I reckon they are gentle giants. I wonder if PK found that as well?
A friend was able to see and handle PK's OP's and told me they were exactly that. Big and tame.
Whether i ever owned them or not, i would absolutely love to see at least someone keeping them.
All this talk about Peter's being tame, and no fuss required??????????????????????? Perhaps you guys are talking about different animals to the O.P's that were flighty, finiky feeders that Peter spent many many hours with trying to get them settled and than established????????????????????????????????????????
If they were so easy to maintain and breed, don't you think that Peter (and the other European Keepers) would have had them established within a year or two?????????? There is a reason why O.P's never took off in captivity. Peter's limited sucess with these animals was over 20+ years ago. Do you not think that someone would have bred them by now on a regular basis if they were a no fuss animal?
In regards to keeping them legally...............................For me it would be a case of the seller / Government department naming their price. I would pay anything for a chance to own these snakes.
Prestige......Not likely as I would not want anyone to know I had them. It is about grass roots reptile keeping where you keep, study and try to breed a species that you find amazing.
The very reason why I am facinated by the now dirt cheap M. carinata. I was lucky enough to be given a few from John and I will never ever sell them as to me, they are the next best thing to owing an O.P.
A few years ago I maintained one of the best collections of reptiles in Australia worth well over a hundred thousand dollars. I can tell you now that I have never enjoyed keeping herps more than I do today with a tiny collection of pygmy monitors,the odd python, a few rough knobbies and a few blue tongues.
Forget about the dollars involved with O.P's (or any species for that matter), it is about keeping & trying to breed one of the worlds most unique python species.