According to legends and foreign cinema anaconda- incredibly huge and dangerous snake. Surprisingly, it is not uncommon to hear from people about the size of an anaconda that is two to three times its true size. These, of course, are all fairy tales and fictions, once presented as official data. Everything is much more modest, the anaconda is truly the most large snake, but only statistically. She is also quite calm and is not interested in such large prey as humans.

Origin of the species and description

Anacondas belong to the subfamily of boa constrictors of the pseudopod family, order Scaly, class reptiles. Experts are increasingly inclined to believe that the common anaconda has no subspecies. According to other sources, there are still four varieties of anaconda, each of which is slightly different in size, color and habitat.

• Giant anaconda;
• Paraguayan;
• Deschauerskaya;
• Anaconda Eunectes beniensis.

Anaconda, like boas, has a small head, but the body is somewhat more massive and even looks disproportionate. The length of the snake can reach 5 - 6 meters, but not 9 - 11 or 20, as mentioned in some sources. The maximum weight is supposedly 130 kg, but in most cases it is even far from a hundred.

These snakes are considered potentially dangerous to humans because they are capable of swallowing prey almost equal in weight to themselves. If a snake weighs about a hundred, then swallowing a person and digesting him will not be difficult. But still he is large and smart for a snake, and that’s all known cases attacks on a person indicate that it happened by mistake.

Appearance and features

The anaconda is the largest snake, and in length it is inferior to the reticulated python, but in weight it is the largest. It is interesting to note that the females of these snakes are larger than the males. The maximum measured length of the anaconda was 5.4 meters, with a weight of 100 kg. But in nature there are probably slightly larger individuals. According to experts, anacondas can reach a length of 6.7 meters and a weight of 130 kg.

The average length of a snake is 3 - 4 meters, and its weight is 50 - 70 kg. The diameter of the reptile reaches 35 cm; after swallowing the victim, it stretches up to the right size. Snakes grow throughout their lives, the first years are much more intense than after, but we can confidently assume that the largest individuals are of considerable age.

Video: Anaconda

The head is small compared to the body, but the mouth is open form huge and capable of stretching, like the pharynx. This allows the anaconda to pay less attention to the size of the prey. The teeth are short, they can bite painfully. But there are no fangs; they would only get in the way when swallowing a victim. Saliva is harmless and there are no poisonous glands. The wound will be painful, but not life-threatening.

The color of the anaconda camouflages it against the background of its habitat. These are reservoirs, shallow waters, tropics. The body color is close to marsh, gray-green. There are two rows of dark, brown, brown spots along the back. They are round or oblong, up to 10 cm in diameter, solid in color, alternating in a checkerboard pattern. And on the sides there are lighter stripes completely strewn with small spots. Sometimes the spots are hollow, like rings, or uneven circles. The diameter of these is from 1 to 3 cm. The back of the snake is often darker than the belly.

Where does the anaconda live?

The anaconda's habitat is almost the entire continent - South America, except for its southern part. Of course, the climate at all latitudes is not suitable for snake habitat, since the continent has a very long stretch from north to south. To the east of the Andes, the anaconda's habitat is in countries such as Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, Venezuela, Ecuador, Colombia, Guyana, and French Guiana. The island of Trinidad stands out separately.

If we look at subspecies, the giant anaconda lives throughout the tropics. Paraguayan respectively in Paraguay, as well as Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil and northern Bolivia. Deschauerskaya was seen only in the north of Brazil. And the subspecies Eunectes beniensis lives only in the tropics of Bolivia.

Anacondas prefer swamps, enclosed bodies of water or calm, wide rivers. Snakes do not like strong currents; to match their character, they prefer calm. They can swim and stay under water for a long time. The structure of the nostrils includes special valves to block the flow of moisture into the respiratory tract.

Anacondas can dry out on the shore or trees in the open sun, but they need moisture, they make sure to be near a body of water. The rough surface of the belly in the form of scales helps them move on land. The powerful muscular body uses the friction of the outer covering and, thus, bending in every possible way, moves quickly.

If water bodies dry up, the snake cannot exist normally. To survive difficult times, she buries herself in the bottom former swamp, in silt and slush and can become numb until better times.

What does an anaconda eat?

Thanks to the complex structure of the jaws and pharynx, equipped with elastic ligaments, the anaconda is able to swallow prey larger than itself. However, this is not always easy, and prey of such dimensions will not go into your mouth on its own. It happens the other way around - when trying to attack, for example, she herself becomes the victim. But the fact remains a fact.

Nevertheless, the basis of the anaconda’s diet consists of smaller living creatures, namely:

• small mammals (capybaras, agoutis, even sheep and dogs near agricultural areas can become its prey);
• reptiles (frogs, iguanas, lizards);
• turtles;
• waterfowl;
• their own kind (pythons, and even anacondas themselves are smaller in size);
• fish on rare occasions.

The hunt goes as follows: the anaconda lurks in the water and watches the potential victim. Her eyes do not blink, which is why people interpret her gaze as a process of hypnosis. At the right moment, the anaconda attacks the victim with its entire body at once, without even using its teeth. Its body compresses the animal's chest, preventing it from breathing, and can also break its bones.

Then she simply swallows her prey whole and digests it. Now she no longer needs to worry about her food for the week, or even months in advance. She will gradually become saturated and receive nutrients, slowly digesting the contents of the stomach in a passive lying position. Stomach acids are so strong that even bones are digested. Next time the anaconda will not want to dine soon.

Having such a powerful body, they absolutely do not need poison, because they are always able to crush a victim commensurate with themselves and without fatal bites. Cases of cannibalism are also common among anacondas.

Features of character and lifestyle

The character of anacondas is very apathetic. They can lie for hours without moving at all. Sometimes it seems that they are not alive at all. Probably in wildlife This is exactly what the calculation was made for, the anaconda blends in with the environment and no one touches it. Like all snakes, anacondas periodically undergo molting. Then they need to make auxiliary body movements. They curl and rub against the bottom and rocks in the pond. The peel peels off entirely, is removed like a stocking and remains in the water. The renewed snake continues its life in a new skin.

Anacondas cannot exist without moisture. Of course, it happens that they come out to lie in the sun or curl around a tree trunk, but soon they calmly return to familiar environment. If snakes see that their pond is drying up, then they look for another one. They often follow the current to greater depths of rivers. During periods of drought, anacondas bury themselves in the mud, looking for a cooler place with a large number water. There they can go into torpor for months until the rains arrive and the rivers fill.

