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Carpet Python (Morelia spilota)

The Carpet Python, Morelia spilota, is a widespread, non-venomous Australian python found in native vegetation, rural areas and towns. It uses tree hollows, hollow logs, rock crevices, dense shrubs and sheltered artificial materials, so clearing, hollow tree removal, building demolition and road construction can affect individuals, breeding females and shelter sites. The supplied project listing records it as not listed under the EPBC Act and Critically Endangered in Victoria.

Conservation status

Victoria, Flora and Fauna Guarantee Act 1988: Critically endangered.

Breeding season

Carpet Pythons lay eggs, with mating generally from winter to spring, egg laying from spring to mid-summer, and hatchlings appearing mainly from December to February. Timing differs between tropical northern forms and southern coastal and temperate forms, so clearing is most likely to affect breeding females, eggs and young from September to February.

Reproductive mode: Egg laying. Females coil around and brood the clutch until hatching.

Clutch size: Usually about 10 to 50 eggs. Documented clutches range from 8 to 60 eggs, with a maximum of 52 reported in the supplied material.

Incubation: Usually about 52 to 75 days. Recorded durations include 50 to 65 days in Papuan Carpet Pythons and 65 to 70 days in Darwin Carpet Pythons.

Size at hatching: About 35 to 51 cm total length, with many records around 39 to 48 cm. Hatchlings generally weigh about 20 to 34 g.

Age at maturity: Males may mature at about 2 to 3 years and females at about 3 to 4 years in northern forms. Some south-western females may take 10 years or more.

Nest or egg sites: Tree hollows, hollow logs, rock crevices, ground depressions, dense vegetation, compost heaps, hay bales, garden cuttings, corrugated roofing and other sheltered material piles.

Breeding frequency: Usually one clutch per breeding season is reported. Females need recovery time between clutches, as repeated annual breeding can reduce clutch size and offspring condition.

Confirm timing locally before works, because rainfall, temperature and the wet and dry seasonal cycle can shift mating, laying, hatching and activity between northern tropical, coastal and southern populations.

  • Mating: Mating varies across the range. Darwin Carpet Pythons mate mainly in late June and July, coastal forms mate from about May to October, and broader species records extend from June to January.
  • Gravid females: Females carry developing eggs mainly between mating and laying, broadly from August to January. Northern females commonly lay from September to November, while coastal females may lay in December or January.
  • Egg laying: Egg laying occurs from September to January across the documented forms. Darwin and Papuan Carpet Pythons generally lay in October and November, while coastal forms commonly lay from November to January, with mid-December records.
  • Incubation: Eggs are present in nests from the laying period until hatching, broadly September to March. Incubation commonly lasts about 52 to 75 days, with northern records extending from 50 to 70 days and coastal records around 60 to 80 days.
  • Hatchlings: Hatchlings are most abundant from December to February. Darwin hatchlings appear mainly in January and February, Papuan hatchlings in December and January, and coastal hatchlings may extend into March after December or January laying.
  • Active period: Adults can be active throughout the year, but activity is highest in the warm wet-season months from November to March in coastal accounts. Tropical forms respond strongly to rain and may remain active year round, while southern forms reduce activity in winter.
  • Winter inactivity: This is not true hibernation or brumation. Coastal Carpet Pythons show reduced activity mainly from June to August and may shelter for extended periods, emerging on warm days; tropical northern forms are less likely to have a prolonged inactive period.
  • Highest clearing risk: Risk is highest from September to February, when females may be gravid or laying, eggs occupy concealed shelters, and hatchlings are emerging or dispersing. Clearing can also injure adults sheltering in logs, hollows, rocks, buildings and material piles outside this period.

Identification

Carpet Pythons are large, non-venomous snakes with highly variable colour and pattern. Identification should use the whole combination of body pattern, head scalation, lower jaw pits, size and location because appearance varies among geographical forms.

Most specimens are olive green, brown, grey, yellow or orange-red, with pale blotches, stripes or cross-bands that may have dark edges. Juveniles are often more brownly coloured but remain patterned.

A row of deep sensory pits occurs along the lower jaw. The top of the head has many small, fragmented scales. The body has 40 to 65 midbody scale rows, 240 to 310 narrow ventrals, a single anal scale and 60 to 95 divided subcaudals.

Maximum size: More than 3 m is recorded by Queensland Museum; the supplied risk assessment gives 2.5 m as a maximum.

