(upbeat music)
- Ah, of course anacondas are one of the most giant snakes
on the planet, and certainly Ivy is just an absolute beast.
She's actually in shed and she's definitely loving being
in the water right now so just take a look at the size
and the, whoo, and she moves so fast in the water,
we actually have three anacondas in the water right now
and she's all up in my feet.
(grunts)
Come on, big girl, whoo.
I tell you what is an amazing thing,
but the thing that's really amazing about it
is that she is an anaconda, but in actuality,
she's in a boidae family, so she's related to a boa.
Let's go ahead and tell you what that actually means.
And all snakes are broken down into the same type
of classification.
So let's go ahead and start with, that's right.
The actual kingdom is called Animalia
and it's not just snakes and reptiles, but, you know,
all animals are broken into the kingdom of Animalia.
Then the next would be phylum, which is actually chordata.
So all vertebrate animals.
Class would be reptilia, that's pretty self-explanatory.
Now you get into the order, which is squamata.
Now sometimes you might hear people talk about snakes
and say, oh, a bunch of cute little squams.
Well that's where the word squams comes from,
is the order that snakes are in which of course is squamata.
Family, now this is when things start to split
and we're gonna talk a lot about that
throughout this entire video, same thing with genus.
Now that's when you're breaking down to specific animals.
Now you're not talking about broad ranges of stuff.
Now you're getting into specific genuses.
And then there's species,
and that's broken down into the genuses.
So you have a broader category of genuses
and then you have the sub category of species.
So now that we understand kind of how the genetics work
and how the whole classification is,
she's actually the genus eunectes,
and she's a species of murinus.
So of course the murinus would be a water animal, right?
But the fact is, is that she is a boa
or in the boidae family, which is pretty darn awesome.
But Hey, listen, all of these families,
(grunts)
all these class of families, wow!
She is all over the place today.
All these class mammals can start with giant snakes like her
all the way to pretty small animals, but of course,
there are giant boas and there are giant pythons as well.
Guys, don't forget.
There is the new reptile army swag out for the holidays,
got tons of Christmas stuff that you can get for gift.
You can wear to your Christmas events, if you're so sure.
And of course we have some end of the year,
2022 turnaround here, listen, they're all awesome.
You'd go to Reptile Army, join the army.
I would certainly appreciate it.
Get out there and show people how much you love reptiles,
because that's what it's all about, right, reptilearmy.com.
Hey, for instance, my girl, Lucy,
who's been in a pretty nasty mood lately
and I have a feeling that she's not happy that I'm there.
You can see she's ready to strike at me, what are you doing?
Wow, there she is, I knew that that was gonna happen.
She's like stay away with me.
Don't muck with me, I will get you that for sure.
That's okay Lucy, I promise I'm not gonna be bad to you,
but come on girl, whoa, whew.
Now that we understand the classification of snakes,
you remember that all snakes are gonna be
in that row, right?
They're gonna be an Animalia.
They're gonna be a chordata.
They're gonna be a squamata.
They're gonna be serpentes but then you get into the family
and unlike of Ivy whose family is boidae,
so she's related to the boas.
We have of course, the pythonidae
here. Come on, Lucy, what are you doing, girl?
She is in such a ridiculously bad mood.
I don't know why she's like that, but again,
she's a python in the pythonidae family.
And of course she's a giant snake, right?
And of course, reticulating pythons are the longest snake
in the pythonidae family.
But she's actually a python reticulatus
So the genus is python and the species is reticulatus.
And I tell you what, I'm gonna get out of here
before I get bitten, because she is really on fire, whoa.
Come on girl, you're okay, girl, I love you.
She's a good girl, I promise you, you're okay, sweetheart.
Whew, I tell you what, what an amazing snake, but again,
the boidae family and the pythonidae family
is a broad range of animals.
There's actually eight genuses and 43 species
of python alone.
And like you can see, Susie is a handful,
but it's not just her attitude.
It's actually caring for a snake like this
is pretty incredible, as a matter of fact,
Bruce and Mike know how hard it is to take care
of an animal like Lucy.
- I've been doing it for almost a year now.
- Aw, that's cute.
He's like, yo y'all like just give him some love.
He's been here for a year now, man, good job Mike.
He's hasn't died yet.
- Oh shit.
- [Cameraman] She's up.
- Now she's safely in the trashcan.
- I don't fit behind the trash can.
- Bruce's taller, he's a nicer, bigger meal.
- There's generally like a sickening smell.
But we've been doing this for so long
and it doesn't really bother us.
- It's quite soothing.
- It's not soothing at all.
- This is nuts.
