52. Elephant Trunk Snake and Elephant Shrew (sengis)

ELEPHANTS!!

Okay, not really. But both animals are named after elephants! The first is commonly known as the elephant trunk snake (as well as: the wart snake, the Java wart snake, file snake and even doge faced snake). The second is commonly known as the elephant shrew; even though its not an elephant or a shrew. Its a sengis!

Just me, zookeeper Deidre, as I teach you about the weird aquatic world of the fat, and wrinkly Elephant Trunk Snake and the unusual monogamy of the elephant shrew (I mean sengis). Also, feel free to laugh at all of the scientific words I horribly mispronounce (I know I suck at it, but at least you're laughing with me!...you are laugh with me right?).

Scientific Names
Elephant Trunk Snake: Acrochordus javanicus
File Snake: Acrochordus arafurae
Golden Rumped elephant shrew: Rhynchocyon chrysopygus
Black and Rufous elephant shrew: Rhynchocyon petersi

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Transcript

They say an elephant never forgets! And hopefully at this end of this episode you won’t forget the two elephant themed animals of today. Hi, I’m Deidre and this is Weird Animal Facts: Explicit. A podcast for the common Joe with a weird and wild adult sense of humor. Just because this show’s about animals doesn’t mean its for kids, as animals are pretty dirty. In fact, the two animals of today either looks like dick or looks to have a dick on their face. And if you are only tuning into this episode because you saw the world elephant and was like: holy shit I love elephants! Well I hate to disappoint you but we aren’t talking about elephants today…at least not those giant grey things you find in Asia and Africa. Instead we are talking about a snake and a sengis. But they are both named after elephants, due to the way they look: the Elephant trunk snake and elephant shrew. That’s right we’re talking about snake and shrew (even though its not a shrew…) so snakes and sengis!

If you happened to be a person who does not know what an elephant is, then the reasons as to where the two animals of today got their name, maybe a bit of a mystery. So let’s just say that an elephant is a giant, round grey mammal with a long ass nose. And that nose, or as we professionals call it; a trunk, is where both the elephant trunk snake and elephant shrew got their name. We’ll be diving a bit deeper in to the names of the animals later, but first I would like to give a shout out to all of you wonder weirdos out there who are return listeners to this podcast, who have been following us on Instagram, tiktok and Facebook and would like to remind all, that if you would like to me to dedicate segment to a specific animal, please reach out via our social media pages and I would be happy to highlight and/or perhaps ruin your requested animals. As for today; let the explicit begin!

**Elephant trunk snake: It a snake that looks like an elephant’s trunk… Don’t all snakes look like elephant trunks? Let me ask you; are all snakes, fat, wide, with loose and baggy skin? Um…yeah? I mean I don’t know I’ve never actually really seen a snake up close. 

Let me give you a quick run down on snakes: It is now time for the lighting speed fact round for snakes! Snakes are reptiles with no legs, arms or eye lids. There are over 3,000 species of snakes in the world and are found everywhere but Antarctica, Iceland, Ireland, Greenland and New Zealand. Just like how there are didn’t breeds of dogs there are different species of snakes (only humans are to blame, as unlike your bull dog’s fucked up face, snakes are good are moving, avoiding predators and yes even breathing). Snakes do have bones, which includes the backbone. So if you ate one, it’d be like eating and under cooked spaghetti noodle. Side note, please don’t eat snakes. They are too cute to kill.

The only good snake is a dead snake. That’s like saying the only good boat are the ones at the bottom of the ocean.

In the classification of snakes (Kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species), they get broken down into 20 different types of snakes by their family. And great word-pronunciation God of the world please forgive me as I am about to sin as I attempt to properly pronounce a few snakes’ family names. The Boidae family, you may be familiar with as those we refer to as boas, like the famous boa constrictor. The family of Pythonidae belongs to those pythons of the world. Viperidae are the vipers like the rattle snakes of the United States. Elapidae are venomous species such as the cobra and mamba. But the family our snake-star of the day is from is the Acrochordidae. And they are such a weird and special species of snake that they get their own family…or perhaps the other snakes just shunned them since they are very strange. So strange that no one can agree on what to call these three species of snake and at times their names are used for each other. For this episode, so to be fun, I’m calling them the elephant trunk snake, only because later we’re talking about the elephant shrew and I thought that was clever for some reason. But this fat snake goes by many names:

