The Javan wart snake is becoming increasingly rare. This is indicated by the fact that they are now seldom offered for sale. One reason for their scarcity is that they have been captured in large numbers because their skin is used for making leather goods. The other reason is that an effective and successful method of breeding is still not availiable yet.
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species: least concern
They are easily aggravated. Although they are not venomous, their recurved teeth break off easily and are left inside one's flesh if a person is being bitten, thus creating unpleasant wounds.
Negative Impacts: injures humans (bites or stings)
Their skin can be processed for manufacturing leather goods.
The Javan wart snake is a carnivore. It feeds primarily on fish and other aquatic animals, but will sometimes feed on frogs. An interesting fact about this snake is that it does not bulge after feeding like other snakes do. Its body remains slack all the time because its skin is so loose and baggy.
The Javan wart snake is found on the coastal regions of India and Ceylon, and also across the Indo-Australian islands as far as the Solomons. It originated in India.
Biogeographic Regions: oriental (Native ); australian (Native )
The Javan wart snake lives in the brackish zone of rivers, streams, and estuaries, and it sometimes swims short distances into the sea. It is also found near washed out banks.
Aquatic Biomes: lakes and ponds; rivers and streams; coastal
Average lifespan
Status: captivity: 4.1 years.
Average lifespan
Status: captivity: 5.8 years.
The Javan wart snake has a muscular body and the male grows up to a length of five feet. The female is usually bigger and more powerfully built, with a length of up to eight feet. The top side of the snake's body is brown in color, and its sides and belly are pale yellow. The skin of the Javan wart snake is loose and baggy, with small rough scales. The scales are formed adjacent to each other and they do not overlap. On each scale, there is a sharp triangular ridge. The ventral scales of this snake are of the same size and shape as the other scales, unlike other types of snakes that often have enlarged ventral scales.
The shape of the snake's snouted head is flat and broad, with nostrils located at the top side of its head, giving this snake a boa-like appearance, although the width of the snake's trunk is identical to its head. The snake also has a short and mobile tail.
Range mass: 3 to 10 kg.
The Javan wart snake bears live young, about 20 to 30 offspring at one time. It has amniotic eggs, which are retained in the oviducts of the snake and are fertilized internally. The young snakes are semi-terrestrial, until their baggy skin is fully developed. This is because the baggy skin restricts them from moving efficiently on land. Besides a difference in size, the young can also be distinguished by the irregular, longitudinal blotches on their skin. These blotches fade over time, and eventually disappear when the adult stage is reached.
The three extant Acrochordus species (the only three species included in the family Acrochordidae) exhibit differences in their ecology, scalation, and anatomy. Acrochordus javanicus are large and heavy-bodied (exceeding 10 kg and 2 m total length) and are found in freshwater (and sometimes brackish) habitats in southern Thailand, Malaysia, Sumatra, Java, and Kalimantan, where they are harvested on a large scale for the reptile skin trade. A similar species, Acrochordus arafurae, was not recognised as a species distinct from A. javanicus until the late 1970s. Acrochordus arafurae have a similar total length as A. javanicus, but are much less heavy-bodied, being nearly half as heavy at the same snout-vent length. Acrochordus arafurae occurs in exclusively freshwater habitats of northern Australia and southern New Guinea.
(Sanders et al. 2010 and references therein)
The elephant trunk snake or the Javan file snake (Acrochordus javanicus), is a species of snake in the family Acrochordidae, a family which represents a group of primitive non-venomous aquatic snakes.
The elephant trunk snake possesses a wide and flat head, and its nostrils are situated on the top of the snout. Those head particularities confer to A. javanicus a certain resemblance with boas. However, its head is only as wide as its body. Females are bigger than males, and the maximum total length (including tail) of an individual is 2.4 m (94 in). The dorsal side of the snake's body is brown, and its ventral side is pale yellow.[2]
The skin is baggy and loose[3] giving the impression that it is too big for the animal. The skin is covered with small rough adjacent scales. The skin is also used in the tannery industry.[1][2]
The top of the head has no large shields, but instead is covered with very small granular scales. There are no ventral scales. The body scales are in about 120 rows around the body. The body is stout, and the tail is short and prehensile.[4]
The elephant trunk snake is fully adapted to live underwater so much that its body cannot support its weight out of water and leaving the water can cause it serious injury.
An aquatic snake, the elephant trunk snake is ovoviviparous, with the incubation lasting 5 to 6 months and the female expelling 6 to 17 young.[1]
The elephant trunk snake is found in South-East Asia west of the Wallace Line:[1] southern Thailand, the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore, Borneo (Kalimantan, Sarawak), a number of Indonesian islands (Java, Sumatra, and (possibly) Bali);[1][5] possibly also in Cambodia[6] and Vietnam,[5][6] although the last is discredited by the IUCN.[1]
The elephant trunk snake has a coastal living habitat like rivers, estuaries and lagoons. But it prefers freshwater and brackish environments.[2]
The elephant trunk snake is an ambush predator that preys on fishes and amphibians. It usually catches its prey by folding its body firmly around the prey. Its loose, baggy skin and its sharp scales find their utility by limiting any risk of escape of the prey, in particular fishes which have bodies covered with a viscous, protective mucus.[2]
The elephant trunk snake is nocturnal. It spends most of its life under water and rarely goes on land. It can stay under water for up to 40 minutes.[2]
The elephant trunk snake or the Javan file snake (Acrochordus javanicus), is a species of snake in the family Acrochordidae, a family which represents a group of primitive non-venomous aquatic snakes.
