Main Page | See live article | Alphabetical index With a recorded length of over 10 metres, the Reticulated Python (Python reticulatus) is the longest extant snake species. But, because it is slender and elongate, it is not the largest: the Green Anaconda is roughly twice as heavy at the same length. Retics have beautifully iridescent scales and pretty patterns, but they are ill-tempered: they have been responsible for several human fatalities, both in the wild and in captivity. There have been many people who have tried to keep reticulated pythons in captivity, as personal pets. This has led to many snake escapes, causing injury to their owners and people living nearby. Reticulated pythons should only be kept by experienced snake keepers equipped to handle snakes of their size. See also: Pythonidae Caring for ball pythons in captivity This article is from Wikipedia. All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.