchus, and Pseudotriton.
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Comments on the interim rule regarding newly added species can be made after January 10, 2025, for 60 days (deadline March 11) at https://www.federalregister.gov/public-inspection/2024-31203/injurious-wildlife-species-listing-salamanders-due-to-risk-of-salamander-chytrid-fungus.

Find the original Salamander Rule species list (201 species in 20 genera) at https://www.fws.gov/page/list-of-salamanders-designated-as-injurious.

You can read the full action alert here on USARKs page.