The anaconda is one of those few reptiles that have remained virtually unchanged after many millennia of existence on Earth. Today we will look at a detailed description of this snake, as well as information about its habitats, nutrition and the possibility of keeping it at home.

Description and appearance

There are many legends about the anaconda, sometimes so incredible that they cast doubt on the existence of the snake in the real world, so it is necessary to consider information about who the anaconda is, whether such snakes exist on the planet or not, what kind of creature it is and what they are like.

The Anaconda genus is just one species of snake whose name is the same as the genus name. This type of snake is also called the giant, common, black, green anaconda. This huge creature belongs to the Boa constrictor family, which is why in ancient literature you can find the name “water boa.”

With a fairly large length, the weight of the animal is record-breaking and can reach more than 100 kg, so we can say with confidence that the anaconda is the largest snake in the world. The biography of this creature can be traced back to 1553, when it was first mentioned in literature - it was Pedro Cies de Leon's book “Chronicle of Peru”.

Body characteristics

Let's take a closer look at what an anaconda looks like, what its dimensions are: how many meters it reaches in length, how much it weighs.

The main color of the snake is grayish-green; two rows of brown spots, round or oblong in shape, are placed on the body in a checkerboard pattern. The sides of the body are decorated with small yellow spots, which are surrounded by black rings. Thanks to this coloration, the snake can effectively camouflage itself during the hunting period.

The anaconda is not a poisonous snake, and its saliva is not capable of causing paralysis in the victim. As for size, there is eyewitness information about the existence of individuals whose length exceeded 6 m, but they are not registered as official.

If we rely on official data, the largest anaconda is the discovered female, which has the maximum length for the species - 5.21 m, and its weight was 97.5 kg.
The average body length of these animals usually does not exceed 5 m in length; moreover, females have a larger and longer body than males. The average body weight of an adult is 50 kg.

Did you know? Anaconda, like ordinary snakes, is capable of shedding old skin: this process occurs in water, at the bottom of a reservoir. To facilitate shedding, the snake rubs against the bottom, and the old skin comes off much faster.

Like other reptiles, these creatures have an axial skeleton divided into two sections - the body and the tail: they consist of 435 vertebrae. The snake has movable ribs that can diverge widely after hunting and swallowing large prey.

The skull has a very mobile articulation of bones, which are connected to each other by elastic ligaments, which allows the animal to open its mouth wide in the process of swallowing large prey whole.

Due to the fact that the creature's nostrils and eyes are located high on the head, the animal is able to remain completely in the water - this simplifies the hunting process. This feature of the arrangement of organs is very reminiscent of crocodiles.
The anaconda has short teeth, so the victim receives shallow bites, and if she is lucky enough to escape, the wounds usually heal quickly and without any special consequences.

The anaconda is often compared to the python: both animals have a similar body structure, but despite the obvious similarities, the anaconda is much heavier, and in length this animal is second only to the reticulated python - the longest reptile in the world.

Movement speed and strength

The animal moves very quietly and quite quickly, especially during the hunting period. At the moment of rushing for prey, its speed on land can reach 40 km/h, which is due to the very powerful muscles of the body.

The reptile has the strongest muscles possible, capable of exerting a compression force of 16 kg per 1 square meter. cm of body, or more than 1.5 tons per 1 sq. m, so it can suffocate a victim in a matter of seconds.

The anaconda is capable of moving very quickly in water: its speed is 25 km/h, and it can hold its breath when immersed in water for 1.5–2 hours.

Lifestyle

The creature’s lifestyle differs from other snakes primarily in that it prefers to spend most of its time in a body of water. Many people are interested in how long this reptile lives, and the answer to this question is 11 years in the wild and up to 30 years in captivity.

Area

Let's take a closer look at where the animal lives. The anaconda is distributed throughout the tropical part of the South American continent. The snake feels good in calm waters, so it can be found in backwaters, lakes of the Amazon basin or the Orinoco River: in such places it is easiest for it to hunt.

The animal is always found close to water, occasionally visiting the shore to bask in the sun, sometimes perching on the lower branches of a tree. In hot weather, when the reservoir dries up, the creature can crawl to another place or go downstream.

Sometimes it buries itself in the silt and falls into a torpor, and lives in this state until the reservoir is filled with water again.