Elephant trunk snake: as it looks like an elephant trunk. But that’s not all it looks like, as the scales on this snake are keeled as when with a man-look glance at the scales they can appear to look like warts, but once a woman takes an actually look you will see that they are keeled scales; scales that have ridge down the center of the scale. Because of this, this snake is also called the wart snake. And depending on where you are it can be called simply a wart snake or if you on the island of Java in Indonesia, you can be more specific and call it the Java wart snake. But to another person those keeled scales looked more like the texture of a file, so therefore another name this snake can go by is the file snake. And since the skin of the snake also is very loose some call it the wrinkle file snake. 

These textured scales, and loose wrinkly skin also come in handy when it comes time for murder…I mean dinner. As a snake it’s a carnivore, and instead of that typical wrap and squeeze the life force from reaching the heart, this snake relies on their edged scales and floppy skin to hold tight to their prey.

By the way, there’s one more name this snake sometimes goes by: the dog faced snake. But that’s from Wikipedia so I don’t know if I’d trust it. PLUS calling something dog face doesn’t sound like an insult to me as my dog has got the cutest face in the world! But then again so does this snake.

Start with a typical snake face, then smoosh the snoot in just a bit so that its more of thick rectangle shape. Turn the round, glazed-over-looking eyes to the top, and bring the two tiny nostrils with it then top it off with a large dopey grin! So I guess dog-faced snake might be accurate as it does kind of resemble that of the stupidly cute face of a pug. I mean if you took a pug and stretched it out ensuring to keep the chunk, slapped some scales on it instead of fur you’ll have an elephant trunk snake! Although I don’t think a pug would do too well if you tossed it into a river. As for this snake, the do great!

One thing about this family of snakes, that gave them their own family group is the fact they even though they are very large, like those of the pythons and can be think like that of those of the boas, this family is aquatic. For those of returning weirdos may recall a particular amphibious episode from season one, where we talked about the scrotum frog… I mean Titicaca frog…nope that name doesn’t make it sound any better. Which every name you with to call this frog by, doesn’t change the fact that it has something in common with the Elephant Trunk snake. 

Clarification: Frogs are not reptiles!! Snakes are reptiles. Frogs are amphibians. And what makes an amphibian an amphibian is the fact that they have an over complicated life cycle. Where reptile babies develop from a snot ball, to their adult for in an egg. Amphibians do the majority of their development outside of the egg, in the open water for anyone to just gobble them up! Metamorphosis: its not for everybody.

The thing that this reptilian snake has in common with this ball sac looking frog (as well as many other frogs) is how they can survive underwater. Unlike fish who have gills for breathing underwater, neither reptiles nor adult amphibians have gills.

Fun Fact: As we learned from the Titicaca Frog episode; when a frog is in their tadpole stage of metamorphosis, they do have gills. They just go away as they get older and then are forced to breath the same boring air as us humans.

That means that even though the elephant trunk snake is aquatic, meaning they spend pretty much their entire life in and/or under the water, they are required by good old God and Mother Nature to breath air. 

Wait just a moment; did you not just say that this snake’s nostrils were located on the top of their snoot? This makes my brain ponder if this is so they can breathe air easier when they come to the surface. (Ding, ding, ding!) That’s exactly right! Even the weirdest of adaptations have a purpose! Just like how my long gangly arms and legs makes me a better dancer then you…or perhaps just gutsier. 

Then pray tell me, what is the purpose of those flaps of skin down this snake’s long body? It can’t possibly be from liposuction. Who in their right mind liposuctions a snake?

Well, let me ask you: what do you think could happen if you held your breath for too long? And what exactly does breathing provide to you body? Life itself! (No wait! As we learned from the vampire bat episode; blood is life itself). No. The answer we’re looking for oxygen. So, as you breath, you take in oxygen and as you breath out you let out CO2. But if you aren’t breathing, you aren’t getting more oxygen and you aren’t releasing the CO2 meaning you could, in theory, get carbon monoxide poisoning. So the folds of skin, just like that of the Titicaca frog, use cutaneous exchange; the process of absorbing oxygen and helping to eliminate CO2. But those extra floppy rolls of skin are only a small part that is responsible for keep them alive and not dying of CO2 poisoning. 

