Abstract
Food habits of the royal python (Python regius) were studied in some localities of southeastern Nigeria by means both of faeces analysis and forced regurgitation of living individuals. Female pythons were significantly longer than the males. Both sexes preyed exclusively upon birds and mammals, but there were significant intersexual differences in terms of dietary, composition. Males preyed more frequently upon birds (70.2% of the total number of prey items) whereas females preyed more frequently upon mammals (66.7% of the total number of prey items). There was an apparent ontogenetic change in the diet of both sexes: specimens shorter than 70 cm total length preyed almost exclusively upon small sized birds (nestlings and immature), whereas the longer specimens (> 100 cm total length) preyed almost entirely upon small mammals. We suggest that the two sexes are different in terms of their main natural history traits (males being more arboreal than females), and that this behavioural difference can explain the observed intersexual differences in dietary composition.
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