How to hunt and what to eat

The food for a reptile in the wild is different species of mammals, birds and reptiles, which it waits near the water. Most often among the victims of the anaconda there are agoutis, waterfowl, iguanas, and the snake can also feast on peccaries, capybaras and caimans. The easiest prey for the creature are turtles, tegus and small snakes.

Let's look at how the anaconda kills. The animal does not make any special effort to catch its prey: it often lies in wait for the victim in a motionless state and sharply grabs it in a lightning-fast throw, then, wrapping rings around its body, it begins to strangle the victim and swallows it whole, opening its mouth wide.

Cases of cannibalism are also common, when one individual can eat another, smaller one.

Reproduction

Anacondas are solitary snakes, but when mating season comes, they form groups. This time falls during the rainy season - April–May. Females secrete the enzyme, leaving it on the ground and thus attracting males.

During the mating process, the male wraps himself around the female, using the rudiments of the hind limbs for coupling. The process of bearing offspring lasts for 7 months - during this time the weight of the snake decreases significantly, almost by half.
One female can reproduce up to 42 baby snakes, in rare cases up to 100. Small snakes are about 60 cm long.

Did you know? The anaconda is considered ovoviviparous, but is sometimes capable of laying eggs.

Enemies of the snake

Let's consider who can defeat an anaconda in a fight and who is stronger than the animal being described. Adult females, due to their large body size, have practically no enemies, while males more often become victims.

They can be hunted by pumas and jaguars, giant otters, Orinoco crocodiles and black caimans. Often, adult males and especially young ones can be eaten by crocodile caimans.

How to escape from an anaconda

Quite a few cases of reptile attacks on humans have been recorded - perhaps this is due to the fact that such incidents occur deep in the jungle, and therefore remain unregistered, and it is still unclear whether anacondas eat people intentionally.

Nevertheless, observations that were carried out by humans allow us to put forward the theory that an adult animal will not dare to attack a person first. An attack is possible if you disturb the snake and it perceives you as a threat.
However, it is worth remembering that a reptile can swallow a person without much effort, so it must be perceived as potentially dangerous. Most often, a person is bitten - in order to protect itself, the animal bites any part of the body, which may then swell.

Important! If you do not have an allergic reaction to the components of anaconda saliva, then the swelling will soon go away, but if not only the bite site, but the whole body begins to swell, you should immediately go to the hospital.

Is it possible to keep at home

Only the Paraguayan subspecies is suitable for home keeping, but only professional terrarium keepers are advised to keep such a dangerous creature at home.

In order for the animal to feel comfortable, it needs to be provided with a very large terrarium, approximately the size of a small room, in which a large pool will be placed, since it is simply vital for the creature to be regularly in the water.

Rats and rabbits are suitable as food. It is recommended to feed small individuals once every 15 days, adults - once a month. In order not to provoke the animal’s aggressiveness towards humans, you should not give it live food.
The terrarium must be cleaned and the water in the pool changed every day; the humidity in the home should be maintained at a very high level - at least 90%. The overall temperature in the terrarium should be at least +25 °C; be sure to provide the anaconda with a warm corner with a temperature of +30 °C.

The reptile is provided with 2 shelters; coconut mulch and peat mixture are suitable as a substrate; snags are also installed so that the snake can crawl on them.

Precautionary measures when keeping an anaconda at home include the following points:

1. Do not be alone when dealing with a snake - it is necessary to have someone to save you in the event of an animal attack.
2. You should not pick up a pet anaconda - these snakes do not tolerate invasion of personal space, so they often bite or squeeze hands, even causing fractures.
3. Close the terrarium tightly so that the snake cannot get out of it on its own.
4. It is advisable that the room in which the terrarium is located is tightly closed. For safety reasons, it is not recommended to install it in a bedroom or room where people rest or sleep.

Important! When the terrarium is open, never allow pets or small children close to the snake, as there is a high chance that the anaconda will swallow them in a matter of seconds.

Thus, the anaconda is a very large creature that is a dangerous predator in its habitat. It is not recommended to keep an anaconda at home, but if you decide to get such a unique friend, you need to try very hard and spend money to provide the snake with the necessary conditions for a normal existence.

Anaconda: video

An anaconda versus a python in a fight will most likely win, unless, of course, it faces the longest 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 the 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 is currently under study.

