Researchers have identified a novel virus that could be the source of a severe, sometimes fatal respiratory disease that has been observed in captive ball pythons since the 1990s. Researchers have ...

Though widely bred in captivity in the U.S. and Europe, tens of thousands are exported from West Africa each year, with little understanding of what that means for their conservation or well-being.

The ball python is the most commonly traded African species under CITES, with more than 3 million of these reptiles exported since 1975, mainly from Togo, Ghana and Benin. Listed under CITES Appendix ...