This strikingly beautiful snake is a young female PIEBALD ROYAL PYTHON, which hatched at a breeder's home in Southend-on-Sea, Essex on October 31st 2023.
Piebaldism is a genetic trait which causes some areas of an animal's skin to be completely without pigmentation and therefore pure white. Piebaldism occurs in a wide variety of animal species including birds, deer, horses, sharks, dolphins and even humans! It causes a particularly striking appearance, as seen in these pictures.
In the Summer of 2025 I ran a competition to name this beautiful snake and the winning suggestion was Sarabi, in keeping with my theme of naming all of my royal pythons after characters from The Lion King! The name means 'mirage' in Swahili, which I think suits this beautiful snake rather perfectly.
Whilst piebald royal pythons do occur very occasionally in nature, they are much more common in captive collections as they are selectively bred due to their striking appearances. I absolutely love the markings on Sarabi, who was a little over 18 months old when these pictures were taken in May 2025, and in particular her tiny white tail tip! Absolutely stunning.
The picture below was taken by Sarabi's breeder, SD Pythons, a few days after she and her seven siblings had hatched. Sarabi is the one on the bottom left of the picture and as you can see, a total of five of the eight babies in this clutch were piebald.
Photograph courtesy of SD Pythons