African Water Snakes

Grayia is a genus of snakes, commonly referred to as African water snakes, in the family Colubridae. The genus, which is native to tropical Africa, is the only genus in the colubrid subfamily Grayiinae.

Grayia species are relatively poorly known snakes, at least to herpetologists. Although they are locally abundant, they are notoriously difficult to catch, and occur in areas where field work is difficult. They inhabit seasonal rainforest swamps, streams, and permanent water bodies, eat fish and frogs, and lay eggs in the leaf litter among humid enclosures formed by buttress roots during the dry season. They are unusual in that they deposit their clutch in small batches of three or four eggs at different times at more than one nest site, rather than laying all the eggs at once, a strategy used by some turtles to avoid nest predation, but otherwise undocumented in snakes.