Welcome to Volume 2 of the Hurtsville Critter Spotlight! Continuing our educational unnature series, it's time to meet one of the premier reptiles in the greater Hurtsville area, the Articulated Python (Pythonidae Articulata).
As the name implies, the Articulated Python is very definitely a snake. A constrictor, the Articulated Python has a typical range of 10 to 16 feet in length and a weight range of 175-250 pounds, large for a snake but far from record-setting. The scale pattern generally features stripes along the back in shades of brown and green, with a lighter brown underbelly.
Unsurprisingly, Hurtsville's Articulated Python sports some characteristics uncommon to the family. The name comes from this serpent's unusual skeletal structure; unlike other snakes, the Articulated Python's spinal vertebrae are composed of a nigh-impossible series of ball-and-socket joints connected by locking hinges, allowing this highly-effective predator to bend itself into many shapes for camouflage and self-amusement purposes. Reports of these snakes posing as staircases, railings, and semi-truck chassis are common enough, and younger individuals have been known to impersonate umbrellas, ratchets, tennis racquets, street signs, and in one famous instance, an entire functioning wheelchair. Much like that Super-Poseable Spider-Man that you made finger its own butt while standing on one foot and curling his toes in the throes of ecstasy, the Hurtsvillian Articulated Python's depravity is only limited by its imagination.
Spending most of its time in the Hurtsville foothills, the Articulated Python generaly subsists on a diet of badgers, deer, tortoises, LARPers, spare tires, and people who like to debate the acuracy of the term 'hobby shop'.
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