Description

The anaconda is considered one of the largest representatives of the genus of snakes in the world: the length of the longest measured anaconda is 5.2 meters, and the weight is 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 they feel various vibrations in the environment 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 shed, 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 the interesting facts 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 are blocked during a dive valves 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 her victim (although an adult large crocodile will get rid of the grip and, most likely, will eat her himself).

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, there are usually several males 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 by almost half.

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 about 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 rise 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.

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, peccary), 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 daredevils 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 lizards - the rest is a figment of the imagination. The dragon from the engraving depicting the duel of the medieval knight Winkelried is very similar to the 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 emit 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 historical times, and perhaps still live to this day.

The image of the dragon is extremely popular in China, but it is difficult to agree that its real prototypes, barely reaching two meters, are the Chinese alligator (Alligator sinensis) or the striped monitor lizard - the only more or less “dragon-like” reptiles in 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 as “sirrush” and dedicated to the god Marduk, is nothing more than... a dinosaur. The scientist believes that the Babylonians depicted the lizard from life or from eyewitness descriptions. 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 should we attribute this evidence? A game of sick imagination?

...Karl Hagenbeck combined an observant naturalist and an enterprising businessman. Would he really invest a lot of money in a chimerical enterprise - catching the mysterious “chipekwe”, 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 its offspring) can be seen in zoos. At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, a whole series of amazing discoveries of large animals were made in Central Africa: 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: stuffed dragons were brought to Europe until the 18th century. 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 suggested that cryptozoologists abandon fruitless searches, leaving the 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 the 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).

The existence of giant snakes somewhere “on the edge of the Ecumene” 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 rushes at it with an arrow, 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 the animal world of their region much better than the Europeans, attributed the ability to kill elephants (by poison, not by strangulation) 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 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, when she was already crawling ashore, taking hasty aim, I 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 knew 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 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) in length, 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 tell 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 will not free himself without outside help. 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 suddenly 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 out of three cases teenagers became victims of huge snakes...

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 a recent loss - the favorite Siamese cat of the royal family with a bell around its 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 was devoid of flora and fauna for a long time 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 coming 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 2.5 m long python 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; The 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 full, 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 pig, 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 several car tires were put on him - only his head and part of his purple face were sticking out, and wheezing could be heard 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 the python was put into the bag by joint efforts. Usually, when working with such snakes, there is a rule - the number of attendants is determined at the rate of one person per 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 is the 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 the Mandingos and other peoples of 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 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 rarest species is the 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 it, but one day a certain herpetologist, looking at reptiles in one of the American zoos, recognized the snake, which was considered to be a young ordinary boa constrictor, as a 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 boas in all their habits - ambushes, throws, strangling the victim with rings, only they did not grow tall, so they are called not boas, but boas... They live in the steppes, semi-deserts and deserts of the North Caucasus, the 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 every two minutes. Half a million pass through the station every day

From the book Crossword Guide author Kolosova Svetlana

What is the largest venomous snake in the world? The largest venomous snake is the king cobra (Ophiophagus hannah), also known as the hamadryad, which lives in the tropical forests of Southeast Asia. Its length reaches 5.5 meters. The king cobra (locally called naya) is a good climber.

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 the African ostrich, which can reach 2.44 meters in height and weigh 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 IS 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. The unique Komodo National Park is known throughout the world, is protected by UNESCO and includes a group