Body pattern: Highly variable blotches, stripes or cross-bands in contrasting colours.

Identification: Separating similar snakes

The most relevant similar species in the supplied material is the Spotted Python, Antaresia maculosa. Spotted Pythons are fawn to brown with numerous dark purplish-brown blotches and are much smaller as adults.

Adult Spotted Pythons have three scales across the top of the head in a straight line between the eyes. Carpet Pythons instead have many small, fragmented head scales and deep pits along the lower jaw.

  • Treat an uncertain record as unconfirmed until supported by a clear photograph or examination by an appropriately qualified person.
  • Do not handle a suspected python during clearing or construction work. Maintain a safe distance and use an authorised fauna spotter catcher where relocation or capture is required.

Identification: Field signs and sex differences

Sloughed skins may be encountered around shelter sites, but the supplied documents do not provide a species-specific method for identifying tracks, scats or calls. Carpet Pythons are generally detected by direct observation, by searching likely shelters and around buildings, or when animals cross roads.

Sex and body size vary strongly among populations. In the Garden Island population, adult males averaged 1.04 m snout to vent length and 305 g, while adult females averaged 2.14 m and 3.94 kg. Females in that population exceeded 2.0 m and males generally did not exceed 1.6 m, but these figures must not be applied to all Australian populations.

Breeding females coil tightly around eggs. An egg mass, a coiled female in a quiet warm site, or a large python repeatedly using a hollow, rock crevice, hay bale, building material stack or dense vegetation should be treated as a high priority fauna find.

Garden Island adult males: Mean 1,035.6 mm snout to vent length and 305.6 g.

Garden Island adult females: Mean 2,139.5 mm snout to vent length and 3,935.1 g.

Distribution: National range

Carpet Pythons are the most widespread Australian python. They occur across mainland Australia, with additional populations on offshore islands and possible records from New Guinea.

The species occurs in areas of all mainland Australian states and territories. It is also recorded from offshore islands in Western Australia, South Australia and the Torres Strait. Populations may occur in New Guinea, although the supplied documents present this as possible rather than confirmed.

Recorded habitat examples span northern monsoonal areas, eastern and south-eastern Australia, the Murray and Darling drainage, south-western Western Australia and southern coastal areas.

States and territories: Mainland records are reported from Western Australia, South Australia, the Northern Territory, Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory. The source describes all mainland states and territories rather than giving a mapped state-by-state boundary.

Offshore range: Offshore islands in Western Australia, South Australia and the Torres Strait.

Distribution: Strongholds and subpopulations

Named study or management areas include Dryandra Woodland, Garden Island near Rockingham, Waychinicup National Park and the Murray River near Blanchetown. The species also occurs in suburban south-eastern Queensland, where nuisance animals have been studied.

The taxon includes geographically variable forms. The supplied documents list forms associated with eastern New South Wales and north-eastern Victoria, eastern Queensland and north-eastern New South Wales, the Wet Tropics, the Murray and Darling drainage, south-western Western Australia, and northern Australia.

Distribution: Population size and trend

A national population estimate is not provided. Localised declines are reported, and Carpet Pythons have disappeared from large areas of the Western Australian Wheatbelt and Swan Coastal Plain following habitat clearing.

The species remains widespread and can occupy highly modified areas, including farms, parklands, gardens, sheds, roofs and other buildings. This tolerance does not remove the need to retain native bush, prey and shelter features at project sites.

National population size: Not reported in the supplied documents.

Documented trend: Localised declines are reported. Major losses are noted in cleared parts of the Western Australian Wheatbelt and Swan Coastal Plain.

Habitat: Habitat types

Carpet Pythons use a broad range of warm and temperate terrestrial habitats. Sites with shelter, basking opportunities, dense cover and suitable vertebrate prey are more important than a single vegetation type.

Recorded habitats include dense moist lowland forest, rainforest, open forest, shrubland, grassland, coastal heath, rocky areas, semi-arid shrubland, rural land, parkland and suburban gardens.

Animals can occur on the ground, in trees and inside buildings. They are particularly associated with sites that retain tree hollows, hollow logs, rock crevices, dense shrubs and abundant small vertebrate prey.

Habitat: Vegetation and climate

The species spans a wide range of altitudes and temperatures. The supplied documents do not give a national elevation limit.