- Got something clogged.
I missed a spot right there.
- Dude her face is right there.
- Yeah, it sure is right there.
- It's nice and clean.
- As always, I'm stuck doing the job.
(hisses)
- Whoo, great, do it now.
(employees talking over each other)
Hey, we go, we go, we go play games now, we go play games.
Let's do this.
- Smells good, who's cooking?
- Next to the Anaconda and the boidae family
when it comes to size, of course, is the boas, right?
The common boa constrictors or in this case
would be a boa constrictor imperator,
which is really a common boa, not a red tail boa.
And cupcake is a giant boa.
Typically the common boa's don't get quite as large as her.
I've seen some about her size,
but she is definitely a beasty there is no doubt about it.
And again, she is not a boa constrictor constrictor.
She's actually a boa constrictor imperator,
which is one more level, right?
Because we've talked about genus and species,
but the truth is, is that there's actually genus species
and sub species.
In the boidae family alone, there are 12 genuses
and over 50 species.
So you guys know that I don't really like to get all kind
of scientific and technical on you guys,
but at the same time, it is good to teach people right?
Now I sometimes want to teach you guys things
so that now you can basically have like some knowledge,
right?
You'd be like, I understand how these animals
are actually classified.
Now you get into subspecies, which actually is a little bit
more tricky because you have the genus and species,
but then there are a bunch of animals that have subspecies,
right?
So you have boa constrictor imperator,
which are the common boa constrictors.
And then you have the true red tail boas,
like the serani red tail boa right here,
which is actually the constrictor constrictor, right?
So that's kind of a, you know, it makes it a little bit more
kind of confusing in a sense that wait a second.
They're the same genus are the same species,
but they're not the same animal?
There's actually a sub species to it.
Not all snakes or animals have subspecies,
but when it comes to certain snakes and lizards,
they actually do, in the boa case,
they actually are subspecies.
Again, the imperators are the common boas
and the constrictor constrictors are the true red tails.
Now we'll get into another pythonidae animal,
which is actually a carpet python.
Now you may ask yourself, what's the difference
between pythonidae and boidae, right?
And there's really several differences
and there's some kind of intricate differences as well.
But the two major differences is the fact
that the pythonidae animals actually lay eggs.
Now, again, there's a few exceptions to this rule
when it comes to sand boas, it's I don't understand it,
they're in the boidae family, but they actually lay eggs.
Sand boas like the Russian sand boas.
But the truth is, is that as a general rule,
pythons lay eggs and boas have live young, right?
The other thing that happens is that pythons have heat pits
on the upper and lower jaws, right?
They have those heat pits that are used for actually seeing
in the dark, in that heat kind of thermal way.
Whereas boas typically only have it on the lower jaw.
So those are like the typically biggest differences
between pythonidae and boidae.
Again, there's a bunch of intricacies
and there's some crossovers that don't quite make sense.
Like the Calabar burring Python,
that again is in the boidae family,
but it's called a python, and lays eggs.
I don't know, taxonomy can get strange,
but I want to make general assumptions.
So you guys have a better understanding
of what the difference between pythons and boas
are in pythonidae and boidae family.
And then when it comes to pythons again,
you get into the sub species, just like with the boas,
this happens to be diamond python
which is a Morelia spilota spilota, right?
So again, it is the spilota spilota, but again,
when you get into the carpet pythons,
they are spilotas veriegata or chainon
or whatever the case is, bredlis or something on that line.
But this would be the actual diamond python,
Morelia spilotus spilota.
And just to give you an idea of what I meant,
obviously the first one was a diamond python
which again was the Morelia spilotus spilota.
This happens to be a jungle carpet, again,
very similar animal, but more banded
instead of those diamond kind of circles, right?
And this is a Morelia spilotus cheynei
which is just a subspecies of the diamond python.
Now it gets tricky when people want to breed,
say a diamond Python to a jungle carpet
because you're really not interbreeding species.
You're just interbreeding subspecies,
which technically isn't even hybridization.
And in some cases, people don't mind.
With carpet pythons actually it seems to be completely okay,
weirdly enough, with boas, it doesn't seem to be as okay.
And there are other species of animals the same way
where if you actually integrate different subspecies,
people get really bent out of shape.
So it's kind of an interesting thing
because they are the same species,
but different sub species.
So anyways, jungle carpets are absolutely beautiful too,
with 40 plus species of python and 50 plus species of boas.
Obviously, the majority of people think
that they're giant animals, you know?
And obviously there are some giant animals
in both the boidae and the pythonidae family,
but the Burmese pythons are certainly one of those giants.
