Giant anaconda. Anaconda - giant snake

Largest snake on the planet - anaconda, which refers to boa constrictors. Haven't met yet the snake is bigger than an anaconda. Average weight fluctuates around 100 kg, while the length reaches 6 meters or more. Some experts claim that 11 meters is not the limit for such an aquatic beauty.

True, such the length of an anaconda snake has not yet been scientifically documented. So far we have only been able to meet and conclusively note an anaconda, whose length was 9 meters; this, of course, is not 11 meters, but even such a size of a snake makes you shudder. By the way, female snakes are much larger and stronger than males.

Why "water beauty"? Because the anaconda has another name - water boa. It is in water, in shallow water, that it is easiest for her to catch prey and remain unnoticed. And nature took care of the anaconda’s secrecy. The skin color of this snake is gray-green; there are brown spots along the back that run in a checkerboard pattern.

The spots do not have a strictly defined shape; nature does not like geometry, and with such an “incorrect” color the snake has every chance of remaining unnoticed. In order to further blend in with the water, covered with fallen leaves, there are small yellowish spots with dark edging on the sides of the body.

Skin coloration is unique for each individual, so it is impossible to find two completely identical anacondas. Since the anaconda is a boa constrictor, it is endowed great strength. It has no poison, in this regard it is harmless, but woe to anyone who treats it lightly - even a small deer can become prey.

This reptile is endowed not only with strength, but also with intelligence and even cunning. Animals and some people mistake its protruding, forked tongue for a dangerous organ, believing that it is with its help that harm will be caused. fatal bite. But this is how the snake simply navigates in space. The tongue recognizes the chemical component environment and sends a command to the brain.

Anaconda prefers to lead water image life. In water she has no enemies, and on land no one dares to mess with it dangerous predator. She also molts there. is a cold-blooded creature, therefore, if there is not enough warmth, it prefers to crawl ashore and bask in the sun, although it does not crawl far from the water.

If the reservoir dries up, the anaconda has to find another one, but when drought overtakes all reservoirs, this one buries itself in the silt and falls into a state of torpor, the only way it manages to survive until the new rainy season.

Anaconda habitat

Anaconda lives throughout the tropical South. They are quite comfortable in canals, rivers, lakes, they settled in the Amazon and Orinoco, and live on the island of Trinidad.

Savanna Llanos (Central Venezuela) turned out to be a snake paradise - the six-month rainy period creates an ideal place for anacondas to live and breed, which is why there are much more anacondas in those places than anywhere else. Local lagoons and swamps are wonderfully warmed by the sun, which adds even more favorable conditions this anaconda snake world.

Anaconda nutrition

The diet of this boa constrictor is varied. Anaconda eats all small animals that can be caught. They eat fish, small rodents, waterfowl, lizards and turtles.

The snake’s stomach perfectly processes all this with the help of strong acids; even the shell and bones of turtles are not something inedible. Of course, small prey is not a reason to use powerful rings of muscles, but eating large prey (and the anaconda does not disdain sheep, dogs, and small deer) is not a pleasant sight.

First, it lies in wait for its prey for a long time, hiding among the coastal thickets, then there is a sharp jerk and immediately rings are wound around the poor fellow, which compress the victim’s body with extraordinary force.

The anaconda does not break or crush bones, as other boas do; it compresses the prey so that oxygen cannot enter the lungs and the prey dies from suffocation. This snake has no fangs, so it does not tear or chew its food.

Starting from the head, the anaconda begins to swallow the victim. Its seemingly small mouth stretches to the size necessary for the passage of the carcass. At the same time, the pharynx also stretches. Available photo of anaconda, which shows how a snake swallows a small deer.

Although, according to experts, there is only a single case of an anaconda attacking a person, this snake has firmly established itself in the section of dangerous animals. By the way, anacondas are not averse to eating their fellow tribesmen. So, at the zoo, a 2.5 meter python was on her menu.

When swallowing a victim, the anaconda is most vulnerable. This is understandable - all its strength goes into pushing the food inside, its head is busy, and it won’t be possible to escape with a large piece in its mouth at lightning speed. But after eating, the snake is “good-natured.” This is easy to explain - she needs time to calmly digest food.