Anacondas are such quiet animals that if you don’t specifically look for them, you may not find them. This is probably why they were identified as a separate species only at the end of the 20th century. The only sound they make is a faint hiss. The lifespan of anacondas is not precisely known. They have been shown to have low survival rates in captivity. Terrariums can support the life of anacondas for 5 - 6 years. It is clear that in natural environment habitat this period is longer, but it is not clear by how much.

For example, the record lifespan of an anaconda in captivity is 28 years. Again, it is unlikely that an individual is capable of experiencing everything natural disasters without consequences, and probably somewhere in the range of these data is average duration life of this species.

Social structure and reproduction

Anacondas lead a solitary lifestyle and do not communicate with each other. Moreover, they can attack and eat their relative if he is inferior to them in size. Only during the mating season do they begin to treat each other indifferently.

Males begin to pursue females. They are easy to find by the smelly trail they leave on purpose when they feel ready to mate. Often several applicants crawl after one female at once. The males begin to fight each other. They wrap around and squeeze the opponent, intertwining into a lump. Those who cannot withstand the pressure are soon removed. The advantage, as a rule, goes to larger males. The winner gets the opportunity to mate with the female.

The gestation period lasts about six months. During this time, the female hardly moves and does not eat anything. She loses a lot of weight, sometimes shrinks by half. Anacondas are ovoviviparous reptiles. The cubs hatch from eggs in the womb and crawl out as baby snakes, about half a meter long. There are 30 - 50 of these in one litter. Small snakes are ready for independent existence. A small part manages to survive. While they are small, they are very vulnerable to other animals and even other older anacondas.

Natural enemies of the anaconda

An adult anaconda has very few enemies among the animals living around it. Few can rival her in strength. Even crocodiles, not always attacking an anaconda, can defeat it. These creatures are more dangerous in childhood, when they are not yet so strong. They may be eaten first by older anacondas or pythons. And they can easily deal with them. But if an anaconda manages, despite all the difficulties of childhood life, to become an adult, few people will stop it from existing peacefully.

For adult anacondas, only people pose the greatest danger. Indian hunters kill them using various weapons. There are no failures. If a person wants to get a dead snake for himself, he will do it. They are hunted mainly for their meat. This dish is very popular in South America. It is eaten by both locals and visiting tourists. It is tender and sweetish in taste, many people really like it. Snake skin is also very valuable. It is used for fashionable clothes and accessories. Snake skin is used by designers in furniture finishing and for various types of decor.

Population and species status

Anacondas require such living conditions that humans rarely approach. It is very difficult to conduct expeditions in the jungle, to explore bodies of water and their contents. Therefore, it is problematic to estimate even approximately the number of anaconda individuals.

The extraction of anacondas for the zoo is always successful; the required number of individuals is always found. Hunting for anacondas by local residents does not stop and does not cause difficulties, therefore, their numbers are quite dense. Near agriculture, there are cases of anaconda attacks on livestock, which also indicates their stable abundance.

Of course, much is not written in the Red Book about anacondas; the conservation status states that “the threat has not been assessed.” However, experts believe that this species is not endangered and has all necessary conditions for comfortable existence and reproduction. That’s right - tropical forests, jungles and swamps are the least susceptible to human invasion, development, tourism development and environmental pollution. Therefore, factors that interfere normal life anacondas will not reach these places so soon. Anaconda can live in peace, its population is not yet threatened.

Anacondas are definitely the most large reptiles living on our planet. They are incredibly huge, reaching a length of 10 meters and weighing about 140 kilograms. Their very appearance terrifies even the biggest daredevils, because it was not for nothing that in ancient times there were myths about huge snakes capable of swallowing a person whole.

Now the stories have become reality and not everyone will dare to approach such a creature. Official length largest anaconda in the world is 11.4 meters. It was found in Colombia, in the swamps, which are the most favorite place for such reptiles. These giant snakes mainly live in Brazil, Paraguay, Peru and Ecuador. They often appear in the vicinity of the Amazon, where the current is not so fast. There they have the opportunity to attack cattle, because the volume of their body allows them to cope with even a bull without much difficulty.

It is known that, being the largest snake, the anaconda spends most of its time in the water, but can also move perfectly on land. She is a cold-blooded creature. Her body does not produce its own heat, so she has to look for sunny places where you can warm up. Suitable conditions are 25-27 degrees Celsius, but if it gets hotter, the reptile begins to look for a secluded place to cool down.

They have special teeth that are designed to capture prey. In fact, anacondas wrap rings around their prey and, using the power of their body, squeeze it so that it begins to suffocate. They do not relax their grip until they feel that the victim’s heart has completely stopped. Afterwards, the largest snake in the world, the anaconda, begins to absorb its food and this process is long. It all depends on the size of the prey, but sometimes it takes about 6 hours just to completely swallow the victim. During this period, it is more vulnerable than ever, because it has nothing to attack or defend with. The acids that the reptile has can successfully dissolve even the thickest bones, and after defecation, no one will ever be able to say what the giant snake was able to catch, eat and digest .

Even a photo of the largest anaconda will not be able to convey all its power and massiveness. Scientists, despite the fact that it is extremely difficult to study these reptiles, not only because of their size and the threat they pose, but also because they are extremely difficult to find, have found that anacondas grow throughout their lives . Moreover, in captivity they live a maximum of 5 years, and in freedom their age reaches 30-37 years.

It has been proven that among these creatures the largest are females. Their body volumes are twice or even three times the size of males. IN mating season they release a special smell into the air, thereby inviting a partner. At one time, the female gives birth to from 20 to 30 fry, but no more than 30% of them survive, otherwise the inhabitants of Brazil and Colombia would have big problems.

This is due to the fact that from the very first second of their birth, newborn anacondas take care of themselves. They get their own food and learn to survive in the harsh world around them. Their length at the time of birth is already almost a meter, but despite this, as well as their innate swimming skill, they can become easy prey for caimans, jaguars and even birds.

TravelAsk continues to talk about all the best things in our world. And you can find out which snake holds the record for its size.

Reptile giants

The largest snake is considered to be the anaconda (Green or Giant). It is usually no more than 10 meters in length, however, it can weigh up to 220 kilograms.

Today, the largest of the anacondas lives in the terrarium of the Zoological Society in New York: it weighs 130 kilograms and is about 9 meters long.

The longest anaconda

And here is the most long length the anaconda that was recorded was 11 meters and 43 centimeters. In 1944, the snake was measured by a geologist who was exploring the Colombian jungle in search of gold.

He stunned the snake, measured it, but after that it came to its senses and crawled away. So we can only guess about the reliability of this fact. However, to this day the length of almost 12 meters is a generally recognized record, listed in the Guinness Book of Records.

