How did Green Tree Pythons first become established in Australian collections? The answer to this
question dates back to the days before reptiles were protected, when GTPs were brought in from
Papua New Guinea. Some specimens were released by zoos into private collections, and others
were collected from the wild in Cape York. No one paid much attention to their provenance; they
were just Chondropython viridis and few people, if any, could actually distinguish native Australian
GTPs from those that originated elsewhere....