Examples of occupied vegetation include coastal heathland, open woodlands, tall forests, low woodland with dense understorey, rainforest, open forest and shrubland. In south-western Australia, habitat includes coastal heathland, rock outcrops, tall forest and semi-arid shrubland.

Elevation: Various altitudes are reported, but no national minimum or maximum elevation is given.

Climate range: The species occupies tropical, temperate and semi-arid parts of Australia.

Habitat: Project habitat assessment

Before clearing, inspect retained and felled trees, fallen logs, rock piles, crevices, dense shrubs, hay or material stacks, sheds, roof spaces and building cavities. Pay particular attention to warm sites that connect shelter with nearby cover and prey.

Retain hollow logs, hollow limbs, rock crevices, dense native shrubs and connected native bush where practicable. These features provide shelter, basking access and hunting opportunities.

Foraging habitat: Prey

Carpet Pythons are ambush predators that locate prey using chemical cues and heat-sensitive pits. They forage on the ground, in trees and around buildings, with diet changing as the snake grows.

Small Carpet Pythons eat lizards, geckoes, frogs, mice, insects and small birds. Larger snakes take rats, possums, sugar gliders, bandicoots, rabbits, birds and bird eggs, and may take small wallabies.

Urban and rural prey can include Black Rats, Swamp Rats, House Mice, pigeons, Brushtail Possums, fruit bats, chickens, ducks, turkeys and guinea pigs. Cane Toads are sometimes eaten, with potentially fatal consequences for the snake.

Feeding method: Ambush predation followed by constriction. The snake swallows prey whole.

Ontogenetic change: Young snakes tend to take lizards, geckoes and mice, while larger snakes take larger birds and mammals.

Foraging habitat: Foraging sites and behaviour

Heat-sensitive pits on the head help detect warm-blooded prey, including in darkness. The species may hunt under dense shrubs, around hollow trees and logs, among rock features, in agricultural areas and in buildings such as chicken pens, barns and attics.

Carpet Pythons can position the stomach in a warm place during digestion. They also bask and coil tightly to retain heat, which can extend the time available for digestion and ambush hunting.

Foraging range: A species-wide foraging distance or home range is not given in the supplied documents.

Movement around prey: Late spring to mid-summer is reported as the period of greatest movement in one survey guideline extract, and males travel between bushland patches while seeking females.

Breeding habitat: Breeding biology

Carpet Pythons lay eggs in concealed, warm and sheltered sites. Females provide incubation by coiling around the clutch, basking nearby and returning warm, and sometimes shivering to generate heat.

Mating season: June to January across the species range, with spring to early summer activity documented in south-western Australia.

Egg laying: Usually early summer in the Queensland Museum account. Egg deposition was recorded in early January for south-western captive animals.

Clutch size: About 10 to 47 eggs, with other sources reporting about 15 to 25 eggs and a maximum of 52.

Incubation: Approximately 52 to 75 days.

Hatchling size: About 39 to 40 cm, or about half a metre in the south-western account, and about 22 to 26 g.

Age at maturity: An assessment reports about 2 years for males and 3 years for females. South-western females may take 10 years or more to mature.

Lifespan: Not reported in the supplied documents.

Parental care: Females coil around and guard the eggs until hatching. Care ends when the young hatch and disperse.

Breeding habitat: Breeding habitat features

Eggs are concealed beneath building materials, between hay bales, in hollow stumps, in ground depressions, inside logs and in rock crevices warmed by afternoon sun. Dense matted vegetation has also been associated with nests.

A breeding female needs a quiet shelter with suitable thermal conditions and enough nearby basking opportunity to maintain the clutch at about 28 to 30 degrees Celsius. Avoid disturbing suspected nest sites during the breeding and incubation period.

Incubation temperature: About 28 to 30 degrees Celsius in the south-western account; females may also shiver to increase clutch temperature.

  • Inspect material stacks, hay bales, hollow stumps, logs, rock crevices, ground depressions and dense vegetation before disturbance.
  • Establish a no-go area around a breeding female or egg mass until a fauna spotter catcher or relevant wildlife authority has assessed the site.
  • Do not separate a female from eggs or move an egg mass without approved methods and the required state permissions.

Sheltering habitat: Natural refuges

Shelter sites are often discrete and can be reused or connected to feeding and basking areas. Retaining hollow-bearing trees, fallen timber, rocks and dense cover is important during site preparation.

