The largest snake - the anaconda - thanks to Hollywood thrillers, has long become a byword. Say, this insatiable monster eats people, moves perfectly on land, and breaks all the bones to its victim, and even swallows it alive as a whole. Let’s try to separate the truth from myths and tell us what this reptile subfamily of boas constitutes with the official name eunectes murinus.
For the title of the longest and most powerful snake, several species of anacondas, as well as the Asian reticulated python, whose sizes sometimes reach 9 meters, fought. The largest in the history of the Earth was the fossil reptile titanoboa cerrejonensis, whose remains were found among coal seams in a Colombian mine. She lived 60 million years ago, reached 15 meters in length and weighed about a ton. It is assumed that from her came modern anacondas. There are several species, and they all live in the impenetrable jungle of Latin America. The most common is eunectes murinus, a green or giant anaconda snake, the photo of which became the basis for creating a cinematic image of a terrible cannibal. It is common not only in the
equatorial forests of Latin America, but also on the
island of Trinidad and even in Malaysia. There are also yellow (eunectes notaeus) and black (eunectes deschauenseei) anacondas. But they are significantly inferior in size to the giant sister.
Let's talk about this kind of record holder - the green anaconda, which is also called the water python, the mother of the rivers, the killer bull. Usually it reaches 5-6 meters, which in itself is very impressive. Many hunters and Indians claim that they saw specimens 15 meters in length, but only the corpse of a reptile, reaching 11.43 meters, is precisely measured. And among the living inhabitants, the longest is considered the anaconda snake living in captivity (at the New York Zoological Society) - its length is 9 meters. But, perhaps, a healthy and balanced diet of the animal played an important role in achieving these parameters.
We figured out the sizes. And what kind of habits? Is it true that the anaconda snake is so greedy for humanity that it creeps into villages and sows death and destruction there? In fact, the reptile's habitat is water and again water. On land, where the snake creeps out only occasionally basking in the sun, it is terribly awkward. Probably affected by its weight of 200 kilograms. If the pond dries up, and there is no other nearby, the snake simply burrows into the silt and hibernates in anticipation of the rainy season. Even these giant pythons mate in water.
Anaconda snake awaits its prey in ambush. Everything in its camouflage color is intended to mislead an animal that has gone down to a watering hole, to make it ignore “just plain leaves floating on the surface of stagnant water”. But if an unlucky tapir or deer approaches closer to the water's edge, a snake rushes at him with a lightning throw. Anaconda has teeth, but they are not poisonous, therefore they are needed only to keep the victim in the first seconds. The muscles of the gigantic body go further: the arms of the python are truly deadly. But the anacondas do not flatten their food, but simply strangle it (which is also helped by the water into which the snake drags its prey). Reptiles really swallow food, stretching their throats.
Is the anaconda snake really so scary? The Indians of Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana and Venezuela, who have long eaten them, still consider the meat of this reptile a delicacy. The process of hunting for anaconda is impressive, but absolutely without any risk. Indeed, unlike defenseless tapirs and monkeys, a person is armed and very dangerous.