Reproduction and lifespan

Life expectancy in wildlife Scientists have not definitely established it, but in captivity the anaconda does not live long, only 5-6 years. However, this indicator is also untrue, because there was a snake that lived in captivity for 28 years. The Anaconda is not the right size snake to live in a pack. Like other large predators, it lives and hunts alone.

However, in the spring (April - May), when the rainy season begins in the Amazon, these snakes gather in groups - mating time begins for anacondas. To ensure that the “groom” does not wander for too long in search, the “bride” leaves a trail on the ground, which during this period is generously flavored with an odorous substance - pheromone.

Following such a trail, the female is found not by one, but by several males at once. However, it is not customary for male anacondas to engage in fights for a beauty. Here, too, the strongest will become the father of the offspring, but wise snakes choose the most worthy differently.

All males who have found the female by smell wrap themselves around her body and love games begin, which last up to a month and a half. All this time, males cannot eat, hunt, or rest - courtship takes away all their time and strength. But after mating, the ball disintegrates by itself, and the “lovers” scatter into different sides.

The males go about their business, and the female begins a difficult period of gestation. Pregnancy lasts 6-7 months. All this time the female does not hunt or feed, because she is especially vulnerable during feeding. Therefore, the anaconda loses a lot of weight; for it, this condition is stressful.

But the offspring are still born safely. Between 30 and 42 baby snakes are born, all of them are live born. Although, the anaconda is also capable of laying eggs. The cubs are born only a little more than half a meter long, but must already worry about their own food.

After giving birth, the mother, who was in a hungry state for six months, goes hunting. Of course, anaconda mothers are far from the most tender; she does not feed them, does not protect them from predators, and does not provide them with a nest. Little snakes are already endowed with all the survival skills from birth. They are excellent swimmers, can skillfully camouflage themselves, and move deftly at the slightest danger.

And they have many dangers. In the animal world, everything is arranged naturally, if an adult anaconda practically has no enemies and eats caimans and small ones with impunity wild cats, then these same cats now hunt anaconda cubs.

Therefore, from the entire brood, only the most dexterous, fastest and strongest baby snakes remain alive, who turn into the strongest snakes on earth, the real enemy of which is only man.

For writers and filmmakers, giant reptiles are the most beloved characters in horror stories and films. The information about these individuals is too exaggerated to make it interesting to watch or read.

Many myths and legends, not supported by reliable facts, circulate around giant anacondas. For example, that snakes attack people, or that other predators cannot kill them. But this is not true at all. There have been cases when reptiles themselves became victims of pumas, jaguars, otters and crocodiles. Huge boa constrictors can be seen in zoos. Special horizontal terrariums are built for them. They contain ponds and trees so that you can get out of the water. Temperature and humidity are maintained artificially.

First mentions

After opening South America Spanish explorers first encountered a huge reptile - it was a giant anaconda. You can see photos of the largest specimens in the article.

The Wildlife Fund became interested in this discovery and offered a reward of fifty thousand dollars for the supply of a reptile ranging in length from five to nine meters. In Venezuela, about eight hundred snakes were discovered that exceeded the declared size, but in the end the prize was never claimed.

In the city of Antiocha, the Spaniards discovered huge snake. Its length was a little more than six meters, with a scarlet head and scary green eyes. People killed the animal with a spear and saw a fawn in its stomach.

Also in the forties, a giant anaconda was found by an expedition in Colombia. The size of the individual was more than eleven meters, and the weight was about two hundred kilograms.

Appearance

Anaconda is the largest reptile in the world. Its dimensions range from five to twelve meters, weight is about two hundred kilograms. There is information that you can find a boa constrictor up to forty meters long.

The giant has a peculiar color, a green body with a gray tint and two rows of round or oblong spots, similar to a chess row. And on the sides there are yellow drawings surrounded by black circles. This skin helps the reptile remain undetected underwater.