Snakes themselves are quite unsightly creatures and few people like them by sight, much less by touch. It is unlikely that for a large number of people an encounter with a snake in some forest will cause any positive emotions, but do not forget that snakes come in different sizes and if in our forests you rarely see anything larger than a snake or a viper, then when traveling where Sometime in the tropics we risk stumbling upon a specimen that is completely unusual for our eyes - an anaconda. The largest snake in the world actually lives in quite inaccessible places, especially for ordinary tourists, but still we will introduce you to this amazing slithering giant. So, let's start with the most interesting thing - the largest snake usually reaches 5-6 meters in length, but sometimes there are 9-meter specimens. The longest snake caught was a giant anaconda with a length of 11.43 meters. And although it was not possible to preserve this individual, its length was reliably documented. At the moment, the 9-meter anaconda kept at the New York Zoological Society is considered the longest. An anaconda can be identified not only by its enormous size, but also by its characteristic grayish-green color with two rows of round and oblong brown spots on the back and yellow spots with a black border on the sides. This is almost perfect camouflage for a snake that is accustomed to stalking its victims while sitting in water covered with leaves and algae.
Due to the inaccessibility of anaconda habitats, there is no objective data on the size of their population yet. Basically, these giant snakes live in the quiet backwaters of the Amazon and Orinoco, only occasionally crawling ashore to bask in the sun.
In old literature one could often find the name “water boa”, because This is indeed one of the subspecies of boa constrictors, and spends most of its life in water, but still this subspecies has its own name - giant anaconda.
If the reservoir in which the anaconda lives dries up and there are no other creeks nearby, the snake buries itself in the silt and goes into a kind of hibernation until the rainy season begins. The largest snake in the world cannot live and hunt normally outside of water bodies.
Anacondas even shed their old skin “without leaving home” - they rub against the river bottom, gradually pulling off the old cover.
Just like other boas, the anaconda is not poisonous, and pacifies its victims with “close embraces” and subsequent squeezing, from which it is almost impossible for the animal to free itself, and a person still has, albeit scanty, a chance to catch the snake’s tail and prevent for him to wrap himself around himself - this is exactly what trainers do in the circus. Although such a trick is unlikely to help with an anaconda, because... she is incomparably larger than any circus boa constrictor. By the way, female anacondas are much larger and stronger than males.
The largest snake catches unlucky animals, lying in wait for them near the water. But this applies not only to tapirs, capybaras and similar herbivores - there have been cases when a large anaconda even devoured a jaguar! Of course, in order to catch such a dangerous predator, the snake must be appropriate - ordinary 6-meter anacondas cannot do this. In addition, many waterfowl and birds, as well as other snakes, often come for lunch - there is a known case when an anaconda strangled and swallowed a 2.5-meter python. Anacondas also eat their own kind without the slightest remorse - survival of the fittest.
There is a misconception that the largest snake in the world flattens its victims, breaking bones and damaging internal organs. This is wrong. The anaconda's embrace is not aimed at breaking and injuring its food - it is enough for it that the victim's access to oxygen is completely blocked by immobilizing the chest and the entire body, so that all animals caught by the anaconda die from suffocation.
There is virtually no threat to an adult anaconda in the wild - only a few jaguars and caimans can handle it, but this happens very rarely. Young individuals die en masse from the teeth of a variety of predators.
The largest snake in the world is often mentioned in many books and even became the main negative “character” of a whole series of Hollywood thrillers of the same name.

International scientific name

Eunectes murinus (Linnaeus, 1758)

Taxonomy on Wikispecies

Images on Wikimedia Commons

ITIS NCBI EOL

Coming from the city of Antiocha to Cartagena, when we settled it, Captain Jorge Robledo and others discovered so many fish that we killed with sticks whatever we wanted to catch... In addition, there are very large snakes in the thickets. I want to tell and tell about something reliably known, although I have not seen it [myself], but many contemporaries have met who are trustworthy, and this is what it is: when, by order of the licentiate of St. Croix, Lieutenant Juan Creciano passed along this road in search of Licentiate Juan de Vadillo, leading with him several Spaniards, among whom were a certain Manuel de Peralta, Pedro de Barros, and Pedro Shimon, they came across a snake or snake, so large that it was 20 feet long, and very thick. His head is light red and his green eyes are terrifying, and since he saw them, he wanted to head towards them, but Pedro Shimon inflicted such a wound on him with a spear that even though he flew into [indescribable] rage, [still ] died. And they found in his belly a whole fawn [tapir?], as he was when he ate it; I will also say that some hungry Spaniards began to eat the deer and even part of the snake.

Cieza de Leon, Pedro. Chronicle of Peru. Part one. Chapter IX.

Appearance

Anaconda is the largest modern snake. Its average length is 5-6 meters, and specimens of 8-9 meters are often found. A unique specimen from eastern Colombia, unique in size and reliably measured, had a length of 11.43 m (this specimen, however, could not be preserved). Currently, the largest known giant anaconda is about 9 meters long and weighs about 130 kg, and is kept at the New York Zoological Society.

The main color of the anaconda's body is grayish-green with two rows of large brown spots of round or oblong shape, alternating in a checkerboard pattern. On the sides of the body there is a row of smaller yellow spots surrounded by black rings. This coloring effectively camouflages the snake when it lurks in calm water covered with brown leaves and tufts of algae.

