RICH CROWLEY REPTILES
Short-tail Info

SARAWAK SHORT-TAIL STORY

They are definitely something different, but until you see them it is hard to say what is so different about them.  They just “are”.  They have more stoutness than a typical borneo without being overweight.  The scales look and feel different.  All these differences combined differentiate them from other short-tails.  The single key difference is less obvious and this is their geographic origin.  Reliable sources are needed for this. Documentation of each animal’s origin is much like having a show dog registered with American Kennel Club.  Since there are no reptile pedigree registrations, the tracing is done by acquiring the animal from reputable sources from the original founding stock or other reliable sources, which acquired captive offspring.  The original animals were acquired by Dave and Tracy Barker and given to Chris Carmichael on breeding loan.  Chris was able to successfully produce them first in 1999 and subsequent years until a catastrophe at his facility took the lives of most of the founding stock.  In 2007 I acquired the last surviving imported Sarawak (female) and the entire collection from Bob Garby.  At the time of this writing I have four of the bloodlines of the original-founding animals.

Below are some explanations from Dave Barker and Chris Carmichael on the origin and genetics associated with the Sarawak short-tailed pythons in the US collections.

The story of the Sarawak excerpt from Dave Barker 11/23/2003 VPI.com “Breeder’s Bragging Post”

 

“          …he [Tommy Cheng] sent us a group of six very nice Borneos from Sarawak that he bought in a Chinese restaurant right in Kuching.  Those snakes were not melanistic like the original that got us so excited.  At least I don’t think that any of them have ever gotten that dark as they have aged.  A year or two after we received them, we put them with Chris Carmichael, and he has done very well in establishing the Sarawaks in captivity.  So far as I know, every Sarawak in the country is descended from those six animals that Tommy Cheng sent to us.    Tommy Cheng came to visit us and he was one of the most colorful and interesting human beings that we have ever met.  He loved what we were doing and promised to send us many more pythons.  Unfortunately, not too long after he returned to his home in Singapore, Mr. Cheng died at the age of 45.”

 

Per Chris Carmichael:

 

“The Sarawak short-tailed pythons are restricted to the northward-draining rivers of Sarawak, separated from the western Kalimantan borneos (location of most of the Borneos in the trade) by a very high mountain range barrier that represents the international boundary between Indonesia and Sarawak.  These are the only Sarawak short-tailed pythons in captivity and in the world that we know of… …DNA gel electrophoresis analysis showed differences between Sarawak’s and all other short-tailed pythons.”

 

 

My personal observations:

Sarawak short-tailed pythons within my collection have a slightly differentiated scalation from typical Python breitensteini or Borneo pythons.  As observed in the following photos, typical Borneos appear to have diamond-shaped scales on their back which slightly overlap each other in non-obese animals.  The Sarawak scales appear to have more of a rounded inner shape to their scales although overall the same relative proportions. Also, the scales of typical Borneos have a smooth feel to them; however, the Sarawaks are more dimpled.



REFERENCE MATERIAL

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