In the 1930s, a reward of one thousand dollars was even announced for anyone who could prove the existence of an anaconda with a body larger than 12.2 meters. Then the premium increased to 6 thousand dollars, and the size of the snake decreased to some 9 meters and 12 centimeters. No one ever received the award. By the way, today it is about 50 thousand dollars, so everyone who wants to get rich and enjoy the jungle can start searching.

And apparently, a 9-meter snake living in a terrarium in New York is the limit for today.

So python or anaconda

In fact, it's fair to share the top spot between the anaconda and the Asian reticulated python.

The latter in its natural habitat can grow up to 150 kilograms and up to 12 meters in length. But this is also just a theory. The only giant python that can be truly measured lives at the Philadelphia Zoo. He is one meter smaller than the anaconda from the Zoological Society in New York.

What does history say?

However, in the history of the planet there were truly giant snakes. Zoologists gave them the names Titanoboa.

The monster weighed more than a ton with its relatively small size - about 14 meters. It lived approximately 58 million years ago in South America.

The giant could easily swallow a whole crocodile, and it’s not even worth talking about smaller prey.

The snake was not poisonous; it killed by force, squeezing the prey with its body.

After the dinosaurs went extinct, Titanoboa lived for about 10 million years. During this period she was the most big predator on Earth.

Where do anacondas live

The snake lives in the tropics South America, in the backwaters of the Amazon. It is there that she looks for prey.

Despite many films and legends, the anaconda is not terrible for humans; cases of attack are rare. The snake feeds on small and medium-sized mammals. She strangles the victim with her body and swallows it.

It can take up to several days for the prey to be digested, during which time the snake quietly dozes in solitude.

It is very difficult to determine the number of anacondas, since they live in hard-to-reach places. Their average length is 6 meters; larger individuals are extremely rare in nature.

Second and third place

In second place in size is the dark tiger python, maximum length which was recorded at 9 meters and 15 centimeters.

Usually they do not exceed 5.5 meters and 70 kilograms.

In third place is another giant - the Indian python.

A large individual reaches 6 meters in length.

100 great records of wildlife Nepomnyashchiy Nikolai Nikolaevich

THE LARGEST SNAKE IN THE WORLD - ANACONDA

The anaconda (Eunectes murinus) is the world's largest snake and inhabits all of tropical South America east of the Cordillera and the island of Trinidad. The average size of an adult anaconda is 5–6 m, but occasionally individuals up to 10 m in length are found.

A unique, reliably measured specimen from Eastern Colombia reached 11 m 43 cm (however, this specimen could not be preserved). The main color of the anaconda's body is grayish-green with large dark brown spots of round or oblong shape, alternating in a checkerboard pattern. On the sides of the body there is a series of small light spots surrounded by a black stripe. This coloring perfectly hides the anaconda when it hides, lying in a quiet backwater, where brown leaves and tufts of algae float on the gray-green water. The anaconda's favorite places are low-flowing branches and creeks, oxbow lakes and lakes, swampy lowlands in the Amazon and Orinoco river basins. In such secluded corners, the anaconda, lying in the water, guards its prey - various mammals that come to drink (agouti, paca, peccaries), waterfowl, sometimes turtles and young caimans. Domestic pigs, dogs, chickens, and ducks also fall prey to the anaconda when they approach water.

The anaconda often crawls ashore and takes sunbathing, but does not go far from the water. She swims well, dives and can stay under water for a long time, while her nostrils are closed with special valves. When a reservoir dries up, the anaconda moves to neighboring ones or goes downstream of the river. During a dry period, which may occur in some areas, the anaconda buries itself in the bottom silt and falls into a torpor, in which it remains until the rains return. The process of molting in an anaconda also often takes place under water: in captivity I had to observe how a snake, immersed in a pool, rubs its belly against its bottom and gradually pulls off its crawl.

The anaconda is ovoviviparous, and the female bears 28 to 42 young, 50–80 cm long, but may occasionally lay eggs. In captivity they do not live long - usually 5–6 years, the maximum life expectancy in captivity is 28 years. The anaconda's main food is rabbits, guinea pigs, and rats, but it also eats various reptiles, fish, and sometimes swallows snakes. One day, a 5-meter anaconda strangled and ate a 2.5-meter dark python, which took her only 45 minutes. Contrary to numerous “scary” stories from “eyewitnesses”, the anaconda cannot be considered dangerous for an adult. Isolated attacks on people are made by the anaconda, apparently by mistake, when the snake sees only part of a person’s body under water or if it seems to it that they want to attack it or take away its prey. Only the case cited by R. Blomberg of the death of a thirteen-year-old boy swallowed by an anaconda is completely reliable. Local hunters, as a rule, are not afraid of the anaconda and kill it whenever possible. A number of myths and superstitions that exist among Indian tribes are associated with this snake.

COLONEL FAWCETT'S 19-METER ANACONDA

In the folklore of every nation there are legends about dragons and brave men who fought them. Is there a real basis for these myths?

There are, say realist scientists. These myths are generated by the finds in the ground of the bones of gigantic Mesozoic dinosaurs - the rest is a figment of the imagination. Dragon from an engraving depicting a duel medieval knight Winkelried, very similar to a plesiosaur. This sea ​​lizard looked like a giant snake threaded through a giant sea turtle.

The legend of St. George, scientists believe, is a reflection of people’s persistent hostility towards snakes, especially characteristic of Western culture. And it is no coincidence that when we want to call for silence or attract attention to ourselves, we make a half-whistle, half-hiss.

Other zoologists, specialists in unraveling the mysteries of the animal world (even the term “cryptozoologist” has appeared), believe that the prototypes of dragons lived in a historical era, and perhaps still live to this day.

The image of the dragon is extremely popular in China, but it is difficult to agree that it real prototypes, barely reaching two meters, the Chinese alligator (Alligator sinensis) or the striped monitor lizard are the only more or less “dragon-like” reptiles of China. No, these applicants are clearly unworthy of the title of dragon. Belgian cryptozoologist Bernard Euvelmans believes: the mysterious animal depicted on the Babylonian gate of the goddess Ishtar, known to the Babylonians under the name “sirrush” and dedicated to god Marduk, nothing more than... a dinosaur. The scientist believes that the Babylonians depicted the lizard from life or according to descriptions of eyewitnesses. Sirrush really looks like a reconstruction of a dinosaur, and next to him we see figures of animals that are not at all fabulous, but common at that time in Mesopotamia: now exterminated lions and wild aurochs bulls.

IN tropical Africa There are still rumors about giant reptiles - eaters of hippopotamuses, which are similar to ceratosaurs. The indigenous population sincerely believes in their existence, and some Europeans have also seen them. To what can we attribute this evidence? A game of sick imagination?

