Meet the Emoji Snake, a Lavender Albino Piebald Ball Python selectively bred by Georgia reptile breeder Justin Kobylka that sports a pattern of golden emoji faces along its scaly white body.
Georgia-based Justin Kobylka is a selective breeder, coaxing his reptilian subjects to express strange and unusual scale patterns. There's a method to his “madness”... Kobylka has also cultivated a clique of buyers who have paid “astronomical” (his word) sums for such creatures. His latest triumph, which he's dubbed the Emoji Ball Python – may yet bring him his biggest payday so far.
Kobylka's latest and by all parameters most notorious project was eight years in the making and the result is, in his opinion at least, unprecedented. He chose the Piebald Ball Python for several reasons, one being that as the smallest of all African pythons they're best suited to the needs of hobbyists.
The snakes' white and orange-gold coloration (known as “Dreamsicle” in the trade) was another factor as the colored blotches contrast well with the white-scaled background... the fact that emojis are golden-yellow “happy faces” didn't hurt either.
As can be seen in the short video above, the s-called Emoji Snake is most definitely real and living – note the flicking forked tongue. As the snake is so far unique and one-of-a-kind, Kobylka won't be taking offers expected to be as high as $4,500.
Can't blame him: why give away eight years of hard work? Collectors will just have to wait and see if this breeding breakthrough can pass on its very special genes to its offspring. (via Oddity Central and Business Insider)