Carpet Pythons use tree hollows, hollow limbs, hollow logs, rock crevices, rock outcrops, dense shrubs and sheltered ground sites. In cooler areas, hollow limbs may provide warmer refuge than shaded logs on the ground.

Young snakes need thick shrubs for ambush cover and small prey. Adults may use larger hollows, logs, rocks, buildings and roof spaces.

Sheltering habitat: Modified refuges

The species commonly enters buildings and may be found in chicken pens, barns, attics, roof spaces and sheds. Sheltered construction materials, hay bales and other stored materials can also provide egg-laying or refuge sites.

Before removing a building, roof, shed, stockpile, hay bale stack or material pile, inspect enclosed cavities and shaded edges. Use an authorised fauna spotter catcher if a snake or eggs are found.

Sheltering habitat: Known dimensions and survey limitations

The supplied documents do not give standard refuge dimensions, den sizes, home ranges or distances between shelters. Do not use a fixed clearance distance as a substitute for a site assessment.

Searches should cover both ground and elevated shelter because the species can be terrestrial, arboreal or associated with buildings. Inspect likely shelters carefully so that logs, rocks and other features are not broken or left unstable.

Threats: Clearing and fragmentation

The main project risks are loss of shelter and prey habitat, direct mortality during clearing, road mortality and disturbance of breeding females or eggs. Local threats also include predators, fire and disease exposure.

Clearing removes hollow trees, hollow limbs, logs, rock crevices, shrubs and prey habitat. Clearing has been associated with disappearance from large areas of the Western Australian Wheatbelt and Swan Coastal Plain.

Fragmentation can force males and other moving snakes to cross roads or cleared ground while seeking mates or new shelter. Retain connected native bush and shelter features wherever possible.

  • Survey hollow-bearing trees, fallen timber, rock features, dense shrubs, material stacks and buildings before clearing.
  • Stage clearing from occupied habitat towards retained habitat so that animals have an opportunity to move away, while preventing movement into active work areas.
  • Do not burn or chip occupied logs, hollow trees, dense shrubs or material piles until they have been checked.

Threats: Roads and construction

Males can travel between patches of bushland while seeking females in late spring. Roads are a documented source of mortality during this period.

Construction compounds, traffic, open trenches, pipes, culverts, fencing and stored materials can trap or injure snakes. Keep work areas tidy, inspect hazards daily and provide safe escape routes from open excavations where required by the site environmental plan.

  • Apply reduced speed and active observation on roads near bushland, especially from late spring to early summer.
  • Check machinery, vehicles, pipe sections, sheds and material piles before use or movement.
  • Record and report road-killed or injured Carpet Pythons to the project environmental officer and relevant state authority.

Threats: Fire, predators and disease

Fire can remove shelter, dense understorey and prey, and the supplied documents describe a catastrophic bush fire reducing the small Gilbert's Potoroo population in an area where Carpet Pythons were managed. The direct effect of that fire on Carpet Pythons was not quantified.

Juveniles may be preyed on by raptors, foxes, large monitors, cats and dingoes. Disease and parasites reported for pythons include ticks, tapeworms and inclusion body disease in captive Carpet Pythons. Wild population effects are poorly known.

Hydrology change is not identified as a major direct threat in the supplied documents. Avoid making unassessed changes to wet areas, drainage and flood refuges because the species uses a broad range of habitats and sheltered ground sites.

Threats: Predation and human conflict

Carpet Pythons may be killed because they take poultry, aviary birds, eggs or domestic animals. They are non-venomous but can bite and cause painful injury.

Do not kill, relocate or handle a python without the relevant authority, licence or trained fauna spotter catcher. Use exclusion and secure poultry or pet enclosures to reduce conflict.

Survey methodology: 1. Review habitat and records

Carpet pythons use ground cover, tree hollows, rock crevices, buildings and other sheltered sites. They are active both day and night, with movement often greatest from late spring to mid-summer, so surveys should combine daytime shelter searches with targeted night searches.

Before fieldwork, map retained and disturbed areas, hollow-bearing trees, hollow logs, rock outcrops, crevices, dense shrubs, buildings, hay or material stacks, and nearby wetlands or watercourses.

Check local records and confirm the relevant state taxonomy, because geographical forms and subspecies have different appearances and the taxonomy of Morelia spilota has been debated.

Likely active period: Day and night; movement may be greatest from late spring to mid-summer.

