Javan File Snake

The Javan file snake, Acrochordus javanicus, also called the elephant trunk snake, is a fully aquatic, non-venomous snake of the family Acrochordidae, a primitive lineage of aquatic snakes found across Southeast Asia west of the Wallace Line, including southern Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore, Borneo, Java and Sumatra. It reaches up to about 2.4 meters, with females larger than males, a wide flat head whose width matches its body, nostrils set atop the snout, granular head scales with no large shields, and no ventral scales, and it is covered in baggy, loose skin bearing small rough scales in roughly 120 rows that helps trap slippery prey against its body. Nocturnal and able to remain submerged for up to 40 minutes, it inhabits rivers, estuaries and lagoons, preferring fresh and brackish water, ambushes fish and amphibians, and gives birth to six to seventeen live young after five to six months.