There are four types of anacondas in the world - Benian, Paraguayan, green and ordinary. These snakes live in tropical parts of Brazil, South America, Venezuela, Colombia and Paraguay near bodies of water.

Life of a reptile

The anaconda is most often found in the swampy rivers and lakes of South America. In these reservoirs, the snake guards its prey; it never strays far from the victim. Reptiles are very good at swimming and diving and can stay under water for a long time due to special valves that close their nostrils. When rivers dry up, anacondas move downstream into other riverbeds or burrow into the mud until the rainy season.

The diet of snakes consists of small and large animals, which lie in wait near bodies of water, and also deftly catch birds, fish and turtles. Being in a motionless state, the snake waits for its prey, and when it is already very close, the giant anaconda suddenly pounces, wrapping a spiral around the prey and squeezing tightly until it suffocates. After which it opens its mouth strongly and swallows the animal whole.

Continuation of the family line

Almost all the time, reptiles live alone, and only during the mating period do they gather in small groups. During this season it starts to rain. Males on land find females by their scent. When mating, snakes curl up into a ball of several individuals and make a grinding sound.

The giant anaconda bears its young for just over six months. At this point, she loses almost twice her weight. The number of babies is approximately thirty to forty baby snakes up to one meter long. Sometimes an anaconda can lay eggs.

Huge reptile

The giant green anaconda lives in South America. I got this thanks to my color and large size. Its length ranges from five to ten meters. Females are fatter and larger than males, making them easy to tell apart. The peculiarity of reptiles is that they have a very unpleasant and pungent odor.

The snake feeds on wild animals. The giant anaconda will not attack people; rather, on the contrary, having caught the smell of a person, it quickly leaves the place.

Reptiles live near bodies of water; for them these are the most comfortable conditions. When the sun is shining, they rest on the shore or perch on tree branches. During drought, anacondas burrow to the bottom of the pond, and also during this period, females bear cubs, which are born and immediately begin to swim and hunt.

Sukuriju

The Amazon is home to a snake called the giant man-eating anaconda. It moves freely on land and can stay under water for a long time. The Indians call this type of reptile Sukuriju. Their length reaches twenty to forty meters, and their weight is about half a ton. The individual is golden-green in color, has brown spots in the form of patterns on its body, and has a reddish head. This type of snake was first discovered in the middle of the 16th century.

The anaconda eats a variety of animals that it can handle, mainly cattle. The smell emanating from reptiles first attracts the victim, and then paralyzes. The individual also swallows a person whole. Several such cases have been recorded. Sukuriju attacks people by mistake, because the snake underwater does not see the entire victim, but only part of the body, or if it may seem to it that they want to take the prey from it.

From the above we can conclude: the giant anaconda is different from the usual artistic description, but you still need to be careful when encountering a reptile.

The green giant anaconda lives in South America. The snake received this name for its size, ranging from 5 to 9 meters. According to reliable sources, the largest anaconda was 11.43 meters in length.

The greenish tint of this snake also played a role in its name. Anacondas of all types have round and oblong spots on their bodies. The Paraguayan anaconda is famous for its brightest coloring. Her yellow body is decorated with blue spots.

Females differ from males in being larger in size and thicker. Characteristic feature these reptiles are sharp bad smell, which they publish in their presence.

The anaconda's diet consists of wild pigs, deer, birds, turtles, caimans and even jaguars. Wrapping itself around its prey, the snake squeezes it until it is completely suffocated, and then, with the help of its lower movable jaw, swallows the prey whole. Having “eaten” in this way, the anaconda can go without food for about a month. It should be noted that, contrary to its notoriety, the anaconda does not attack humans. On the contrary, the snake, having caught its smell, hastily retreats, since it itself is the object of hunting among the local population. It is believed that anaconda meat has high taste qualities.

The anaconda's entire life is spent near bodies of water. Here she hunts, sometimes basks in the sun on the shore or sits on the branches of a tree. Anaconda is an excellent swimmer and diver. The snake has special valves that close its nostrils, allowing it to stay in the water for a long time.

