Little File Snake

Acrochordus granulatus

Description

Acrochordus granulatus is the smallest of the three members of the family Acrochordidae, and is commonly called the “little file snake”. The colour usually grey or brown, with bold white, pale grey, or pale brown bands, which may cross the whole back, alternate, or form zigzags or other irregular patterning. Pattern boldest in juveniles. Older specimens may be almost uniform in colour. Underside a paler shade of the upper body colour. Females are on average slightly longer and heavier than males. The spesies are non venomous.

Population Size

Stable

Life Span

-

WEIGHT​

-

LENGTH

Females 750 mm, Male 700 mm

Aq

Aquatic

Ca

Carnivore

No

Nocturnal

Classification

KINGDOM

:

Animalia

PHYLUM

:

Chordata

CLASS

:

Reptilia

ORDER

:

Squamata

FAMILY

:

Acrochordidae

GENUS

:

Acrochordus

SPECIES

:

Acrochordus granulatus

Distribution

File Snake lives on coastal, brackish, and occasionally fresh water, clear or muddy. Often found in mangroves and estuaries, and in Peninsular Malaysia inhabits waters 10 km offshore at depths to 20 m. on Bali knowns from both south and north coasts.

Geography

Continents : Asia

Country : Coast of India (including the Nicobar Islands), Sri Lanka, Bangladesh throught south-east Asia and north to China (Hainan Island), Borneo, the Philippines, Indonesia, New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and northern Australia.

Habits and Lifestyle

File snake usually may be seen swimming near the surface, or with lower body coiled around submerged objects such as mangrove roots. Valvular nostrils prevent water entering when submerged. Some individuals have barnacles attached to the skin. Reputedly has the ability to swim backwards by reversing the undulations of the body. In the Philippines forages by swimming slowly along the bottom, investigating holes in the mud.

Lifestyle

Nocturnal, aquatic

Biome

Freshwater

Climate Zone

Tropical

Diet and Nutrition

The file snake are carnivores, they eat on fish and occasionally crabs, in the bottom feeds on dwelling gobies and goby like fish, though crustaceans, other snakes and even carrion are occasionally taken.

Diet : Carnivores

Mating Habits

These snakes is ovoviviparious spesies, females from the Philippines have an unusually long gestation period of 5 to possibly 8 months, and probably breed every second year. Litters of 1 – 12 live young are recorded, measuring about 200 mm total length at birth

Reproduction session : every second year

Incubation periods : 5 to possibly 8 months

Independent age : at birth

Baby name : –

Baby carrying : 1 – 12 young

Population

Population status : Least Concern (LC)

NE

DD

LC

NT

VU

EN

CR

EW

EX

Population threats​

This species is caught incidentally by trawlers (Stuebing and Voris 1989) and a directed harvest also occurs for the pet trade. In India, the main threat is mortality due to fisheries bycatch. Due to the species’ preference for shallow areas, (generally below 15 m) it is caught as bycatch in shallow water fishing operations including shore seines and gill nets, in addition to trawling. A recent study by de Silva et al. (2010) found as many as 15 snakes dead in one fishing net, with approximately 200 boats operating in the area

Population number​

This is a widespread species and is common throughout its range. It is collected for the pet trade in some regions and also caught as bycatch in trawls, but these are not thought to be major threats. This species is listed as least Concern.

PHOTO GALLERY

Reference

  1. Acrochordus granulatus on The IUCN Red List site
  2. Somaweera, R. 2017. A Naturalist’s Guide To The Reptiles and Amphibians of Bali. John Beaufoy Publishing, Oxford, England.
  3. McKay, J.L. 2006. Reptil and Amphibi di Bali. Krieger Publishing Company, Florida, USA.