Shelter features: Tree hollows, hollow logs, rock crevices, dense shrubs, buildings and sheltered material piles.

  • Give particular attention to open forest, rainforest, coastal heath, shrubland, grassland, rocky areas, rural land, parkland, suburban gardens and structures that can provide shelter.

Survey methodology: 2. Daytime shelter searches

Search suitable shelter features systematically before clearing, especially hollow logs, rock crevices, tree hollows, dense shrubs, building voids and material piles.

Use torches to inspect deep crevices and hollows without damaging or removing the feature. The supplied survey guideline describes this low-impact approach for a similar snake and warns that lifting or breaking sandstone exfoliations can reduce shelter suitability.

  • Inspect both the ground and elevated features because carpet pythons may be on the ground, in trees or in buildings.
  • Search during cooler periods when snakes may be sheltering, and record the feature type, location, dimensions where safe to measure, and evidence such as sloughs or tracks.
  • Do not dismantle habitat, lift unstable rocks, enter unsafe cavities, or place a person in a position where a snake could bite.

Survey methodology: 3. Night spotlighting and active searches

Conduct repeated night searches along the project footprint, access tracks, fence lines, watercourse edges, forest margins, dense shrubs and around buildings or sheds.

Use a consistent route and record the search area, start and finish times, observers, weather, visibility, temperature if measured, and all detections or non-detections.

Search during the warmer part of the activity season where practicable, particularly from late spring to mid-summer.

  • Drive project roads slowly only where authorised and safe, because males may cross roads while moving towards females in the late spring breeding period.
  • Treat road or track searches as supplementary detection only, not as a substitute for searching shelter features.
  • Do not handle a snake solely to improve a photograph or identification record.

Survey methodology: 4. Targeted searches during clearing preparation

Immediately before clearing, inspect each work area for carpet pythons in hollow-bearing trees, logs, rock crevices, dense vegetation, buildings, stored materials and machinery exclusion zones.

Where habitat will remain, search retained vegetation and nearby shelter before machinery enters the work area, because the species can use highly altered sites and structures.

  • Use a qualified fauna spotter catcher to inspect features that cannot be safely checked by the general work crew.
  • Use photographs and a scale reference for uncertain records, and submit suitable records to the relevant state fauna authority or wildlife database.
  • Use the project approval or fauna management plan to set repeat-search requirements where the risk assessment identifies occupied habitat.

Survey methodology: Minimum effort and reporting

  • Set the number of survey nights, search hours, transect length and repeat visits from the project risk assessment, habitat extent, season and approval conditions, because the supplied documents do not provide a carpet python-specific minimum effort standard.
  • Document the full survey area, route or transect, search duration, weather, observers, methods, habitat searched, detections, non-detections and photographs.
  • Record the exact location and condition of every carpet python, slough, carcass, injury, shelter feature and relocation.
  • Submit confirmed records, including negative results where required by the approval, to the relevant state wildlife database or fauna authority.
  • Have a qualified person verify difficult identifications, particularly juveniles and regional forms that may resemble other pythons or snakes.

Before habitat disturbance: Avoid and minimise habitat loss

Plan works around the species' use of shelter, tree hollows, logs, rocks, dense shrubs and buildings. The project environmental officer should set controls before clearing starts and confirm the legal requirements for the state or territory in which the work occurs.

Documented shelter needs: Hollow logs, rock crevices, tree hollows and, in cooler areas, hollow tree limbs.

Documented habitat range: Open forest, rainforest, coastal heath, shrubland, grassland, rocky areas, rural land, parkland and suburban gardens.

  • Redesign the work area to retain hollow logs, hollow-bearing trees, rock crevices, dense shrubs and connected native vegetation wherever practicable.
  • Retain shelter and prey habitat near the disturbance area, including vegetation used by small mammals, birds, frogs and lizards. Carpet pythons use these prey groups and may also take rabbits and other introduced mammals.
  • Maintain movement links between retained vegetation, shelter features and nearby open forest, heath, shrubland, grassland or rocky habitat rather than isolating small retained patches.
  • Avoid clearing occupied shelter features and avoid removing hollow limbs, logs or rocks unless the approved design cannot retain them.