...Karl Hagenbeck combined an observant naturalist and an enterprising businessman. Would he really invest considerable funds in a chimerical enterprise - catching the mysterious “chipeque”, for which his most experienced trapper Hans Schomburgk was equipped? Schomburgk had previously brought pygmy hippopotamuses to Europe, to the Hagenbeck Zoo - they were also considered a chimera, and now this chimera (and even with offspring) can be seen in zoos. IN late XIX- early 20th century Central Africa A whole series of amazing discoveries of large animals were made: the mountain gorilla, the okapi, the wide-faced rhinoceros, the giant forest pig.

But Schomburgk, having become seriously ill, never caught the Chipekwe.

In legends, a maiden was always sacrificed to dragons, which in the end became a reward for the knight. In those places where crocodiles were worshiped, this monstrous custom was a reality until recently... How to evaluate this relic: maybe this is the maintenance of the cult of the “substitute”?

Belief in dragons persisted for a long time: until the 18th century, stuffed dragons were brought to Europe. One such stuffed animal was shown to Carl Linnaeus in Hamburg. The creator of modern biological systematics easily established: the “dragon” was skillfully combined from pieces of snake skin, a marten skull, and eagle paws. The disgraced owner of the “dragon” became so furious that Linnaeus urgently had to leave Hamburg to avoid revenge.

The science of reptiles called a small lizard “dragon” and invited cryptozoologists to abandon fruitless searches, leaving myths to folklorists: reptiles that can compete with dragons in size still live on Earth.

The dragons in question are giant snakes from the family of pseudopods, boas and pythons. Let’s make a reservation right away: not all pseudopods are giants, but all giant snakes more than 5–6 m long are pseudopods.

They were precisely what Pliny, Aristotle, and Aelian had in mind when they wrote about “dragons,” putting the general meaning into this concept: “big snake.” They retain rudiments of the pelvic girdle and hind limbs - the ancestors of snakes were lizards, but the division occurred back in Cretaceous period. The appearance of a modern snake is so perfect and complete that in the East the expression “attaching legs to a snake” arose, that is, doing something ridiculous and useless to anyone. In boas and pythons, the remains of the legs appear as two short, sharp black spurs (or two claws) at the base of the tail. When snakes mate, intertwined in an “embrace,” the grinding of spurs on the skin can be heard from afar in the jungle (or in zoo terrariums).

About existence giant snakes somewhere “on the edge of the Oikumene” was known back in ancient times. Regulus's army, during a campaign in Africa, allegedly met a huge snake, which killed many soldiers until they killed him. Pliny saw his skin, which was then brought to Rome. According to his testimony, it was about 40 m long. The king of Egypt, Ptolemy II, the son of Ptolemy, a comrade-in-arms of Alexander the Great, had a hunting estate “Ptolemais Thermon” on the shores of the Red Sea. There, a live “snake thirty cubits long” was delivered to him from the depths of Africa.

Ancient authors attributed to such snakes the ability... to strangle and swallow elephants. These myths have existed for more than one and a half thousand years in scientific literature. Edward Topsell even described how the snake does this: it hides its head in the crown of a tree, hanging its tail like a rope. When an unsuspecting elephant approaches to tear off branches with its trunk and send it into its mouth, the snake throws an arrow at it, grabs its head with its mouth so as to cover the elephant’s eyes, and strangles it. In general, the hunting method is described correctly - except for the size of the prey.

Tamils ​​in the south of Hindustan call the giant snakes “anai-kolra” - “elephant killer”. Most likely, the Tamils, who knew much better than the Europeans fauna in its region, the ability to kill elephants (by poison, not by strangulation) was attributed to the king cobra (Ophiophagus hannah); but the Tamil nickname took root in the literature of past centuries in relation to giant snakes and even firmly stuck, slightly distorted, to a snake that can only meet an elephant in a zoo if it crawls out of its terrarium. This is an anaconda (Eunectes murinus), an inhabitant of the Amazon and Orinoco basins.

This snake is called the “spirit of the Amazon”, “mother of the waters”; the Indians of the river basins where it is found prefer not to call it by its name - the fear of it is so great. And one of the tribes, the Taruma, considers the anaconda to be their ancestor. The Indians believe that the gigantic anaconda can transform, for example, into a boat under a white sail; and when the first paddle steamers splashed across the Amazon, frightening the caymans, the myth was “modernized.” A spirit-snake in the guise of a steamboat floats along the river at night, the portholes are lit, the voices of the crew are heard, and then the “ghost steamship” stops at the first village it comes across. Residents who decide to carry some cargo on board will never be destined to return...

What is a real anaconda, and not a mythical one?

“...We were slowly drifting downstream near the confluence of Abunan and Rio Negro, when a triangular head and several feet of writhing body appeared almost under the very bow of the boat. It was a giant anaconda. I rushed for the gun and, as she was already crawling ashore, I took hasty aim and put a blunt-nosed bullet into her spine, ten feet below the satanic head. The river immediately began to boil and foam, and several heavy blows shook the bottom of the boat, as if we had stumbled upon a snag...

With great difficulty I persuaded the Indians to turn towards the shore. Out of fear, they rolled their eyes so that only the whites were visible...

We measured its length as accurately as possible; in that part of the body that protruded from the water there were forty-six feet, and another seventeen feet were in the water, which together made sixty-two feet.”

The above excerpt was written by Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett. While in the service of the governments of several Latin American countries, the British colonel was engaged in a complex and dangerous matter: he was drawing a line of demarcation between three states - Colombia, Venezuela and Brazil - in an area where no white man had ever set foot before. He saw things there that no one later believed him: ape people, lost cities and even... ghosts; in his diary, stories about all these miracles are interspersed with surprisingly vivid and accurate descriptions of the nature of South America and the life of the peoples inhabiting it. Fawcett was familiar with famous writers Henry Rider Haggard and Arthur Conan Doyle. Arthur Conan Doyle was inspired by Fawcett's stories and wrote his The Lost World.

Fawcett did not return from his last trip, and his notes were published by his youngest son Brian, published in the form in which they were written, without reducing the passages that caused skepticism and ridicule. Brian Fawcett commented bitterly on the episode of the encounter with a nineteen-meter anaconda: “When news of this snake reached London, my father was declared a notorious liar.”

