Elephant-trunk Snake

Name of a large, entirely aquatic, not poisonous file or wart snake, with the scientific name Acrochordus javanicus, that lives in slow-moving water, such as near river banks, either in fresh or brackish water, where it feeds on fish. It has a thick body with a baggy, wrinkly skin with granular scales, and a short, blunt head. When it is out of the water it has a light gray colour and the design on its skin is hardly noticeable, but when it is in the water it becomes dark brown and the design on its skin is clearly visible. Females give birth to a live offspring of twenty-five to thirty baby snakes per litter, that have a length of just under thirty centimeters and that can feed themselves immediately after birth. Although they usually lay silent, they can at times coil their bodies to grab and constrict prey, and even people moving about in the water are known to have been grabbed, some thinking they were attacked by a phi phraai, a kind of Thai water ghost. The Elephant-trunk Snake is found throughout Southeast Asia, from Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand, southward through Malaysia and Singapore, to Indonesia. In Thai, it is equally named ngu nguong chang. 回