This gorgeous snake is a lovely adult male ROYAL PYTHON named Rafiki .  I  chose this name as royal pythons come from Africa where the Swahili language is spoken and Rafiki is the Swahili word for 'friend', which seems entirely suitable for such a calm, friendly snake!  Rafiki has absolutely beautiful scaly skin which, unlike many people's expectations, is not at all wet or slimy but instead is dry, smooth and very soft!

In the picture directly above you can clearly see a series of pink holes or 'pits' between the eye and the front of Rafiki's head.  These are very special heat-sensing pits which the majority of pythons have, and which are used to literally detect the heat (or infrared thermal radiation) of their surroundings.  If a rodent or other warm-blooded prey item comes close to them whilst they are hunting, a royal python can detect with incredible accuracy the warmest parts of the body to strike at! 

As well as Rafiki I also own a much younger royal python which was bred by some good friends of mine. His name is Aziza which is a Swahili name meaning gorgeous, which I personally think seems very appropriate!  You can see from these pictures that Aziza's colour pattern are very different to Rafiki's.  In fact royal python patterns are unique, there are never two the same, and they also come in a HUGE variety of colour forms!

The picture above clearly shows why snake keepers in the USA often call these snakes BALL PYTHONS.  A royal python is able to roll itself into a tiny ball, with its head hidden in the coils of its body, which it would usually do in the wild to protect itself from predators.