Q 01/05

When a frightened ball python curls into its namesake ball, which body part is tucked in the middle?

A) Its tail

B) Its head

C) Its belly

D) Its back

Answer · why

B) Its head

Its head and neck are tucked into the centre of the ball, out of an attacker's reach. Because it balls up instead of biting, the species became an eas...

Q 02/05

A ball python's eyes turn silvery and its colours go dull just before which regular event?

A) Shedding its skin

B) Laying a clutch

C) Its next big meal

D) A long winter sleep

Answer · why

A) Shedding its skin

Shedding its skin happens several times a year, and the old layer comes away in one piece, turned inside out like a sock.

Q 03/05

The claw-like spurs beside a ball python's vent are leftover traces of which ancestral body parts?

A) Front legs

B) Tail fins

C) Hind legs

D) Gill covers

Answer · why

C) Hind legs

Hind legs shrank away in the ancestors of snakes, but pythons still carry remnants of them and of the pelvis. Both sexes of ball python have the spurs...

Q 04/05

Tests showed a pet ball python had produced embryos without any male, a process known as what?

A) Metamorphosis

B) Parthenogenesis

C) Hermaphroditism

D) Regeneration

Answer · why

B) Parthenogenesis

Parthenogenesis, or virgin birth, lets a female's egg develop with no father, and it was confirmed in a ball python by comparing the mother's DNA with...

Q 05/05

The ball python's genus is named after a monstrous serpent slain near Delphi by which Greek god?

A) Zeus

B) Hermes

C) Ares

D) Apollo

Answer · why

D) Apollo

Apollo killed the serpent Python in the myth and was called Pythius in memory of the victory. A French naturalist borrowed the monster's name for real...