Reptilia · Squamata
Acrochordus arafuraeMcdowell, 1979
Arafura filesnake
Photograph by Philwarb, CC BY, via iNaturalist
A water-living, nocturnal, meat-eating lizard from the Australo-Pacific region, reaching 250 cm nose to tail.
Reptilia › Squamata › Acrochordidae › Acrochordus
- Grows to
- 2500mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Lives up to
- 10years
What is known
43 sourced facts, each taken from a named scientific dataset. How to read these.
Cited from a dataset unless a row is marked otherwise.
Two of these figures disagree
Body mass (a typical adult) is given as 6,107, and Body mass (greatest) as 1,694.5 — but a typical adult cannot outweigh the heaviest one ever recorded. They come from different sources and both are shown exactly as those sources give them.
Standing in the world
- Still living
- Extant
- Conservation status
- Least Concern
- Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
- 2017
- Population trend
- Stable
The animal itself
- Limbs
- None
- Colour on the back
- Black, Brown
- Pattern on the back
- Banded
- Pupil
- Round
- Venomous
- No
- Fangs
- None
- Longest recorded life
- 10years
Stark et al. 2020
Size
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 1364mm4 ft 6 in
- Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- 2500mm8 ft 2 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 351.5mm14 in
- Largest juvenile · snout to vent
- 36.2mm1.5 in
- Body mass · adult female, meanmeasured
- 1545g3.4 lb
- Body mass at hatchingmeasured
- 30.6g1.1 oz
- Body mass · greatestcomputeddisputed
- 1694.5g3.7 lb
- Body mass · a typical adultdisputed
- 6107g13 lb
2500 mm total length (Feldman et al. 2016), Shine et al. 1995 (neonates 320-383 mm SVL; mean adult female SVL 1364 mm, males 1067 mm, n = 82, mass at birth 24.5-36.6 g, mean male mass 478 g, mean female mass 1545 g)
snakes only in this source
computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed
AnAge rates this record "acceptable"
How it lives
- Dietcomputed
- Carnivorous
- How it hunts
- Sit and wait
- Active
- Nocturnal
- Where it lives
- Aquatic
- Habitat
- Grassland, Marine Neritic, Wetlands
- Biome
- Tropical & Subtropical Grasslands, Savannas & Shrublands
- Region
- Australo-Pacific
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Highest it lives · above sea level
- 30m
- Range size
- 708,911km²
no actual data but can be imputed as carnivorous like all snakes
Sit (Feldman 2015)
Cogger 2018
Cogger 2018, Murphy et al. 2003, O'Shea 2018
0-30 (O'Shea 2018)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Viviparous
- Gestation or incubation
- 167days
- Average clutch
- 13.95eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 11–32eggs
- Mean clutch
- 16.9eggs
- Clutches in a year
- 1per year
- First breeds at
- 36months
Feldman et al. 2015
mean=17 (Cogger 2018, Murphy et al. 2003), 11-25 (O'Shea 2018), 17-32 (O'Shea 1996), Shine et al. 1995 (mean 16.9, I assume all the means of 17 are derived from this number)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Serpentes
- Infraorder
- Alethinophidia
- Subspecies
- No
- Described by
- Mcdowell
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- No
- Described in
- 1979
- Type locality
- Papua New Guinea
Feeding
A prey item should be no wider than the space between the animal's eyes.
Widely used across reptile husbandry references. The stated reason is that the gap approximates the width of the throat, so wider prey is associated with impaction. This is established practice, not a measurement.
146kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 1,694 g, the heaviest recorded for Arafura filesnake — so it is the top of the range, not a figure for a particular animal. Weigh yours and the number will be lower.
An upper estimate, not a feeding target, and not veterinary advice. The equation covers only what an animal burns staying alive, so a growing, gravid or recovering animal needs more — and it was measured on wild animals, which move far more than one in an enclosure. Body condition and a vet who knows the species are what a feeding decision should rest on. Where this comes from.
What nobody knows
These are not gaps in our research. No scientific dataset records them for this species — and saying so is information you cannot get from a reference that simply leaves a field out.
- — Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- — Length snout to vent · adult male mean
- — Length snout to vent · adult mean
- — Female length · mean, nose to tail
- — Length nose to tail · adult male mean
- — Length nose to tail · adult mean
- — Largest female · snout to vent
- — Largest male · snout to vent
- — Largest female · shell length
- — Largest male · shell length
- — Hatchling length · nose to tail
- — Largest juvenile · shell length
- — Egg length
- — Egg width
- — Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradient
- — Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
- — Eats arthropods
- — Eats vertebrates
- — Eats plant matter
- — How the young develop
- — Clutches a year · fewest
- — Clutches a year · most
- — Hatchling length · smallest recorded
- — Hatchling length · largest recorded
- — Age at first breeding · female
- — Mature from · youngest recorded
- — Mature by · oldest recorded
- — Size at maturity · smallest recorded
- — Size at maturity · largest recorded
- — Body temp in the wild · lowest mean recorded
- — Body temp in the wild · highest mean recorded
- — Sex decided by
- — Red List criteria
- — Active season · shortest recorded
- — Active season · longest recorded
- — Density · lowest recorded
- — Density · highest recorded
- — Home range · largest recorded
- — Active in
- — Lowest it lives · above sea level
Others in Acrochordidae
Take this data
Everything on this page is available as data under CC BY 4.0 — use it freely, credit it, no permission needed.
This species as JSON · the whole dataset
Cite this page
The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia (2026). Acrochordus arafurae. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/acrochordus-arafurae
@misc{acrochordus_arafurae_2026,
title = {Acrochordus arafurae},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/acrochordus-arafurae}
}Sources
- Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
- Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.
- Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.
- AnAge, Human Ageing Genomic Resources (de Magalhães et al.), used under CC BY 3.0.