First we have the folds of skin, as mentioned. Second; this species of snake also has a very low metabolic rate, so they don’t really require much movement. In fact there are wild Elephant trunk snakes out there that are covered in algae. Third; their hemoglobin is awesome! And in some species can store 3 to 5 times as much oxygen in their blood then other snakes their same size. And Forth: is their breathing itself.

Fun Fact: The Elephant Trunk snake can stay submerged for over an hour!

But its when this snake comes up for air; that rad! Instead of like when Isla Fisher gasped one large breath, when she finally got out from the water after nearly drowned in Now You See Me, when the Elephant Trunk Snake comes out of the water for their breath, they take about 5. Then back under the water they go. The first few breaths will help to oxygenate the blood then that last breath is used to fill up their multi-chambered lungs. Or you could call them lunglets. And these lungs extend the entire length of the body, especially when talking about the cute little file snake that is often times confused with the highly venomous sea snake. 

Fun Fact: All Elephant Trunk snakes are non-venomous. Remember they use their keeled scales to help get a better grip on their food. I mean if your food was wet, and sometimes slimy, you’d have to have some rough textured skin to hold on to them. 

Speaking of holding on; please try to hold on as I attempt to read some scientific names: Scientific names are hard. Not only do I continue to embarrass myself by including this segment in every episode, but I also include for those of you who are interested in the scientific name. As for me my brain spent all its energy trying to say and spell by own name that there’s now no more room for anything else as complicated. So please bear with me as I read aloud for the first time the names that my roommate Emily has secretly written down for me to read, for you enjoyment and education.

Elephant Trunk Snake: Acrochordus javanicus
 File Snake: Acrochordus arafurae

**Elephant Shrew: It’s an animal that looks like both an elephant and a shrew. “Why, there’s a wench! Come on, and kiss me, Kate.” No I said it wasn’t a shrew. Then pray tell, what it is? And do I even know what a shrew is? A shrew is a small insect eating mammal that is in the same order as hedgehogs, and moles. (Kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species.) But the elephant shrew is not a shrew. (then stop calling it that). Alright then I will call it a sengis. And sengis, are not shrew. The just look like a shrew. (What is a shrew!?) A shrew looks like a mouse, but with much tinier ears and a long nose. The long nose is what shrews and sengis have in common with one another and if you were to ask the slightly above average person they would tell you that a sengis looks more like a shrew then an actual shrew. 

Most shrews have tiny little beady eyes, where the sengis’ are larger. Sengis also have more obvious ears. And as for a  shrew, to me, it looks to resemble that of a weasel whose head and ass got shoved back together to create a cute cubby looking fluff. Sengis, due to their large deer like eyes appear to be a bit more with it…or terrified, depending on how you look at it. They have a long tail, like that of a mouse, a long nose, that looks like…well and elephant trunk and can move around a bit, but no where near the amazing dexterity of an actual elephant. Their back legs look to resemble that of a kangaroo, while their front legs are pretty normal when compared to a mouse. And if you were to look at a side-by-side image of a shrew and a sengis, my guess is that the public would gush over the sengis, the way the world has inhaled Billie Elilish, and then try to cancel the actual shrew like Ellen DeGeneres. But hopefully neither animal gets canceled as they are both super cool and cute. 

But I do think that even though we shouldn’t be calling it an elephant shrew, we definitely need to keep the word elephant in there. Not just for that thin, wiggly worm of a nose, but because the elephant sengis is actually more related to elephants then to shrews. 

…What? That makes no sense. Aren’t elephants the size of a car? They are actually bigger than a car. How big are sengis? Aren’t they the size of a light bulb? It depends on the species but typically yes, a sengis is about the size of a light bulb. 

Fun Fact: Sengis are more closely related to elephants, manatees and aardvarks then they are to shrew.

THIS MAKES NO FUCKING SENSE! Alright Karen, calm down. If you’ve listened to other episodes then you’ll know that classifying animals has always been weird. Back in the day the more something looked like something else the more likely the scientist of the time would categorize them as being related. But that was before the fancy technology we have today. Red pandas were once thought to be related to pandas, but aside from the fact that they are both carnivores that’s it. Pandas are pointless bears and red pandas are their own family of cuteness and are more closely related to the raccoon then bears. And we know this because of DNA testing. Just like the sengis. And just like all those Karens out there who were convinced they descended from the great rules of the pasts, then after sending in their spit to AncestryDNA come to find that they ain’t nobody species; DNA testing can help to tell use who we are on the genetic level. 