There's no doubt about it, that could get like 18 foot.
Now, Sunrise is only about 12 foot long
and she's actually a python molurus bivittatus.
So again, it's a sub species of python molurus.
Now python molurus moluris is actually the Indian Python,
which are appendix one endangered,
so you don't see them around that much.
Whereas the Burmese pythons are appendix two endangered
and being bred pretty captive readily.
But the truth is,
is that a lot of boas and pythons really aren't giants.
And like I mentioned, not all boas and pythons
are giant snakes right?
Now they certainly have giant snakes in them,
but this antaresia children's eye
is actually a pygmy python species from Australia.
Now there's actually a few different species
of the antaresia, but again, this is as big as they get.
I mean, they don't get any larger than this is an adult.
This is like a five-year-old male animal
that doesn't get bigger.
So when you think of a lot of python or boa,
oftentimes we think of the giants,
but the truth is of all those species
in the boidae and pythonidae family,
a lot of them are actually small animals,
just like this one here.
Then we have the viper boas,
which are actually a Candoia aspera
and they are usually pretty feisty and hyper little animals.
These are a little tiny boa from Indonesia, whoa,
Indonesia, ow, whoa!
She's got me in the face and in the finger,
that was absolutely quick.
So these guys are definitely feisty at times,
they are a live bearing snake.
Really cool little boa, but holy moly,
that thing is on fire, it's okay, whoa, it's okay.
Tell you what, this is all a little crazy monkey.
There is no doubt about it.
But again, a little ball like this packs a crazy punch.
So which one is better?
A boa or a python, right?
This happens to be a Dumeril's Boa from Madagascar,
an Acrantophis dumerili.
There's actually only two species
in the entire genus of Acrantophis.
Of course you've got the dumerili
and you have the Madagascar in ansys,
which is a Malagasy ground boa.
But the truth is, is that pythons and boas
are pretty much pretty similar to be honest with you.
And it's really what you want.
You know, boas can be super docile,
but they can be a little bit touchy.
Like we saw with the Viper boa.
Pythons can be super docile and can be a little bit tricky
with an animal like Lucy, you know what I mean?
So it's really what you want, you know?
Boas and pythons oftentimes they're thought of
as giant animals that like to kill people.
The truth is that doesn't happen, they're not killers.
They don't want to kill people and stuff like that.
And they're really placid amazing animals.
And if you pick the right species, genus species,
and all the other things you've been talking about,
you can have an amazing experience like an animal here,
like the dumeril boa.
Another amazing genus and species of snake would happen
to be one of the rarer pythons on the planet, for sure.
Which is up the Somalia genus.
This is actually a boelens python or a Somalia boelenai.
And these guys are from New Guinea
and absolutely incredible, very expensive,
very unusual snake, you don't see these around too much.
I mean, people are working with them,
but the captive breeding site is very rare.
I mean, it does happen,
but on rare occasion and we just haven't got it right.
As a matter of fact, we had Ari Flagel on a podcast
a few weeks back, if you haven't seen that, go check it out.
Really amazing,
he's probably like the most knowledgeable boelens python guy
in the United States, and he's been to New Guinea.
He knows that, he's caught him on eggs.
He's done all the research.
He's actually even written a book about them.
They're really an incredible animal.
And they're born kind of with this rusty color
and then turn this beautiful jet black,
probably one of the most iridescent snakes you can find.
Absolutely wonderful, get about nine to 10 foot long,
pretty girthy.
So this guy here, which name is Bugatti,
is actually only about half grown
and doing absolutely amazing,
definitely one ripper of a snake.
And pythons aren't the only animal with crazy iridescence,
this is the Brazilian rainbow boas
are iridescence as well.
That's why they're called rainbow boas is because
when you look down
and you kind of see a rainbow sheen to them.
They're of the genus Epocrates,
and actually species Centuria
and they're actually amazing animals.
So you see there's a lot of similarities between boas
and pythons, lots of big pythons, lots of big boas,
lots of small pythons, lots of small boas.
I mean there's a lot of variety
and I hope that you guys enjoyed it
because I want to educate you guys.
Let me know in the comments,
which animals you were the most surprised about.
Let me know what you learned.
Let me know if you want to learn more
and I can do more videos like this if you guys want.
Because I really do enjoy sharing my knowledge of animals
with you guys, if you did enjoy this video,
do me a favor, bring it over here and hit that playlist.
It would really help me out a lot.
You know what else would help me a lot?
Right on this side can you hit that subscription button?
Have an absolutely wonderful day reptile army,
remember, be kind to someone and I promise,
I'll see you in the next one.