Anacondas - Facts & Fiction
Anacondas, the name itself spells fear.
Eunectes murinus is the largest of all species of snakes and is found in jungles of South America in the river basins of Amazon, the largest river in the world.
It is said that the jungles of South America have many secrets and the biggest and the most terrifying of them is Anacondas.
Killer Snakes Anacondas are members of the boa constrictor family of snakes.
They kill their prey by coiling their large powerful bodies around the victims and squeezing them to death by suffocation or internal bleeding by crushing.
The snake them swallows the victim whole.
They are extremely slow and their eye sight is also not very good.
They rely mostly on smell and the element of surprise.
Contrary to popular belief Anacondas do not chew their victims.
The strong teeth are used to hold the prey to prevent them from escaping.
The teeth are not venomous and the Anacondas rely on their enormous size and power to subdue the victims.
The favorite food of the Anacondas is fish, other snakes, deer, and even jaguars and caimans (a relative of alligators found mostly in the jungles of South America).
Life of an Anaconda These solitary creatures spend most of their time scanning the rivers for food.
They are not easily seen as they are camouflaged in the swamps and jungles where they coexist with the lesser creatures.
Since they are comparatively slow moving as compared to their prey they use the element of surprise to the best.
They hide camouflaged in the trees and rivers and swamps and are on to the victim before the victim realizes that it is being attacked.
The females are much larger and sometimes grow up to twice the size of males.
The smaller male mates with a much larger female and as soon as the female gets pregnant she eats the male! This is probably because the female then goes on to keep a fast till she lays the eggs ie approximately seven months and hence needs all the energy possible! She always decides to eat the male to derive the energy to last for seven months.
Contenders to the throne Anacondas and Caimans are on top of the food chain in the jungles of South America.
They sometimes come face to face and in this scenario the winner is the one who is stronger.
The result varies depending on the personal size and power of the particular Anaconda or Caiman.
Both of them are extremely powerful creatures and their face off usually spells death for at lest one of them.
Facts lead to Fiction Anacondas are huge and the largest measured snake was about 9 meters or 30 feet.
The Asiatic Reticulated python is the longest in the world with the longest measured going up to 35 feet.
However the girth if the Anaconda is much bigger with some of the largest Anacondas growing as big as a man around the middle! The early European explorers have reported Anacondas as long as 100 feet though this is however not something that can be verified.
Firstly people are generally not very good at estimating lengths of snakes swimming in rivers.
Larger the snake greater is the margin of error.
Secondly some of the explorers measure the skin of the dead snake.
This skin or hide can be very easily stretched and expands to much longer lengths than the alive Anaconda and is hence not something that can be relied on.
It can be safely concluded that though Anacondas are definitely the largest of all snakes in the world but they are not as huge as they are made to be.
Anacondas are some of the last creatures in the world that are still in the realm of mystery and cannot be explained properly.
It should be our endeavor to save such creatures and do our bit to preserve the planet.
Eunectes murinus is the largest of all species of snakes and is found in jungles of South America in the river basins of Amazon, the largest river in the world.
It is said that the jungles of South America have many secrets and the biggest and the most terrifying of them is Anacondas.
Killer Snakes Anacondas are members of the boa constrictor family of snakes.
They kill their prey by coiling their large powerful bodies around the victims and squeezing them to death by suffocation or internal bleeding by crushing.
The snake them swallows the victim whole.
They are extremely slow and their eye sight is also not very good.
They rely mostly on smell and the element of surprise.
Contrary to popular belief Anacondas do not chew their victims.
The strong teeth are used to hold the prey to prevent them from escaping.
The teeth are not venomous and the Anacondas rely on their enormous size and power to subdue the victims.
The favorite food of the Anacondas is fish, other snakes, deer, and even jaguars and caimans (a relative of alligators found mostly in the jungles of South America).
Life of an Anaconda These solitary creatures spend most of their time scanning the rivers for food.
They are not easily seen as they are camouflaged in the swamps and jungles where they coexist with the lesser creatures.
Since they are comparatively slow moving as compared to their prey they use the element of surprise to the best.
They hide camouflaged in the trees and rivers and swamps and are on to the victim before the victim realizes that it is being attacked.
The females are much larger and sometimes grow up to twice the size of males.
The smaller male mates with a much larger female and as soon as the female gets pregnant she eats the male! This is probably because the female then goes on to keep a fast till she lays the eggs ie approximately seven months and hence needs all the energy possible! She always decides to eat the male to derive the energy to last for seven months.
Contenders to the throne Anacondas and Caimans are on top of the food chain in the jungles of South America.
They sometimes come face to face and in this scenario the winner is the one who is stronger.
The result varies depending on the personal size and power of the particular Anaconda or Caiman.
Both of them are extremely powerful creatures and their face off usually spells death for at lest one of them.
Facts lead to Fiction Anacondas are huge and the largest measured snake was about 9 meters or 30 feet.
The Asiatic Reticulated python is the longest in the world with the longest measured going up to 35 feet.
However the girth if the Anaconda is much bigger with some of the largest Anacondas growing as big as a man around the middle! The early European explorers have reported Anacondas as long as 100 feet though this is however not something that can be verified.
Firstly people are generally not very good at estimating lengths of snakes swimming in rivers.
Larger the snake greater is the margin of error.
Secondly some of the explorers measure the skin of the dead snake.
This skin or hide can be very easily stretched and expands to much longer lengths than the alive Anaconda and is hence not something that can be relied on.
It can be safely concluded that though Anacondas are definitely the largest of all snakes in the world but they are not as huge as they are made to be.
Anacondas are some of the last creatures in the world that are still in the realm of mystery and cannot be explained properly.
It should be our endeavor to save such creatures and do our bit to preserve the planet.
