Meet the Oenpelli python
The Oenpelli python is a giant that hardly anyone sees. It lives only in the rugged sandstone country of western Arnhem Land and the escarpment edge of Kakadu, sheltering in rock crevices, caves and gorges and climbing into trees in pockets of monsoon rainforest.
It is a long but strikingly slender snake, dark olive-brown with darker blotches and an iridescent sheen. Remarkably, its colour shifts with the day: it is darker by day and turns a paler, silvery grey at night.
Although Bininj people have always known it, the species was not formally described by scientists until 1977, when Graeme Gow named it after Oenpelli (now Gunbalanya), the community near where it was found. It has since moved between several genera and is now placed in Simalia.
Fewer than 10,000 mature individuals are thought to exist. Hot, widespread late-dry-season fires, declines in the small and medium mammals it eats, and illegal collecting are the main concerns.
Where it lives
Found only on the sandstone massif of western Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory, in the upper catchments of the Cadell, South Alligator and East Alligator rivers, including parts of Kakadu National Park.