Before habitat disturbance: Approvals and fauna management plan

  • Confirm the current EPBC Act status and whether referral, approval or permit requirements apply to the action; the supplied project information states that the species is not nationally listed, but status must be checked before works begin.
  • Confirm state or territory wildlife permits, threatened-species requirements and fauna handling authorisations, including the Victorian listing identified for this species.
  • Prepare a species-specific fauna management plan covering survey timing, pre-clearance checks, exclusion zones, handling, relocation, injury response, stop-work triggers, reporting and incident escalation.
  • Include the risk of killing or injuring pythons during vegetation removal, rock handling, material movement, trenching, traffic and building demolition.

Before habitat disturbance: Timing and staging

  • Where practicable, schedule high-risk clearing outside the period of greatest movement, late spring to mid-summer, while recognising that carpet pythons may be active at other times.
  • Stage clearing in small sections so the fauna spotter catcher can inspect each section and machinery can stop quickly when an animal or shelter feature is found.
  • Avoid clearing around an incubating female or egg site; females coil around and defend their eggs, and incubation takes about 52 to 75 days.
  • Retain a clear, marked buffer around detected animals, eggs and occupied shelter until the authorised fauna handler and environmental officer approve the next step.

Before habitat disturbance: Prepare the site

  • Complete a pre-clearance survey immediately before disturbance using the approved search methods and record the result for each work area.
  • Mark retained hollow trees, logs, rock features, dense shrubs, buildings and exclusion zones on plans and on the ground.
  • Install exclusion fencing only where it will not trap snakes, block movement to retained habitat or create a machinery hazard; inspect it regularly and include escape routes where the fauna plan requires them.
  • Brief all workers that carpet pythons are non-venomous but can bite, and that only authorised personnel may handle them.

During habitat disturbance: Daily controls and machinery interface

Keep a fauna spotter catcher with the clearing crew and maintain direct communication with the operator. Stop the relevant activity whenever a carpet python, egg clutch, occupied shelter or other unexpected fauna risk is found.

  • Complete a daily pre-start inspection of the work zone, machinery, access tracks, material stacks, trenches, buildings and the previous day's retained habitat.
  • The fauna spotter catcher must work ahead of the clearing face and remain visible or in reliable radio contact with the machinery operator.
  • Use slow, staged clearing near hollow trees, logs, rocks, dense shrubs, buildings and other shelter features so the spotter catcher can inspect each exposed surface before it is moved or crushed.
  • Keep machinery stopped while the spotter catcher approaches, identifies, photographs, captures or clears an animal from the danger area.
  • Do not allow workers to chase, pin, pick up, restrain or relocate a python unless they are authorised and trained under the project fauna management plan.

During habitat disturbance: Habitat feature handling

  • Inspect hollow-bearing trees and limbs for snakes before felling, and retain the feature where practicable.
  • Inspect logs, rocks, rock crevices, dense shrubs, building voids, hay bales and stored materials before moving or demolishing them. These are documented shelter or nesting sites.
  • If a hollow log, rock or limb must be moved, place it in the approved retained habitat in a manner that preserves hollows, crevices and ground contact where safe and practicable.
  • Treat an egg clutch or female coiled around eggs as an occupied site and stop work until the authorised fauna handler and environmental officer determine the response.
  • Keep excavations, trenches, pipes and pits covered or fitted with fauna escape measures when unattended, and inspect them before work resumes.

During habitat disturbance: Animal response and stop-work triggers

  • Stop work immediately in the local area if a carpet python is found in the clearing path, machinery exclusion zone, trench, tree, log, rock feature, building or material stack.
  • Keep people and machinery clear, prevent the animal from being cornered, and contact the authorised fauna spotter catcher or fauna handler.
  • Use only the handling and containment methods authorised by the project plan and relevant permit; do not attempt hand capture without appropriate training and equipment.
  • Relocate an uninjured animal only when authorised, to nearby suitable retained habitat identified in the fauna plan, avoiding unnecessary transport and release across roads or cleared barriers.
  • Take injured animals directly to an experienced reptile veterinarian or authorised wildlife carer, and record the treatment destination and incident details.
  • Escalate any bite, injury, death, egg clutch, repeated detection or unauthorised handling to the environmental officer and the relevant regulator where required.

During habitat disturbance: Records and release controls

  • Record the date, time, exact location, sex if known, estimated size, photographs, habitat feature, condition, action taken, handler, release location and outcome for every detection.
  • Record all stop-work events, injuries, mortalities, escapees, failed relocations and damaged habitat features in the daily fauna register.
  • Do not release a snake into a location that will be cleared, into an isolated patch, or where it is likely to enter a road, active work zone or occupied building.
  • Confirm that the fauna spotter catcher has checked the release area and that the animal has moved away before work recommences.

