Sorong Green Tree Python

The Sorong green tree python is a geographic locality variant of Morelia viridis, collected from lowland forest near the port city of Sorong on New Guinea's Bird's Head Peninsula. Like all green tree pythons, individuals hatch in bright yellow, red, or orange color phases and transform into green as they mature.

Although not a distinct species or subspecies, hobbyists and field herpetologists recognize "Sorong" as a recognizable locality type because populations from this region tend to show a fairly uniform, clean green dorsum with minimal white vertebral markings compared to some other New Guinea localities.

• Adults are bright to deep green with a pale, often broken vertebral stripe of white or pale blue scales
• Head is large, triangular, and distinct from the neck, with heat-sensing labial pits
• Pupils are vertically elliptical
• Body is laterally compressed with a strongly prehensile tail
• Juveniles are lemon-yellow, brick-red, or orange, changing to green over 6-12 months
• Distinguished from other localities mainly by subtle pattern density and collection origin rather than fixed diagnostic traits

Found in lowland and hill tropical rainforest near Sorong, Bird's Head Peninsula, at low to moderate elevations. Highly arboreal, favoring understory saplings and low branches within forest edges, secondary growth, and riverine vegetation.

Nocturnal and largely sedentary, spending daylight hours coiled over a branch in a characteristic saddle posture with the head resting in the center. Ambush predator that strikes at small mammals, birds, and lizards passing beneath its perch, using its prehensile tail tip as a lure in juveniles. Oviparous, with females coiling protectively around a clutch of eggs.