Javan File Snake

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. The skin is baggy and loose 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. 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. 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.

The elephant trunk snake is found in Southeast Asia west of the Wallace Line: southern Thailand, the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore, Borneo (Kalimantan, Sarawak), a number of Indonesian islands (Java, Sumatra, and (possibly) Bali); possibly also in Cambodia and Vietnam, although the last is discredited by the IUCN.

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.