But this skepticism is quite justified - how many times have we heard how adventurers and scientists who returned from the “green hell” swore by all the saints, assuring that they managed to see or shoot a snake much more than 10 m long. If you only ever saw it, then the scale unit is usually served as a pirogue (it was the same length or “much longer than our pirogue”), but if it was possible to kill it with a bullet, it would come to life at the last moment and escape. Well, how can we not remember the huge fish that always gets off the hook! So the prize established by the New York Zoological Society in the 1930s remains unclaimed: a thousand dollars to anyone who can provide physical evidence of the existence of an anaconda over 40 feet (12.2 meters) long, despite the fact that ex-President Theodore Roosevelt enlarged it by $5,000, reducing the length of the required snake to 30 feet (9.14 m). Nowadays, the bonus has been increased to 50 thousand, but no one has come for it!

Let's hold off on laughing, though. There is nothing fantastic in the fact that an anaconda, which the hunter “killed” and managed to measure, could come to life and escape into the water. The level of organization of the nervous system of huge reptiles is quite low, and, figuratively speaking, it does not immediately dawn on them that they have been killed. So the fabulous trophy becomes a victim of piranhas and caimans at the bottom of the river. Therefore, the herpetological world, after reporting that in 1944 in Colombia, an oil geologist, having measured a “killed” anaconda with a steel tape (which then “came to its senses” and crawled away), received 11 m 43 cm, decided: to consider this figure reliable, maximum for anaconda. However, this case is an exception: zoologists believe only museum data.

However, you cannot always trust the size of the removed and dried skin. The length of one tiger python (Python Tolurus), measured immediately after death, turned out to be 247 cm, and the length of its dried skin was 297 cm.

However, they often talk not only about the fantastic size of the anaconda, but also about cases of it hunting people. True, few of these stories stand up to criticism, although even a medium-sized anaconda is quite strong enough to strangle a person. We can firmly say that a person attacked by a five-six-meter snake, without outside help will not be released. Employees of the “snake” Institute Butantan and the police of Sao Paulo officially recorded a case in which a man was strangled by a snake 3.75 m long. In 1939, in the circus arena in Belgrade, a python 4 m long strangled the artist who was working with him. If you unexpectedly step on this snake, having fallen, say, waist-deep into a swamp, then its reflexes will work instantly - before it realizes that you are not its prey. But this does not mean that the snake tracks people and deliberately pursues them in order to devour them.

However, there are rare exceptions to the rule: Rolf Blomberg, who was the first to penetrate the holy of holies of the “mother of waters,” described two such cases; two are also known for Asian pythons: dark (Python molurus bivittatus) and reticulated (Python reticulatus). There is a widely known case in which a reticulated python on the island of Salebabu strangled and swallowed a fourteen-year-old boy, and in two other cases out of three victims huge snakes became teenagers...

Rumor ascribes a tendency to cannibalism to hieroglyphic pythons (Python sebae), and only on one of the islands of Lake Victoria; this has not been observed in other parts of their range. But do not rush to accuse pythons: these terrible inclinations were developed in them... the people themselves are snake worshipers, who, on the orders of the priests, fed the infirm and children to pythons...

There is no doubt that giant snakes see a person and “smell” the smell and warmth of his body (they have special organs for this) when the person does not even suspect it, but they turn to aggression only when there is a direct threat from the latter.

Robert Shelford, curator of the Sarawak Museum, warned against being uncritical of stories of snake attacks. He noted two cases where the examination helped expose killers who, by wrapping the corpses of their victims with rattan vines, tried to simulate strangulation by a python. They didn’t know that hugging a python does not leave scars...

For some reason, giant snakes do not include humans in the list of their usual victims. An anaconda can feast on a crocodile - two-meter caimans were removed from its stomach. There have been such cases in zoos: once in the Moscow Zoo, a boa constrictor entered its neighbor’s crocodile and “without further ado” swallowed it. Anaconda is a terror for deer, peccaries, capybaras, and also eats fish and turtles. Loosely attached jaws, a protected brain, and an exposed windpipe allow it to swallow large animals. Contrary to popular belief, giant snakes never break the victim’s ribs; the snake’s compression intensifies with every movement of the prey’s chest until breathing stops; its strength is such that the ribs can be twisted out of the vertebrae. They do not “lick” a dead body before eating - this observation was made by those who saw prey regurgitated by a frightened snake.

When reservoirs dry up in the summer, the anaconda sinks into the silt and falls into torpor, as Alexander Humboldt knew. Eyewitnesses say that its twisted rings, covered on top with a gray dried crust of mud, are similar to the imprint of the shell of a Jurassic ammonite mollusk - in such a half-asleep state it remains until the beginning of the rainy season.

Much further south lives another species of anaconda - the Paraguayan anaconda (Eunectes notaeus). This anaconda does not exceed 2.5 m and has a brighter color, but in all other respects is similar to its northern sister. Southern anacondas are more often found in zoos than giant anacondas. They breed there quite often.

Who knows, maybe we will still be able to meet an anaconda like the one that Colonel Fawcett shot? From Eocene deposits in Egypt, the remains of a gigantophis snake about 15–18 m long are known; zoologists believe that its estimated length, calculated on the basis of the size of the vertebrae, is noticeably overestimated and that modern snakes are larger than fossils.

In addition to anacondas, there are many boa constrictors in South America, and in the Eastern Hemisphere there are pythons, whose fame is somewhat less scandalous. The most famous of the boas is the common one (Boa constrictor). In South America, boa can be found not only in the selva and pampa: both in a rural house and in an Indian hut, the boa constrictor is a welcome guest. On the island of Grenada, one boa constrictor that crawled into an apartment was found in the toilet tank.

Gerald Durrell wrote well about the constrictor: “The boa constrictor is much more diligent in exterminating rats than any cat, and is also more beautiful as a decorative element: a boa constrictor, gracefully, as only snakes can do, coiled around the beam of your house is not at all the worst decoration for a home than beautiful rare wallpaper, and besides, you have the advantage that the decoration earns its own food.”

The largest representative of this species reaches a length of 5.6 m. Pythons have gone far ahead in this regard: the reticulated python is considered the longest snake in the world - in one of the zoos in Japan there is a specimen more than 12 m long. It is not much inferior to the hieroglyphic (9.81 m) and the dark - subspecies of the tiger (slightly less than 10 m). Like the boa constrictor, the reticulated and hieroglyphic pythons do not avoid human habitation, but quite the opposite - it is clear that it is easier for them to catch rats, chickens, dogs and cats than cautious forest game.

During their excursions, pythons climb into warehouses and penetrate into the holds of ships. One such python “hare” swam safely in the hold from Indonesia to England. Reticulated pythons have been repeatedly caught in the capital of Thailand - Bangkok, and once even caught in the palace of the King of Thailand. This was in 1907, when Thailand was still called Siam. The desecrator of the royal chambers was immediately killed, and inside he was found to have recently lost his beloved Siamese cat. royal family with a bell around his neck.

