One of the most common non-venomous Australian snakes is the python. Aussie pythons come in all different shapes and sizes, with hundreds of different colours and patterns. One of the most recently described and most currently sought-after species is the ‘Morelia carinata’ or Rough-Scaled Python, from the Kimberly region of Western Australia. The Morelia genus of python is commonly found, not only in Australia, but also in Indonesia and New Guinea. The most common type of Aussie python is the carpet python, Morelia spilota (also called the diamond python. Not to be confused with the sub-species of carpet python, also called diamond python, Morelia spilota spilota). These Aussie Pythons are generally characterized by the presence of teeth on the maxilla, distinguished heat pits on the labial scales and usually (other than the Morelia carinata) they have smooth scales. Carpet pythons usually grow to around 2-3 meters long, some reaching in excess of four meters.

The head of most Aussie pythons is flat, with small eyes and relatively large nostrils. Most Australian snakes are in shades of brown, khaki and grey. However depending on the snake and location they can be bright green, bright red and even golden. Aussie pythons generally seem very lazy or lethargic because they usually only move when they need to and most are nocturnal. Being cold-blooded animals, they can only move a certain amount in the cold, which usually isn’t very much. So in the winter Australian snakes can stop eating for months and barely move from a single place, this period is called brumation. Aussie pythons are generally great swimmers, with the ability to move in the water at ease. They usually eat small mammals, birds and sometimes other reptiles. Pythons live in nearly every habitat in Australia, from arid deserts, to rainforests, to savannahs and woodlands.