anaconda

4, see article. The Yellow Anaconda can be found as far south as Argentina.

There are two possible origins for the word 'anaconda': It is perhaps an alteration of the Sinhalese word 'henakanday', meaning 'whip snake', or alternatively, the Tamil word 'anaikondran', which means 'elephant killer', as early Spanish settlers in South America referred to the anaconda as 'matatoro', or 'bull killer'. Although charismatic, very little information was known about the anacondas until 1992 when the first study (and so far the only) was made on the field biology of this species in the Venezuelan llanos by Dr. Jesus Rivas. The anaconda combines an arboreal with an aquatic life and is active mostly during the night.

The anaconda has a large head and a thick neck. Its eyes and nostrils are positioned on the top of the head, enabling the anaconda to breathe and to see its prey while its stocky body lies submerged under water. The extremely muscular anaconda is a constrictor and is not venomous; The anaconda has a cavity called a cloaca which is where the intestinal and genito-urinary tracts empty, with spurs on either side of the cloaca, and a gland which emits a foul-smelling musk. Younger anacondas feed on mice, rats, chicks, frogs and fish. In most instances, if an anaconda senses humans in the area, it will retreat in another direction. Human death by anaconda is quite rare. They themselves are preyed by jaguars, large caimans and by other anacondas. A wounded anaconda can also fall prey to piranhas.

Anacondas are usually coiled up in a murky, shallow pool or at the river's edge. Anacondas bite their prey with their sharp teeth, hold on with their powerful jaws and pull them under water. The victim may drown first or it may be squeezed to death in the anaconda's muscular coils. Anacondas, true to the boa family, constrict their hapless victims to death. The snake squeezes tighter each time its prey breathes out, so the prey cannot breath in again. Anacondas swallow their prey whole, starting with the head. The Anaconda can swallow prey much bigger than the size of its mouth since its jaw can unhinge and the jaw bones are loosely connected to the skull. Anacondas have teeth, but they are not a venomous snake. It is possible to be bitten by an anaconda, but the bite itself would not be fatal.

Giant Anacondas

The largest known anaconda measured 10 meters (32.8 feet) long, but unverified reports of much larger snakes have occasionally been made. The anaconda was measured with a special measuring device for geological purposes. Although this is probably the largest verified anaconda account, the animal was unfortunately not weighed because after shooting it, the workers went back to camp for lunch.

An anaconda of 9 meters can weigh up to about 500 kg (1100 lb). Anacondas, like all large species of boas and pythons, continue to grow throughout their lives.

There are some exaggerated reports of early European explorers of the South American jungles seeing giant anacondas up to 60 feet long and some of the native peoples of the South American jungle have reported seeing anacondas up to 50 feet long. No one has caught and measured an anaconda anywhere near that size. In 1906, Fawcett wrote that he had shot and wounded an anaconda in South America; At one point in time, 6 meters (20 feet) in length was the widely-accepted maximum size of an anaconda. When it sheds, an adult anaconda relieves itself of an average of 2 pounds of skin. An anaconda's skin can stretch up to 30% larger than the original size of the snake.

In captivity

Anacondas have a reputation for bad temperament; that plus the massive size of the green species mean that anacondas are comparatively less popular as pets than other boas, but they are fairly commonly available in the exotic pet trade.

In movies