The reticulated python's wanderlust led it to be the first vertebrate to inhabit the island of Krakatoa in Indonesia. After the volcanic eruption in 1888, the island was completely flooded with flows of molten lava and for a long time was deprived of flora and fauna until the first settlers arrived. And an ordinary boa constrictor somehow swam 320 km across the sea and reached the island of St. Vincent. Pythons are skilled hunters: they can lie in ambush for hours without the slightest movement, pretending to be a rotten stump. Their gluttony is great: pythons have been found with antelope horns and porcupine quills sticking out of their body walls. Apparently, the snakes did not suffer from these inclusions. In 1948, an almost four-meter hieroglyphic python was brought to Dublin Zoo. Before getting to the zoo, he lived for three months in captivity, and a year after his arrival in Dublin, staff, while cleaning his premises, discovered porcupine quills in his droppings, undoubtedly swallowed almost a year and a half ago - hair (after all, the quills of hedgehogs and porcupines - these are modified hairs) are not dissolved by the stomach juices of the snake. The snake's excrement, left eight days after its arrival from Singapore to Hamburg, contained the tusks and hooves of a wild boar.

The higher the ambient temperature, the faster digestion occurs in pythons and other snakes. A python 2.5 m long at a temperature of 28 °C digests a rabbit in four to five days, at a temperature of 18 °C - in two weeks. When a two-meter boa constrictor was fed a rat and an X-ray was taken, after 52 hours the rodent’s skull was no longer visible, and after 118 hours the remains of the femur were barely visible in the stomach. Despite such an appetite, pythons can fast for a very long time. One hieroglyphic python starved in captivity for three years; A boa constrictor, which was under observation during a year and a half hunger strike, lost only half its weight. Python attacks are swift: there is a known case when an adult leopard was removed from the stomach of a five-meter python. In the single combat with this cat, the snake did not receive a single scratch. Jackals are also quite agile animals, but eyewitnesses watched as a hieroglyphic python twisted three of them, one after another. And one small python caught three sparrows in the terrarium at once, and managed to catch the third with its tail! Even a swift mongoose ends up as a python's lunch.

Karl Hagenbeck, mentioned at the beginning of the story, once threw a goat weighing 12 kg to a seven-meter python, and it swallowed it; a few hours later he was offered a sixteen-kilogram goat, which immediately followed the first.

Eight days later, a Siberian ibex weighing 35 kg fell at Hagenbeck and the owner ordered, cutting off its horns, to throw the corpse to the same snake Gargantua, believing that the snake would “save” this time, but it took the ibex for granted. At the Frankfurt Zoo, a pig weighing 54.5 kg was swallowed by a dark python.

In one zoo, a diamondback python (Morelia spilota) grabbed a rabbit at the same time as another hieroglyphic python. So he calmly swallowed both the rabbit and his cagemate! Sometimes giant snakes in captivity show strange fastidiousness. In Paris, in the zoobotanical garden, rabbits, guinea pigs, kids, and various birds were offered to the reticulated python - all without success. Finally, a goose was allowed into the cage, which the python immediately swallowed. It seemed that the fast was over, and the python would now eat everything. But that was not the case - until his death, this python ate nothing but geese.

Once fed, the snake becomes clumsy - the method of catching pythons for zoos, used by hunters of the Malay Archipelago, is based on this feature. A live piglet is placed in a cage made of bamboo poles and taken to a place where there is a chance of meeting a python. The snake, having entered the cage, swallows the piglet, but the distance between the bars is designed so as to let everyone in, but not let anyone out. The well-fed, bloated python has no choice but to curl up in a ball and wait for the catchers to arrive.

Pythons, like anacondas, are credited with hunting people, but these rumors are also groundless, although, I repeat, pythons have enough strength for this. The story of how a ten-meter reticulated python, shot during the war in Burma, vomited in agony the corpse of a Japanese soldier in uniform and a helmet, should be classified as a myth. However, zoo terrarium staff who constantly have to deal with giant snakes should not forget about the sharp teeth that line their jaws, their swift attacks and enormous strength.

Once at the Leningrad Zoo, a relatively medium-sized python instantly pressed the hands of an attendant to its body, who grabbed it by the neck in order to put it in a bag and move it to another room. The servant immediately began to resemble one of the sons of Laocoon, but did not let go of the snake’s neck, fearing that it would grab his nose. It was as if he was wearing several car tires- only the head and part of the purple face were sticking out, and wheezing came from the “tires”. But this exotic picture, more appropriate in an adventure film than in the center of Leningrad, lasted no more than a minute - soon, through joint efforts, the python was placed in the bag. Usually, when working with such snakes, there is a rule - the number of attendants is determined at the rate of one person per one meter of snake.

Anacondas and boas are viviparous reptiles, but this viviparity is imaginary: the soft shell of the egg bursts before they are laid.

The zoo discovered the unusual care of an anaconda: the female took eggs with an unbroken shell into her mouth and, biting it, helped the cubs free themselves. She swallowed egg shells and underdeveloped eggs. Since anacondas give birth in water, it is very important to help the baby snake get out into the world in time. True, such care at such a low level of organization of the nervous system sometimes does not manifest itself as it should, and the young are swallowed. The discovery of young and unfertilized eggs in the stomach during the autopsy of snakes caught in the wild puzzled zoologists until such cases were observed in captivity. Pythons lay eggs and, moreover, “incubate” them. This fact became known back in 1841, when a female python laid eggs in a zoobotanical garden in Paris. It was subsequently found that the temperature between the rings of the brooding female increases by 11–17 °C. It turns out that the brood snake continuously contracts its ring muscles (10–20 times per minute), which produces the heat necessary for the development of the embryo. In nature, pythons lay their eggs mostly in the rotted hollow trunk of a huge tree and curl up around the clutch there.

In captivity, pythons and boas live quite a long time: from 18 to 40 years, the anaconda lived up to 29. There are also capricious species: the short, or motley, python (Python curtus) from India, the dog-headed boa (Corallus caninus). For this tree snake, the slightest change in the musty atmosphere of the terrarium can provoke a long hunger strike.

Of the pythons, the most acceptable in captivity royal python(Python regius). He is quite small: the largest one is just over one meter long. If you pick it up, it curls up into a tight ball, hiding its head, preferring passive defense. In West Africa it is called “ball-snake” or “shame-snake”. The kids there play with this python like a living puzzle, trying to unravel it, but it doesn’t work.

Apart from these games, in West Africa he is not particularly offended, but on the contrary: when in 1967 an American trapper wanted to take 1,265 royal and hieroglyphic pythons he had caught from one African country, the indignant residents staged a whole protest demonstration with breaking windows and threats reprisals. The leaders of Nigeria, when concluding treaties with the British in the past, invariably specifically stipulated the inviolability of pythons.