Anaconda is not poisonous. Females are much larger and stronger than males.

Range and problem of conservation of the species

Due to the inaccessibility of the anaconda's habitats, it is difficult for scientists to estimate its numbers and monitor population dynamics. At least in the International Red Book, the conservation status of the anaconda is listed in the “threat has not been assessed” category ( English Not Evaluated, NE) - due to lack of data. But in general, apparently, the anaconda can still be considered out of danger. There are many anacondas in zoos around the world, but it is quite difficult for them to take root in captivity. The maximum lifespan of an anaconda in a terrarium is 28 years, but usually in captivity these snakes live 5-6 years.

Lifestyle

Anaconda leads an almost entirely aquatic lifestyle. It lives in quiet, low-flowing river branches, backwaters, oxbow lakes and lakes in the Amazon and Orinoco basins.

In such reservoirs, the snake lies in wait for prey. She never crawls far from the water, although she often crawls out onto the shore and basks in the sun, sometimes climbing onto the lower branches of trees. The anaconda swims and dives well and can remain under water for a long time, while its nostrils are closed with special valves.

When a reservoir dries up, the anaconda 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.

Frequent cases of cannibalism have been reported among anacondas.

Most of the time, anacondas are solitary, but they gather in groups during mating season, which coincides with the onset of rains and occurs in April-May in the Amazon. During this period, males find females by following an odorous trail on the ground, guided by the smell of pheromones released by the female. It is believed that anacondas also release substances that attract a partner into the air, but this issue requires further research. During the mating period, you can observe how several very excited males scurry around one calmly lying female. Like many other snakes, anacondas form a ball of several intertwined individuals. When mating, the male wraps himself around the female’s body, using the rudiments of the hind limbs for traction (as all pseudopods do). During this ritual, a characteristic grinding sound is heard.

The female bears the offspring for 6-7 months. During pregnancy, she loses a lot of weight, often losing almost half her weight. Anaconda is ovoviviparous. The female brings from 28 to 42 baby snakes (apparently, their number can reach up to 100) 50-80 cm long, but can occasionally lay eggs.

An adult anaconda has practically no enemies in nature; occasionally, however, not very large anacondas are eaten by a jaguar or large caimans. The young die en masse from a variety of predators.

Subspecies

• Eunectes murinus murinus- type subspecies, found in the Amazon basin within Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru
• Eunectes murinus gigas- distributed in northern Colombia, Venezuela, French Guiana and Trinidad and Tobago.

These two subspecies were described a long time ago - in 1758 and 1801, respectively. They were distinguished by their color details and average sizes, which are slightly larger in the second subspecies.

Currently, it is believed that the giant anaconda does not form subspecies.

Other species of the genus Eunectes

southern anaconda

In the anaconda genus, 3 more species of snakes are known, closely related to the common anaconda:

• South, or Paraguayan, also known as yellow anaconda (Eunectes notaeus), found in Paraguay, southern Bolivia and northern Argentina.

This snake is extremely similar in lifestyle to the common anaconda, but much smaller in size - its length does not exceed 3 m. The main difference in its color is the absence of light eyes in the side spots. The southern anaconda is quite small in number, and therefore is very rarely found in zoos. In captivity, it eats fish and small animals. As for reproduction, one case is known in captivity when a female, 9 months after mating, brought 8 baby snakes 55-60 cm long.

• Eunectes deschauenseei, found in northeastern Brazil and Guyana (scientifically described as a separate species in 1936). The color of this snake is dark spotted and reticulated.

Eunectes deschauenseei

• Eunectes beniensis- discovered quite recently, in 2002, in the upper reaches of the Beni River. Poorly studied.