But how are they more related to an elephant then other tiny mammals? Aren’t there tiny mammals in Africa? Of course, there are; there’s the spiny mouse; but that’s an actual mouse since it has those rodent teeth, is and does the naked mole rat. Moles!? What about a mole? How is a sengis more related to an elephant than mole? Well, the mole native to Africa, isn’t a true mole. Its in an entirely different order then the true moles. 

(Kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species.)

The so-called golden mole of Africa isn’t a mole at all, even though it does serve the same ecological niche as the moles we think of. Instead, they are related to another adorable African animal called a tenrec who looks like a tiny hedgehog, but isn’t a hedgehog. 

Fun Fact: the order Afrosoricida that both the golden mole and tenrec share translates to mean “looking like African Shrew”. But they aren’t shrews.

 The sengis are in their own order. And if you remember that song (Kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species) and only think about that song as the only way to classify animals then the sengis separate from the mammal class in the order. But there’s a tricky little classification scientist decided to toss in the mix just to fuck with you and that song I worked so hard. Clade. 

A clade typically classifying animals based on common evolutionary ancestors. In sengis, elephant, manatee and aardvarks’ case, it’s the clade of Afrotheria. Why?

Here’s the thought; you remember Pangea right? Well no, because we weren’t there but you’ve heard of this idea that all the continents are Earth were once one body of land which was called Pangea. The thought is that when Pangea split it left Africa all alone with those ancient animals on it and those animals adapted into the animals we know of today. Meaning sengis, elephants, manatees and aardvarks all share a common ancestor. And that’s what the Clade tells us. 

Fun Fact: this clade of Afrotheria, of which the sengis, elephant, manatee and aardvark all share, translates to mean Wild beasts of Africa! That means these animals all have a common ancient African ancestor.

And this information is relativity new…I mean, I say this but I was also born in the eighties. That common ancestry these animals all share wasn’t recognized until the 1990s. So only like within the last thirty years. Thirty isn’t old people. And remember this information only came about because of advances in technology and genetics! So send your kid to STEM camp and encourage them to grow up and work in the world of science because there is so much more to discover!

And now since we’ve got all that old family business out of the way, we can finally take a closer look at the sengis! This light bulb sized, fluffy rabbit hopping, Igor, with a long mobile like trunk is the sengis! And if the sengis’s family history and its physical appearance wasn’t weird enough for you, and the consider this: its ecological role is the same as that of an antelope. And just like when a baby antelope is born to the world like a fresh out of high schooler, join the air force pushed out of a plane with a parachute baby sengis are ready to take on the world pretty much as soon as they pop out. While some animals like kittens or puppies are naked, ugly and blind at birth, the sengis are fully clothed as their eyes are open. Wouldn’t it be awesome if when humans gave birth our babies could start running around within the hour?

And now its time for: would you rather? Where you ask yourself would you rather? Would you rather give birth to a completely naked, screaming, blind child that you would then be forced to care for, for the next eighteen years of your miserable life, or push out a fluffy gremlin ball that came to life as soon as it fell from your vagina and hit the ground? Please leave your answers on our Facebook page. This has been would you rather. 

I think I would enjoy the life of a female sengis. Especially when it comes to dating. They are monogamous…they are, just not in the way that is expected of society. When we think of monogamy we think of your loving parents who met in high school, fell in love, got married before they could drink so the reception was super lame. They then went on to share every waking day together. But not just every day. Every decade, every year, every month, every week, every day, every hour, every second.

JUST LET ME BREATH! Some of us need our space. As does the sengis. Sure season after season they still fuck the same guy so that she can have a baby and continue the species, but as soon as that fucking is done, then her mate is out! (I love you babe, but I need my space. Good luck with our kids. I’d feel bad but you only get them for two weeks, and most people can master a new hobby in that amount of time, so…until the next time we’re both horny?)

 But don’t think about the sex life of the sengis as just fucking and moving on because as time inches closer to conception the males will become extremely territorial. First both male and female will let their distance lover know they’re ready for sex.

