Image: Prague Zoo
In late July 2026, Prague Zoo announced a rare triple success in its reptile collection, three snake species that had never bred there before produced young. Prague Zoo announced on 27 July 2026 that three snake species had reproduced there for the first time in its history. Scientists discovered it in 1981, and until 2007 it was known from only ten individuals, the zoo explained.
A clutch of rough-scaled python eggs produced two young, according to the zoo. Image: Petr Hamerník, Prague Zoo The official announcement identifies the Nosy Komba ground boa as endemic to the island of Madagascar, and says the young are more colourful and striking than the adults. The Tartar sand boa comes from the semi-deserts and deserts of the Middle East and Central Asia, and is known as a “sand swimmer”, according to the zoo. The announcement said the female’s four offspring delighted her keepers.
Rough-scaled pythons hatched from a clutch of eggs, Nosy Komba ground boas gave birth to live young, and Tartar sand boas added a litter of their own. The animals come from three very different corners of the world, from the gorges of north-western Australia to the island of Madagascar and the sand dunes of Asia. Here is what happened, why the story matters for conservation and wildlife protection. A female Nosy Komba ground boa gave birth to ten, while a female Tartar sand boa delivered four. The Madagascan species appeared under different names in the press; the Prague Daily News called it the Madagascar boa and the brown boa, whereas the zoo’s own name, used here, is the Nosy Komba ground boa. The zoo’s announcement describes the rough-scaled python as a small, tree-dwelling snake. It is a relict species, a survivor of a habitat that once reached further. It lives in humid forests and has persisted only in the deep gorges of the Kimberley region in north-western Australia. The zoo stresses that its range is among the smallest of any snake in the world. For a species this scarce and this little studied, two healthy hatchlings carry real weight. The third species spends its life underground. Its reduced eyes and cylindrical body are adaptations to moving through loose sand.
A litter of ten therefore represents a full, distinct species rather than a regional variety. When the news was released, the zoo pointed visitors to three locations.
Petr Velenský, the zoo’s Curator of Reptiles, told the announcement that all three rearings were welcome, but the pythons and the sand boas meant a little more to him. Velenský described the successful breeding of these descendants as “a nice continuation of what is otherwise quite a sad story”. The species also has a revealing scientific history. Prague Zoo notes that it was once classed as a subspecies of the Madagascar tree boa, until genetic testing showed the two have been evolving separately for millions of years. The story has a sombre background. Both sets of young are the grandchildren of snakes confiscated from smugglers, the pythons in Vienna and the sand boas in Cologne. It shows how animals seized from illegal wildlife trafficking can support carefully managed breeding in zoos. The rough-scaled python lived in the Darwin Crater exhibit. Opposite it, in the Terrarium building, visitors could see the Nosy Komba ground boa. The Tartar sand boa was in the upper part of the zoo, in a small pavilion within the Gobi exhibit. You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.