Legends of the anaconda

Often in the descriptions of various “eyewitnesses” information is given about anacondas of monstrous length. It was not only amateurs who were guilty of this information. The famous British traveler to South America P. Fawcett wrote about snakes of incredible size, one of which he allegedly shot with his own hands:

“We went ashore and approached the snake with caution... We measured its length as accurately as possible: in the 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. Its body was not thick with such a colossal length - no more than twelve inches ... Such large specimens as this one are not often found, but the tracks they leave in the swamps are sometimes six feet wide and testify in favor of those Indians who claim that anacondas sometimes reach incredible sizes, so that the specimen I shot must look like a dwarf next to them!.. I was told about a snake killed on the Paraguay River and exceeding eighty feet in length!” (62 feet = 18.9 m; 80 feet = 24.4 m; 12 inches = 30.5 cm)

Colonel Percy Fawcett (1867-1925), a famous expert on South America, who nevertheless left dubious descriptions of the anaconda

Now, without exception, all such stories are considered fiction (especially since Colonel Fawcett cited many other absolutely false information in his notes). Strictly speaking, even the above-mentioned specimen with a length of 11.43 m was not documented according to all the rules, and in any case, it was apparently unique in length. It is very significant that at the beginning of the 20th century in the USA twice - once by President Theodore Roosevelt and the second time by the New York Zoological Society a prize of 5 thousand dollars was announced for an anaconda with a length of more than 30 feet (just over 9 m), but remained unclaimed.

A value greater than 12 meters for a snake is meaningless, at least from a purely biological point of view. Even a 7-8 meter anaconda is guaranteed to defeat any animal in the jungle. Too much growth will be energetically unjustified - in the conditions of a humid tropical forest relatively poor in large animals, an overly large snake simply will not feed itself.

Equally fantastic are the stories about the hypnotic gaze of the anaconda, which supposedly paralyzes the victim, or about its poisonous breath, which has a detrimental effect on small animals. The same P. Fossett, for example, wrote:

“...a sharp, foul breath came from her; they say it has a stunning effect: the smell first attracts and then paralyzes the victim.”

Modern science, including taking into account the extensive experience of keeping anacondas in zoos, does not recognize anything like this. However, it is a fact that the anaconda emits a strong unpleasant odor.

Anaconda and man

Anacondas are often found near settlements. Domestic animals - pigs, dogs, chickens, etc. - often become prey for this snake. But the danger of the anaconda to humans, apparently, is greatly exaggerated. 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. The only reliable case - the death of a 13-year-old Indian boy swallowed by an anaconda - should be considered a rare exception. Another, recent case of the death of an adult is hardly reliable. On the contrary, the anaconda itself often becomes prey for the aborigines. The meat of this snake is valued by many Indian tribes; They say that it is very good, slightly sweet in taste. Anaconda skin is used for various crafts.

Notes

1. Anaconda- article from the Great Soviet Encyclopedia (Retrieved August 17, 2011)
2. // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron: In 86 volumes (82 volumes and 4 additional) - St. Petersburg. , 1890-1907.
3. Zenkevich L. A. Life of animals. Vertebrates. T. 4, part 2: Amphibians, Reptiles. - M.: Education, 1969. - 487 p., p. 339.
4. Ananyeva N. B., Bor L. Ya., Darevsky I. S., Orlov N. L. Five-language dictionary of animal names. Amphibians and reptiles. Latin, Russian, English, German, French. / under the general editorship of academician. V. E. Sokolova - M.: Rus.yaz., 1988. - P. 275. - 10,500 copies. - .
5. Kudryavtsev S.V., Frolov V.E., Korolev A.V. Terrarium and its inhabitants (review of species and maintenance in captivity). / Responsible editor V. E. Flint. - M.: Forest Industry, 1991. - P. 317. - 349 p. - ISBN 5-7120-018-2
6. Systematic list of vertebrates in zoological collections as of 01/01/2011 // Information collection of the Euro-Asian Regional Association of Zoos and Aquariums. Vol. 30. Interdepartmental collection. scientific and scientific method. tr. - M.: Moscow Zoo, 2011. - P. 304. - 570 p. - UDC:59.006 -
7. Darevsky I. S., Orlov N. L. Rare and endangered animals. Amphibians and reptiles / ed. V. E. Sokolova - M.: Higher. school, 1988. - P. 338. - 100,000 copies. - .
8. "Biological encyclopedic dictionary." Ch. ed. M. S. Gilyarov; Editorial team: A. A. Babaev, G. G. Vinberg, G. A. Zavarzin and others - 2nd ed., corrected. - M.: Sov. Encyclopedia, 1986. - P.25.
9. Pedro Cieza de Leon. Chronicle of Peru. Part one. . www.bloknot.info (A. Skromnitsky) (July 24, 2008). Archived from the original on August 21, 2011. Retrieved September 22, 2010.