During a dry period, a snake can burrow into the muddy bottom of a reservoir and, falling into deep torpor, waits out the drought. As a rule, the female is pregnant at this time. Having safely waited out the drought, the female gives birth to about 40 cubs, which swim and hunt immediately after birth.

In the wild, an anaconda can live about 10 years.

A few more photos of the caught anaconda.

Video: Anaconda swallowed too much prey. Anaconda Snake Pukes Out A Cow In A Jungle River

In the wilds of the Amazon, the largest tropical forest on earth, lives giant monster, resembling a cannibal anaconda. He feels free on land and in water, holding his breath for almost 10 minutes. For the Indians, this snake is legendary, and they call it Sukuriju. For Europeans, the monster is associated with horror films. There is evidence that snakes up to 40 meters long can be found. But so far it has not been possible to remove such specimens from the jungle.

The giant anaconda is a species of snake from the boa constrictor family with an average length of 5-6 meters. Despite the fact that the anaconda is not poisonous, it kills its prey very ingeniously - by suffocation, wrapping its body around it, and then swallows the prey whole, greatly stretching its mouth and throat. The snake's muscles have a vice-like force: 40 kilograms per square inch.
The anaconda attacks any warm-blooded mammal if it is sure that it can cope with it, and does not distinguish between people and animals, so cases of cannibalism are not uncommon.
The death of a 13-year-old Indian boy who was swallowed by a giant anaconda was recorded. Recently, an adult man died in the mouth of a hungry monster. The paucity of information about anaconda attacks on people is due to the fact that such incidents happen in the deep jungle and there are no witnesses left after them. Thousands of tourists are not even aware of this killer weighing more than 100 kg, so many of them disappear in the jungle without a trace. The snake lives in reservoirs, and when they dry out, it either crawls into another or goes downstream of the river. During the dry period, which occurs in some anaconda habitats, the snake buries itself in the bottom silt and falls into a stupor, in which it remains until the rains return. Currently, the largest known giant anaconda is about 9 meters long and weighs about 130 kg. She is kept at the New York Zoological Society. Anaconda was first encountered in 1553 by the Spaniards and described in the book “Chronicles of Peru.” The snake was 20 feet long and very thick. The head is light red with “frightening green eyes.” Pedro Shimon hit her spear wound The snake flew into an indescribable rage, was in agony for a long time, but still died. The travelers discovered a whole fawn in its belly, which some hungry warriors later ate. An authoritative British traveler to South America, Percy Fawcett wrote about a monster of incredible size. “We went ashore and approached with caution dead snake... We measured its length as accurately as possible: in that part of the body that protrudes from the water, it turned out to be forty-five feet and another seventeen feet were in the water, which together amounted to sixty-two feet. Her body was not thick with such a colossal length.” The scientist wrote that she emanated a sharp, foul breath, which, according to legend, has a stunning effect: the smell first attracts and then paralyzes the victim.
Fossett wrote that while traveling through the swamps, he more than once encountered snake tracks six feet wide. This confirms the testimony of the Indians, who claim that anacondas up to 80 feet (24.5 meters) long are found on the Paraguay River. Thus, the specimen shot by Fossett looked like a dwarf! Despite the fact that Colonel Percy Fossett was considered an expert on South America, skeptic biologists believe that the 11.43 m long specimen he described was not documented according to all the rules of science. They are sure that a value greater than 12 meters for a snake is meaningless, at least from a purely biological point of view. At the same time, indisputable facts they say that such snakes still exist. In 1925, priest Father Victor Heinz on the Rio Negro River saw a snake more than 20 meters long. He compared the diameter of the snake's body to the diameter of an oil barrel. In 1929, Heinz met a giant snake again, but this time on the Rio Piaba River. There are records of members of a French-Brazilian group who met an anaconda about 23 meters long sleeping peacefully on the grass. They killed her and measured her head. It formed a triangle with a side of about 60 cm and a base of 50 cm. Unfortunately, they were unable to take such a colossus out of the jungle.
On January 24, 1948, the Brazilian newspaper Diario published a photograph of an anaconda half swallowing a buffalo. The measured length of the anaconda shown in the photo is almost 40 meters. In the same year, a photo of an anaconda 35 meters long was published. Herpetologists did not recognize the photographs as sufficient evidence, since the photographs did not contain objects with which to estimate the size of the snakes. In 1959, a series of photographs were taken from a helicopter in Africa's Belgian Congo of a snake that was attacking a helicopter. According to Colonel Rene, the snake was at least 15 meters long. This figure was confirmed by zoologists who studied the photographs. Scientists are waiting for real evidence of the presence of these monsters. At the beginning of the 20th century, President Theodore Roosevelt and a second time, the New York Zoological Society, announced a $5,000 prize for an anaconda more than 30 feet long (just over 9 m). But the prize remained unclaimed.