My Dearest Jedidiah, I long for the day you will return. Today I write to you by leaving behind my potent anal perfume in hopes it will find your long, lushes, dexterous nose once more. When you happen upon my love letter of lust, I hope it finds you in similar health. I hornily await your return. Your only, yet periodic lover, Mary.

Mary my love, I thank you whole hornily for your sexual scent. I too hope you find my letter of anal juices as tantalizing as I have yours. I have not dreamt of laying with you since our departure and I of course expect the same from you. But now as our hormones and lust bring us back together, I fear another bachelor has received and favored your anal perfume. I write to you today to inform you to not fear as I will protect you from this homewrecking male. Your temporary protector, Jedidiah.

Okay, so maybe he doesn’t tell her he’s about to fuck up this intruding male, but he most certainly does. And these little sengis mean business. And these little fuckers are fast! So fast that to our slow moving dumb human brains all we see is a little fluffy blur with a screaming soundtrack to go along with it. What’s actually taking place is some serious sparing. They’ll kick each other, bitch slap their opponent across the face and even give them a round house kick. And they’ll do it in super-fast speed. These little fuckers are fast.

But their speed might not be fast enough to out run extinction…oh… really? You just went there? I don’t feel like being sad. Please don’t tell me about their population dropping.

If you can’t handle the devastating truth of the sengis’ population status then you don’t deserve them at their cute and horny. Luckily of the 20 species 19 are of least concern…in the terms of risk of extinction. As sengis are by no means anyone’s least concern. I mean have you seen how cute they are? If not go check out our Instagram. As for that 20th species, the golden rumped sengis, they might not have gotten Wonka’s golden ticket as they are endangered. But…don’t say but! That just means you’re bum me out again. Yeah…the Black and rufous sengi, even though its listed as least concern, maybe we should be concerned as in the last decade their population has dropped worse then Biden’s approval ratings. With a 20-30% decrease in their population the black and rufous sengis could end up with an Augustus Gloop finish. 

Their main threat, as is when many animals at risk of being destroyed at the hand of man! Is habitat fragmentation. Since the sengis are only sending out booty calls and aren’t constantly checking in with one other, it can be very easy for them to get separated as that’s what they would prefer. I need my alone time. And while they are out living their own life we humans typically come with, with no consideration for the sengis’ unique love life, and just wipe out giant chunks of habitats that would have been where these sengis would have traveled through in order to make hanky.

Imagine dating someone, and you like them a lot! You guys get together whenever you feel like it, you meet up for dinner or other things. Then one day you jump in your car to go to meet your love puppet who lives across town, only to find out that some rich ass hole destroyed all the roads so there’s no way for you to sexual fix. This is what Habitat fragmentation is. Instead of being able to just jump on that freeway to sex, you now have a large empty, and threatening open space of land that could easily get you killed. And not to mention all of your familiar landmarks were also destroyed meaning even if you were brave enough to venture out in to this new wasteland, you’ll probably get lost, or eaten by a hawk. Which can be compared to dating today.

For those of us who have shared the struggle of dating in the animal world, understand the challenges that Habitat fragmentation can caused to the sengis. And I know normally I do say that if you would like to help then donate money to good causes and yes, that does definitely help but for those of you, like me, with a thinning bank account, then the easiest and in my opinion best way to help the sengis and all wildlife is by education. There’s a chance that many of you have never heard of a sengis or even a elephant trunk snake until today. My goal is for you to teach someone. Whether that’s around the dinner table at Thanksgiving, to a coworker as you run into them in the bathroom or simply by sharing this podcast on your Facebook. All of this, even the tiniest of effort from those of you who feel like you can’t do much, will make a difference. You can change the world for animals for the better. And while you log into your social media to do just that, allow me to show you why education is so important.

Scientific names are hard:

Golden Rumped elephant shrew: Rhynchocyon chrysopygus
 Black and Rufous elephant shrew: Rhynchocyon petersi

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If you’re like me then you have already forgotten the scientific names of both the elephant trunk snake and elephant sengis. But I hope you have remembered their common name. And in case you forgot, let’s me tell you again: elephant trunk snake and sengis! And I hope I was able to help you remember a few fun and weird facts about both of these animals that you will be able to share with the friends and family in your life. And that’s all I ask, just teach somebody something. Especially if its weird. Bye! Stay weird.