The hieroglyphic python is recognized as a totem among Mandingos and other peoples West Africa. In Dahomey, for example, the sacred pythons were provided with spacious huts. They were believed to visit every newborn in the first eight days after birth.

Despite their formidable fame, pythons and boas are by no means invincible: their encounters with mammals or other reptiles sometimes end in tears for them. It happens that tigers, crocodiles and even hyenas defeat them. But here is a completely incredible incident, and if it were not for the testimony of the impartial naturalist Jim Corbett, then one could doubt it: a python more than 5 m long was killed by two otters. These fearless predators attacked him at the same time, which is why they were successful. And one giant snake had to fight off eight vultures at the same time, and these scavengers also won.

One naturalist, hearing the squealing and grunting of a herd of wild boars in the jungle, rushed there and found this sight: a python grabbed a desperately squealing pig, and adult pigs, surrounding the snake, tore it with their fangs and trampled on it with their hooves. The python released the boar, and the herd, frightened by the man, rushed off. The python was so disfigured that it could not crawl any further. If the observer had not intervened, the pigs would have simply eaten him.

If a python accidentally finds itself in the path of columns of stray ants, which is not uncommon in Africa, it will be in trouble, especially for a clumsy, well-fed python. That is why the hunters of the Ashanti tribe quite seriously claim that, having crushed large prey, the python, before starting the meal, does reconnaissance - a circle through the forest: is there an ant invasion threatening in the next hour and a half or two?

However, man remains the number one enemy for giant snakes. 12 million are converted into leather per year - they can encircle the globe along the equator!

And now, in addition to the interest in snake skin, there has been an interest in living snakes. In 1970–1971, 100 thousand copies were delivered to pet stores in the United States alone. Some of the most popular snakes are small pythons and boas. Therefore, in the Red Book there was also a place for pseudopods: two species of boa constrictors from Madagascar (Acrantophis madagascariensis, Sanzitiia madagascariensis), slender boa constrictor (Epicrates striatus), tiger python, boa constrictors from Round Island (Bolyeria multocarinata, Casarea dussumieri). True, zoologist from Moscow State University B.D. Vasiliev, having visited Madagascar, was convinced that there are still many boa constrictors there - several of them were even brought to Moscow, to the zoo, where the team is working on the problem of their reproduction in captivity. Rare tree pythons and amethyst pythons from New Guinea were bred in captivity by zoologist N. Orlova.

One of the most rare species- Guatemalan boa constrictor (Ungaliophis continentolis). It was described in 1890, but until recently this species could only be judged from three specimens in museums. It was not possible to catch him, but one day a certain herpetologist, looking through reptiles in one of the American zoos, recognized the snake, which was considered to be young common boa constrictor, Guatemalan boa constrictor. The snake, like some other reptiles, arrived from Guatemala with a shipment of bananas and was sold for just two and a half dollars to the zoo as a “common boa constrictor.” Herpetologists rushed to search the entire batch of bananas and to this day search all the batches from Guatemala, but how can luck strike twice...

Where boas and pythons are not deified, they are willingly eaten. In Vietnam, a three-meter dark python provides food for an entire family for a week. Python meat tastes like veal. A. Brem, having obtained a hieroglyphic python in Sudan, ordered to “cook a piece of this meat.” As he further wrote, “its snow-white color promised a lot, but it turned out to be hard and elastic, so that we could hardly chew it. It tasted like chicken." It turns out that people ate much more pythons than people pythons...

Are there boas in our country? Yes, I have. These are boa constrictors in all their habits - ambushes, throws, strangulation of the victim with rings, only they did not grow tall, so they are called not boa constrictors, but boas... They live in the steppes, semi-deserts and deserts North Caucasus, Caspian region, as well as Kazakhstan and Central Asia. We have four types of them: eastern, western, slender and sandy boas (Eryxtataricus, E. jaculus, E. elegans, E. miliaris). The length of most of our snakes does not exceed 1.5 m. Only in the colubrid family there are snakes over 2 m in length.

From the book Everything about everything. Volume 1 author Likum Arkady

What is the largest snake in the world? There are over 2,000 different species of snakes. These creatures evoke negative emotions in people, which has led to many erroneous stories about them. So, sometimes they say that there are huge, terrifying snakes with a length of 18 to 21

From the book The Newest Book of Facts. Volume 1 [Astronomy and astrophysics. Geography and other earth sciences. Biology and Medicine] author

Which railway station is the largest in the world? The largest train station in the world is Grand Central Station in New York. Trains arrive and leave it every two minutes. Half a million pass through the station every day

From the book Crossword Guide author Kolosova Svetlana

Which poisonous snake the largest in the world? The largest venomous snake is the king cobra (Ophiophagus hannah), also known as the hamadryad, which lives in tropical forests Southeast Asia. Its length reaches 5.5 meters. King Cobra(local name naya) climbs well

From the book 100 Great Wildlife Records author Nepomnyashchiy Nikolai Nikolaevich

What is the largest snake in the world? The largest (in other words, the longest and thickest) snakes are found among non-venomous ones. The largest modern snake is the anaconda (Eunectes murinus), which lives along the banks of rivers, lakes and swamps in Brazil and Guiana. The length of an anaconda can reach

From the book The Newest Book of Facts. Volume 1. Astronomy and astrophysics. Geography and other earth sciences. Biology and medicine author Kondrashov Anatoly Pavlovich

What is the largest bird? The largest living bird is African ostrich, whose height can reach 2.44 meters, and weight – 136

From the author's book

THE SHORTEST SNAKE IN THE WORLD IS THE TWO-LINED NARROW SNAKE The longest individuals of this species (Leptotyphlops bilineata), found only on the islands of Martinique, Barbados and Santa Lucia in the Caribbean Sea, reach only 110 mm. True, there is an opinion that the Brahman blind horse (Fiamphotyphlops braminus)

From the author's book

THE WORLD'S LARGEST LIZARD - THE KOMODO ISLAND LIZARD The largest lizard, reaching 4 m in length and weighing 180 kg. It feeds mainly on carrion, but also attacks ungulates. Unique national park Komodo is known throughout the world, is protected by UNESCO and includes a group

An anaconda versus a python in a fight will most likely win, unless, of course, it encounters the very long snake in the world, the reticulated python. But here, too, her chances of winning are much higher, since she, although slightly inferior to him in length, is significantly superior in weight.

A large anaconda can also cope with a young crocodile. Of course, she cannot survive against an adult, massive, large specimen; in a fight with him, she will find herself in the role of prey. But she can handle a small crocodile without much difficulty, and therefore is quite capable of feasting on it.

