African Rock Python

The **African Rock Python** is a wildlife item and a crawling threat animal. Much larger than the  Eastern Green Mamba, these snakes can be found near water sources or near Python Nests.

## Behavior

 African Rock Pythons can frequently be seen curled around nests of edible eggs, when your hominid is outside of their detection bubble, and can be found in all biomes. While plentiful in many of the biomes where you would expect a large snake, the python sometimes can be found on the beach in the  Ocean biome.

Passive behavior has been observed on one snake which had eaten a Golden Machairodus. The snake was facing three hominids and attacked only once they started moving toward it. More tests are necessary to verify whether the snakes react to prey's movements or are simply apathetic once they are well fed.

It has been observed that if a hominid attempts to flee from the African Rock Python without a successful intimidation or counterattack it will follow.

* Python ready to strike.
* In-game model of African Rock Python

## Combat

The African Rock Python is a large animal that lumbers along the ground and is surprisingly quick for its large size. When first encountered, the rock python will hiss loudly, alerting you to their presence. The rock python is territorial around its nest and will defend it at all costs. Care should be taken if you decide to engage in combat with one of these animals. The African Rock Python uses their large size and fast attack speed to strike with a non-venomous bite to inflict   Bleeding. If you are close enough to the rock python, it can quickly grab you, wrap you in its body in a tightening coil of muscle, and begin crushing you inflicting   Injury. Despite its large size, it is relatively easy to  intimidate holding weapons even without a group of hominids.

If you are attacked by an African Rock Python, and do nothing when prompted, you will eventually be suffocated and killed.

If you do decide to attack, use the best weapons you can acquire. It is recommended to use Sharpened Sticks first, Sticks next, and as a last resort rocks or hard tools. The more damage you can do from a distance, the better. While it is possible to kill the rock python with a single strike, it can take multiple strikes to take down this large animal.

## Carcass

The  African Rock Python Carcass provides  Oviparous Meat when it is butchered. The carcass can be butchered two times. To butcher a carcass more than once, all the items dropped from the previous butchering must be picked up.

After you kill the python, you should look around for its nest, as several Snake Eggs can be found there.

## Interactions With Other Animals

When different animals get in close proximity to each other, they can attack and kill each other. Animals can fight each other on their own or you can cause them to move nearer to each other to initiate combat. Some of these methods are intimidation to scare them towards another animal, have them chase you and you run past another animal, or perform a dodge and the animal runs towards another animal.

When animals fight each other, a cut-scene will play showing one animal attacking and killing the other. There are a large number of Evolution Feats that deal specifically with trying to cause animals to fight and kill each other.

The African Rock Python is a formidable foe that can hold its own against most animals it interacts with.

### Can Kill

The African Rock Python can kill a large number of animals. The Astute Dominator of the Rock Python is the evolution feat that deals with the kills the rock python can perform.

* Made the African Rock Python kill the  Dorcas Gazelle
* Made the African Rock Python kill the  Hyena
* Made the African Rock Python kill the  Black-Backed Jackal
* Made the African Rock Python Kill a  Machairodus
* Made the African Rock Python Kill the  Miocene African Otter
* Made the African Rock Python kill the  Giant Warthog

### Can Be Killed By

The African Rock Python can be killed by a number of animals.

* Made the  Black-Backed Jackal kill the African Rock Python - Astute Dominator of the Jackal
* Made the  Hippopotamus kill the African Rock Python - Astute Dominator of the Hippopotamus
* Made the  Hyena kill the African Rock Python - Astute Dominator of the Hyena
* Made a  Machairodus kill the African Rock Python - Astute Dominator of the Machairodus
* Made the  Miocene Elephant kill the African Rock Python - Astute Dominator of the Elephant

## Trivia

* An African Rock Python can be seen in the intro cutscene, hunting some sort of white, langar like monkey which escapes due to a fish being dropped between the two, causing the monkey to notice it and flee.
* Like all pythons, this snake is non-venomous. It kills by constriction, ambushing and coiling around its prey.
* In the real world, the African Rock Python is a species of snake reaching up to 19ft (appx. 5.8m) long and weighing 97 to 121 lbs (44 to 55 kg). There are two subspecies of this snake, the larger northern variety found south of the Sahara Desert, and a smaller southern subspecies in the southern half of the continent. Humans, being much larger than the species showcased in the game, are rarely attacked but there have been reports of deaths caused by the snake, primarily children.
* In-game, the African rock pythons are much larger than their real-life counterparts, to the point where they are nearly the size of the extinct Paleocene snake Titanoboa. Because of this, they are often misidentified as such by some people. However, the real pythons are still significantly large, growing to between 9 and 11 feet with some being over 15 feet long, and are one of the world's largest snake species.
* African rock pythons feed on everything from birds and bats to medium-sized mammals. The larger pythons capture warthogs, bushbucks and even crocodiles, swallowing them whole. Poultry, dogs and goats are also at risk of attack. A huge meal takes months to digest
* African rock pythons lay 20–100 hard-shelled, elongated eggs in an old animal burrow, termite mound or cave. The female coils around her clutch, protecting them from predators and possibly helping to incubate them, and guards the babies for up to two weeks after hatching.
* Scientists recognize two subspecies of the African rock python: Python sebae sebae (African rock python) and the slightly smaller Python sebae natalensis (Southern African rock python). The smaller Python sebae natalensis, is found in southern Tanzania and further southward, and is believed to be a completely separate species: Python natalensis.