Green tree python neonates are often quite different in appearance,
even within a given clutch.
Certain pattern, and color characteristics are predictive of the future
color patterns, and varieties in the adult animals, but there is
significant variation within the clutch for what areas turn specific
colors, and their final color saturation intensities. Of note are
animals with dorsal brown or black lines, on the vertebral ridge, with
small triangular side spikes coming down off the mid line. If the
neonate was yellow, as they grow, these markings lighten up, and turn a
reddish brown. As the animal generally turns green, the pattern often
darkens again into a purple hue, and may turn blue, or fade into the
surrounding darkening green pigment, and largely disappear. This
disappearance seems largely dependent on the parents color patterning.
Locality type may also play a role. White and yellow spots and off
vertebral triangular patterns likewise may stay, or suffuse green later
in the color change.
Some yellow animals turn green through a gradual process, in which the
green pigment softly suffuses into the yellow areas, and the animal
turns green slowly in a generalized fashion. This also tends to occur
more with certain locality morphs (my Sorong types), while others (my
Jayapura types) tend to have another variation, as well as this gradual
process. Firstly, a few scales turn very dark green, almost black. This
scattered, seemingly disordered patchy color change gets more diffuse,
and generalized. The brown/ red pattern darkens up to almost a black,
and later turns purple to blue. Finally, some animals turn green/ blue
starting with the tip of the nose, and then generally fill in over the
rest of the body in a more generalized way.
Brown neonates all go through a phase where they lighten up, and look
like their red clutch mates, on their way to green. Both the red and
brown animals get lighter, sometimes turning orange, and turn green in a
generalized gradual diffuse way. They retain their red eyes well into
maturity, but then lose this characteristic generally by age three to
five.
The Aru islands morph is perhaps the only true locality animal that is
fairly accurately represented, though I’ve seen dealers call obvious
non-Aru animals by that name, either out of ignorance, of to simply
market what they sort of looked like. Aru morph animals are known for the blue ventral scales toward the hind
part of the body. The babies have a definite pattern of partially gray
scales that form two interrupted parallel dotted lines down either side
of the ventral scales. As these animals mature, and color change, these
dotted lines turn blue, and the pigment spills out over their previously
white ventral scales from the outside in. Also, the bases of the ventral
scales turn gray, and this pigment diffuses out from under the scale
caudal to it. This starts in the mid-line, and spreads out prior to
turning blue. They also have an interrupted vertebral dark pattern that
seems staggered. One triangular dark pattern comes off the mid-line to
the right, and the next (unconnected pattern triangle) comes off to the
left, a little farther down. None of the neonates that I’ve seen from
this locality have had a continuous vertebral red or dark stripe. As
they color turn some retain a vertebral yellow stripe as the sides turn
dark green. From this comes the interrupted white, yellow, red, and
beige flecks, also characteristic of this morph. They also
have a reputation as being more tractable, and are on of my personal
favorites, especially those with lots of dorsal blue.
As to the issue of high yellow animals, the Biak island morph are
reputed to be the most vicious tempered pythons available, but generally
have high yellow content. They also have a tendency to lose the yellow
at a later stage in maturation, and will sometimes end up generally
green after three to four years, and be the same as any other yellow
predominant locality morph. Trooper and Eugene are breeding animals that
likely originated in Biak, that are generally high in yellow, some have
blue highlights and others don’t. I have a strain that is similar,
usually with a contrasting blue pattern. These and any babies are highly
variable, so one way to get what you want would be to buy color
changed yearlings and hedge your bets. These animals come at a dear
price however.
Jayapura types (variable saturation of green, variable amounts of blue
dorsal markings, but sometimes a lot!, and light unicolor ventral
scales, and generally a green tail) are very!! variable, as are the
other mainland forms such as Timika (tend to have higher incidence of
total blue color change in older adult females, and possibly? males),
Mereuke ?spelling. (in pictures look somewhat similar to Aru morphs
(without? The blue ventral scales?), but the amount of white spotting on
the dorsal vertebral line approximates a line of continuous white, like
amazon basin emeralds, but IMHO, the amazon basins are much prettier),
and Sorong or birds head types that are variable lighter green, yellow
or cream ventrals, variable blue dorsally, lessened white and yellow
speckling dorsally, and generally all have black tipped tails.
These general color types are just basic characteristics, and I agree
that there are outrageous and bland locality types, as well as captive
hybrid types. Several superficially similar looking animals may occur in
different localities, but I see the market selectively breeding for
desirable color traits in line, regardless of locality status. Early on,
there will be unacceptable color variances within a clutch as they
develop adult color, but over the next few years, I fully expect color
traits, not locality specifics to be the main marketing force in this
species, though there will always be a purist market. The present
locality craze is in its infancy. The main reason it is so popular is
that existing breeders have always kept back the babies that they
thought would grow into great adults. The only available market of
captive animals was generally bland with a few exceptions. The locality
imports let John Q Public get (for the first time) world class colored
animals at more affordable prices, even at the expense of the trials and
tribulations of establishing wild imports. John Doe will have high
yellow lines, Jane Smith will have high blue specialty animals, and Bud
big breeder will have a selection of several color strains in the
future.
