All snakes are meat-eaters, but they kill their prey in many of different ways.Constrictors do not use poison, but squeeze their prey to death.Boas and pythons are closely related to each other, and are both in the constrictor family of snakes.They coil themselves around their victims, squeezing more tightly each time the prey breathes out.Once the prey is dead, the snake swallows it whole.
Tree pythons live in the rainforests of New Guinea.They look like the emerald tree boas of South America, and behave the same way.Both types of snake sleep in trees during the day, and hunt prey at night.Their green skin keeps them well hidden in their leafy habitat. Adult green tree pythons are green but,when they first hatch out of their eggs, they are a bright yellow, and sometimes even red.After a year they change colour. Did you know? pythons open their jaws wide to eat their prey,usually swallowing it head-first.When a python swallows a very large animal, its ribs expand to fit the prey inside its body.
Carpet pythons live in a variety of habitats in Australia.They are very adaptable,equally suited to life in the rainforest and in the desert.The carpet pythons preys on many different animals,including small marsupials,rodents and lizards.Carpet pythons have an interesting pattern on their scaly skin,which looks like the design on an oriental carpet.This elaborate patterns provides good camouflage as the python lies in the shadows,waiting for its prey to pass by.All snakes have long scaly bodies,and slither about on their bellies as they have no legs.They are cold-blooded reptiles,which means they have to rely on the temperture of their surroundings to control their body heat.Common boas grow to between 8 and 10 feet (3 meters long).Like all snakes, they never stop growing, and shed their skin regularly.The speed of growth slows down when they are adults.There are 2,700 species of snake, including 27 pythons and 35 boas.Common boas are also known as a boa constrictors.They are not a danger to humans,as they would never be able to attack anything bigger than a bird or a bat.
