A boa constrictor. Want a closer look? Check out More Exotic Snake Photos. Enhance your experience: watch Burmese Pythons in Action! To learn more about the zoo, check out The Australia Zoo in Depth. Ready for more? Head back to the Australia Zoo Map.

The zoo is home to several snakes that are not native to Australia. These include corn snakes, which are found in the eastern United States, boa constrictors, which live in Central and South America, and Burmese pythons, which are native to Southeast Asia.

The zoo's corn snakes — Cheeky, Striker, Squirt, George and Emma — are all 6 years old. They are good-natured and inquisitive, but tend to become highly excited and even aggressive at feeding time.

In the wild, corn snakes feed every few days. A typical hunt will take a corn snake high into pine trees in search of birds or their eggs, or deep into subterranean burrows in pursuit of rodents.

Corn snakes, like boas and pythons, are constrictors, killing their prey by suffocation rather than with venom. They do this by first biting the animal to establish a grip, then wrapping several coils around its body and squeezing tightly until the victim can no longer breathe. The snake then swallows the meal whole, usually headfirst.

The zoo has several boa constrictors, which are rotated in and out of display. All of them eventually get to venture out and partake in the zoo's snake demonstrations.

Boa constrictors have heat-sensitive pits along their mouths, which they use to detect prey. Their favorite food is bats, which they catch by hanging from tree branches or the mouths of caves, knocking the flying mammals out of the air as they flutter by.

Mr. and Mrs. Burm, a mating pair of Burmese pythons, are longtime residents of the Australia Zoo. They are incredibly quiet and cope well with handling, allowing the zoo to use them at leisure for educational purposes.

Burmese pythons are some of the largest snakes in the world, growing up to 23 feet in length. They have such mastery over their powerful coils that females can incubate a clutch of eggs using muscular contractions, which generates enough body heat to keep the eggs several degrees warmer than the surrounding air.