Almost 10 meters long and weighing three centners. All this is the most big snake anaconda. Photos and videos on our website will show you that, for the most part, fear has big eyes. This snake is not such a monster.

Anaconda - the largest snake in the world Anaconda (Eunectes) is the heaviest snake in the world, and a “good swimmer”.

Belongs to the class of reptiles, order Squamate, family - boa constrictors, genus - anaconda. This is a reptile creature that has no legs. It is believed that the predecessors of snakes were primitive lizards that appeared eighty million years ago. During the period of evolution, they lost their limbs. Apparently, that’s why they are considered relatives. The main difference between snakes is the ability to move the lower jaw so that it becomes possible to swallow objects much larger than their head.

9 meters long, 250 kilograms. Meet the anaconda. The world's largest snake.

Fiction and reality

Thanks to Hollywood and Jennifer Lopez. Today, probably only very lazy people haven’t watched the famous movie “Anaconda”. In that film, the snake is presented as a terrible man-eating monster. In fact, this is very far from reality. Like attacking a person from a treetop. Anacondas are too heavy for this kind of hunting.

There are 4 types of anacondas.

• (Eunectes beniensis) - Bolivia
• (Eunectes deschauenseei) - Brazil
• Green anaconda (Eunectes murinus) – Amazon and Orinoco river basins
• (Eunectes notaeus) - Argentina and Paraguay.

What does Eunectes mean?

Eunectes is translated from Greek as “good swimmer.”

Anacondas live exclusively in South America:

• Argentina
• Bolivia
• Brazil
• Ecuador
• Paraguay
• Venezuela
• Trinidad

The amazing size of this snake

Anaconda is considered the largest snake in the whole world. Average length its body can reach 10 m. The weight of these creeping creatures is up to 250 kg. The parameters of the largest anaconda that was caught by a person were: 11 m 43 cm.

What kind of anaconda is she?

Its body is brownish-green with brownish spots. Anacondas live in tropical forests in the south of America. They are comfortable in damp riverine forests and swamps, where the most best places for a great hunt. The anaconda constrictor spends most of its time in bodies of water, camouflaging itself in the grey-green waters where brown leaves and algae float. In such places, the snake is inconspicuous and, hiding, waits for the victim going to the watering hole.

Looks like a pretty cute face

Anaconda - absolutely not poisonous snake. Its main weapon is the ability to strangle prey by wrapping itself in numerous rings around it. She grabs the victim with sharp teeth, twists its body around it, tightening the animal’s chest until it stops breathing. After this procedure, the anaconda turns the prey with its head towards itself and swallows it, “putting it on” the victim’s carcass in the form of a stocking.

Anacondas have one more feature. Thanks to the presence of nasal valves on the muzzle, it can dive under water. The snake hunts various medium-sized ungulates and also feeds on waterfowl and domestic animals that come to the watering hole.

Anaconda - classification.

• Suborder: Snakes
• Family: pseudopods
• Subfamily: boa constrictors
• Type: Eunectes

The most important difference between an anaconda and a boa constrictor is that it is a viviparous snake!

Surely you have heard horror stories about anacondas more than once or watched terrifying footage from films. But in reality, these cases are extremely rare. The anaconda does not attack people because it knows that prey of this size may be too much for it to handle. However, there are documents in which there are documented cases of a teenager being killed by a snake. Amazon hunters, as soon as they see an anaconda, lose no opportunity to kill it.