The anaconda is a vertebrate animal from the class of reptiles, belongs to the genus of snakes from the subfamily of boas and lives in the tropical latitudes of South America. This snake feels great in fresh water, and therefore prefers to spend as much time as possible in aquatic environment, for which it received the name water boa. Since it belongs to the subfamily of boas, the snake is not poisonous: it strangles its prey.

Currently, the following types of anacondas have been discovered:

• Giant - the largest snake in the world, more than five meters long, lives in tropical latitudes and settles in swamps and large rivers;
• Paraguayan - length no more than three meters, lives in closed low-current reservoirs. In addition to Paraguay, it lives in Bolivia, Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil;
• Deshauersea - lives in the northwestern part of Brazil;
• Eunectes beniensis is a snake about four meters long, representatives of this species are similar to the Paraguayan anaconda and there is a high probability that in the future it will become its subspecies. It was discovered in Bolivia in 2002 and on at the moment is under study.

Description

The anaconda is considered one of the largest representatives of the genus of snakes in the world: the longest measured anaconda is 5.2 meters long and weighs 97.5 kg (females are larger than males). There is a lot of information about larger specimens, whose size exceeds ten meters, but this data is not confirmed by anything, and is very doubtful. It is worth noting that the anaconda versus the reticulated python is inferior in length (according to the Guinness Book, the maximum length of a python is 9.75 meters), but still wins in terms of weight.

The anaconda has a greenish-grayish color with large brown spots of a rounded or oblong shape, which alternate in a checkerboard pattern (this color hides a hunting snake very well). Speaking about the anaconda, it is not without interest that it, like other snakes, sheds its old skin, but does this without leaving the reservoir: it rubs against its bottom.

Although anacondas practically cannot hear sounds, they have a very well developed nervous system, so various vibrations in environment they feel with their whole body.

But as for vision, the snake periodically goes blind: instead of eyelids, there are motionless transparent scales on its eyes, which, when the snake begins to molt, become cloudy, blocking the view. Speaking about the anaconda, it should be borne in mind that, being a snake, it does not blink, so there is an opinion that it hypnotizes its prey.

Lifestyle

One of interesting facts The thing about the anaconda is that it is almost always in the water, and tries to go to the coast as little as possible: it swims excellently and is capable of staying under water for a long time, and in order not to suffocate, its nostrils close the valves during a dive. She prefers to swim in bodies of water either with a very calm current or without it at all.

The boa constrictor comes to the shore mainly to bask in the sun, and sometimes even climbs trees to do this. Speaking about the anaconda, it should be borne in mind that it moves like all snakes: the main role in this process is played by the tenacious scales located on the stomach, as well as the muscles of the body.

Once on land, the snake does not move far from the water, and if the reservoir dries up, it either moves to another, or goes down the river. If during a drought it is not possible to change the reservoir, the boa constrictor buries itself in the silt located at the bottom of the reservoir, after which it falls into torpor until the rainy season begins.

Nutrition

Like all boa constrictors, the anaconda is not poisonous: having attacked the victim, it embraces it, from which the animal rarely manages to free itself. Her grip is so strong that even one of the most formidable predators in the world, a crocodile is capable of becoming its victim (however, an adult large crocodile will get rid of the capture and, most likely, will eat it itself).

The largest snake in the world eats various reptiles and small mammals that come to drink. Usually these are rodents, turtles, waterfowl, and lizards. Larger individuals can eat capybaras, peccaries, medium-sized crocodiles (up to two meters); there is even a known case when a large anaconda managed to eat a 2.5-meter python. They may well eat representatives of their own species.

Having smelled prey, the snake freezes in the water and becomes motionless. After the victim approaches, the boa constrictor pounces on it with lightning speed and strangles it, completely cutting off oxygen by immobilizing the chest, so the victim dies from suffocation.

After this, the snake eats it whole, greatly stretching its mouth and throat. Like all snakes, its mouth stretches very well with the help of an elastic ligament connecting the right and left sides of the lower jaw, which are connected to the skull by bones, the ends of which provide them with rotational movement. Thanks to this, the largest snake in the world is able to swallow an animal significantly larger than itself (for example, a young crocodile).

Reproduction

When talking about anacondas, it should be borne in mind that they are solitary animals, but when the mating period begins, they gather in flocks (this happens during the beginning of the rainy season). At this time, several males are usually located near one female and, just like other snakes, when mating they intertwine into a ball of several individuals.

The anaconda is ovoviviparous: it bears eggs inside the body, while the cubs mainly receive nutrition not from the snake’s body, but from the egg. Before being born, baby snakes leave the egg shell while still in the mother’s body. The female carries the cubs for about six to seven months and during this time she loses weight almost twice.

The female gives birth to from 28 to 42 cubs with a length of 50 to 80 cm, sometimes their number can reach up to a hundred. Immediately after birth, molting begins, so the baby snake does not eat anything at this time. When the molting ends, the baby is already able to swim, hunt, and feed on its own. At this time, small anacondas are extremely vulnerable and are eaten by birds, crocodiles and other predators.

Enemies of anacondas

If we talk about the anaconda, it is necessary to keep in mind that this boa constrictor is so strong that it has practically no rivals among snakes (an anaconda can easily withstand a fight against a python). Sometimes she may be attacked by a jaguar or a large crocodile. A large individual is rarely attacked: the crocodile usually attacks and eats baby snakes or males weakened after mating. There were two recorded cases where an adult male crocodile managed to cope with female anacondas (such situations are the exception rather than the rule).

Despite the fact that the boa constrictor eats many mammals, rumors of the anaconda as a snake that feeds on humans are greatly exaggerated. A boa constrictor of this species rarely attacks a person (despite the fact that the boa constrictor is longer, the person is vertical in relation to the surface, and therefore she may consider him too large prey for herself).

There have been isolated cases of attacks on humans, caused by the fact that the snake sees only a part of the body that it can handle, or believes that they want to take food away from it. And then, she will attack a person sluggishly, reluctantly, rather trying to intimidate in the hope that he will leave. The only case where it is known for sure that an anaconda managed to eat a person is the death of an Indian teenager.

Since the snake lives in hard-to-reach, impassable places, even if there were cases of death, there was usually no one to record them.

It is man who is the most serious enemy for an adult anaconda: Indians hunt it for its skin, which is used for textiles and haberdashery, as well as meat. Hunting anacondas in the countries where they live is not prohibited, since it is believed that there are quite a lot of them and they give birth to numerous offspring. It is difficult to say exactly how many anacondas there are in the world, since they prefer to live in difficult places where the human foot steps as little as possible.