Reptilia · Squamata
Acrochordus granulatusSchneider, 1799
Wart Snake
Photograph by coenobita, CC BY, via iNaturalist
A water-living, active by day or night, meat-eating lizard from the Oriental region, reaching 122 cm nose to tail.
Also called Little filesnake, Marine File Snake.
Reptilia › Squamata › Acrochordidae › Acrochordus
- Grows to
- 1220mm
- greatest recorded
- Eats
- Carnivorous
- Active
- Cathemeral
- Lives up to
- 5years
What is known
40 sourced facts, each taken from a named scientific dataset. How to read these.
Cited from a dataset unless a row is marked otherwise.
Standing in the world
- Still living
- Extant
- Conservation status
- Least Concern
- Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
- 2020
- Population trend
- Decreasing
The animal itself
- Limbs
- None
- Colour on the back
- Black, Brown
- Pattern on the back
- Blotched
- Pupil
- Round
- Venomous
- No
- Fangs
- None
- Longest recorded life
- 5years
Stark et al. 2020
Size
- Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
- 1220mm4 ft
- Female length · mean, nose to tail
- 719mm2 ft 4 in
- Hatchling length · snout to vent
- 301mm12 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 300.7g10.6 oz
- Body mass · adult female, meanmeasured
- 143.3g5.1 oz
- Body mass at hatchingmeasured
- 7.9g0.28 oz
snakes only in this source
1220 mm total length (Feldman et al. 2016), Shine et al. 1995 (mean SVL 569 mm in males, 581 mm in females; mean mass 101 g in males and 126.1 in females; at birth 280-322 mm SVL), max TL about 1 m (Ng 2011), Cox et al. 2012 (max 1.2 m, neonates 220-344 mm), Ukuwela et al. 2022 (TL 707-835 mm, four gravid females ranged between 707 and 731 mm), Lemen and Voris 1981 (7 females 143.3 g; neonates 7.9 g)
computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed
How it lives
- Diet
- Carnivorous
- How it hunts
- Active foraging
- Active
- Cathemeral
- Where it lives
- Aquatic
- Habitat
- Marine Neritic, Wetlands
- Biome
- Tropical & Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests
- Region
- Oriental
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Highest it lives · above sea level
- 90m
- Range size
- 246,325km²
fishes (Wang et al. 2023, Cox et al. 2012, Ukuwela et al. 2022)
Active (Feldman 2015)
Feldman 2015
Cogger 2018, Murphy et al. 2003, Lillywhite 2020, Ng 2011, Cox et al. 2012
Depth up to 18 m (Cogger 2018), depths 4-20 (Murphy et al. 2003), min=20bsl max=90asl (O'Shea 2018)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Viviparous
- Sex decided by
- Genes, ZW/ZZ
- Average clutch
- 7eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 1–12eggs
- Mean clutch
- 4.8–5eggs
- Clutches in a year
- 1per year
Feldman et al. 2015
6-12 (Whitaker and Captain 2004, Cogger 2018, Cox et al. 2012), mean=5 (Murphy et al. 2003), 1-12 (O'Shea 2018), mean 4.8 (Shine et al. 1995)
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Serpentes
- Infraorder
- Alethinophidia
- Subspecies
- No
- Described by
- Schneider
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1799
- Type locality
- China
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.
31kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 301 g, the heaviest recorded for Wart Snake — 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 female mean
- — Length snout to vent · adult male mean
- — Length snout to vent · adult mean
- — 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 · snout to vent
- — Largest juvenile · shell length
- — Egg length
- — Egg width
- — Body mass · a typical adult
- — 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
- — Gestation or incubation
- — Clutches a year · fewest
- — Clutches a year · most
- — First breeds from · youngest recorded
- — First breeds by · oldest recorded
- — 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
- — 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 granulatus. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/acrochordus-granulatus
@misc{acrochordus_granulatus_2026,
title = {Acrochordus granulatus},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/acrochordus-granulatus}
}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.