After habitat disturbance: Post-clearance checks

Post-clearance controls should confirm that no animal remains in the work area, that retained shelter is intact and that relocated animals and habitat features have been recorded. Use the approval and fauna management plan to set any longer-term monitoring.

  • Inspect the completed clearing footprint, retained vegetation, logs, rocks, tree hollows, structures, trenches and drainage works for trapped, injured or displaced carpet pythons.
  • Complete a final sweep after machinery leaves each stage and before the area is handed to construction or operations.
  • Check that exclusion fencing, covers and fauna escape devices remain effective until the work area is permanently safe or the approval allows their removal.
  • Reinspect any area where a python, egg clutch, occupied shelter or mortality was recorded.

After habitat disturbance: Monitoring and reporting

  • Monitor retained habitat and nearby release sites using the same search methods and routes used during the pre-clearance survey so results can be compared.
  • Set monitoring frequency and duration from the project approval, the recorded risk and the condition of retained habitat; the supplied documents do not specify a universal post-clearance effort for carpet pythons.
  • Report detections, mortalities, injuries, relocations, damaged habitat and non-compliance to the project environmental officer and relevant fauna authority as required.
  • Submit verified records to the relevant state wildlife database, including photographs and coordinates where available.

After habitat disturbance: Maintain controls and offsets

  • Keep habitat protection fencing, trench covers, fauna escape devices and no-go markers in place until the risk has ended.
  • Repair damaged hollow logs, rock piles, retained shrubs and exclusion controls promptly.
  • Where residual impacts cannot be avoided or minimised, implement any approved offset, habitat payment or conservation measure required by the relevant approval.
  • Use the recorded habitat loss and fauna outcomes to update the construction environmental management plan for later stages.

Rehabilitation actions: Restore shelter and structure

Rehabilitation should restore shelter, movement cover and a prey base rather than only planting trees. Carpet pythons use hollow logs, rock crevices, tree hollows, dense shrubs and a broad range of native and altered habitats.

Shelter features to restore: Hollow logs, rock crevices, tree hollows and hollow limbs.

Prey groups documented for the species: Small mammals, possums, bandicoots, rabbits, birds, frogs, lizards and other snakes.

  • Retain and reinstate hollow logs and sound fallen limbs on the ground, with stable cavities and crevices that are not likely to collapse or be burned during routine maintenance.
  • Retain existing hollow-bearing trees and allow suitable trees to develop hollows over time; use nest boxes only where an approved design identifies a loss of natural hollows and where boxes can be safely maintained.
  • Reinstate rocks and rock piles with secure crevices, avoiding arrangements that create a worker or public safety hazard.
  • Plant locally appropriate native shrubs and trees to rebuild dense cover, ambush sites and links between retained habitat patches.
  • Restore native vegetation around forest edges, rocky areas, rural land, buildings and watercourses where those features formed part of the pre-work habitat.

Rehabilitation actions: Manage weeds, predators and fire

  • Control weeds where they suppress native shrubs, block movement between retained habitat or reduce the native prey base.
  • Manage feral cats, foxes and other introduced predators in accordance with the approved site program, recognising that juveniles are vulnerable to birds of prey, foxes, monitors, cats and dingoes.
  • Use fire planning that protects hollow logs, hollow-bearing trees, rock shelters and dense shrub cover, and avoid burning newly restored shelter features.
  • Keep rehabilitation areas free of stored materials, rubbish and uncontrolled domestic animals that could trap or injure snakes.

Rehabilitation actions: Monitoring and success measures

  • Inspect rehabilitated areas for surviving plants, stable logs and rocks, functioning hollows, connected cover, weed abundance, predator activity and evidence of snake use.
  • Repeat daytime shelter searches and night spotlighting along fixed routes during the approved monitoring period, with the same effort and recording fields used for baseline surveys.
  • Use carpet python detections, sloughs, tracks, photographs and continued availability of shelter features as indicators of use, while recognising that non-detection does not prove absence.
  • Record and rectify failed plantings, collapsed shelters, damaged nest boxes, weed reinvasion, fire damage, road mortality and new barriers to movement.
  • Report monitoring results and any required corrective actions to the regulator, land manager and relevant state wildlife database.

Sources