There's little doubt that a sufficiently big green anaconda could kill and eat a human being. And the mammals know how to put up a fight: Older anacondas sometimes display bite wounds left by capybaras they've attacked.Īt this point, you're probably wondering if people are on the menu. Earth's biggest rodents, capybaras are shaggy web-footed herbivores which stand about 1.6 feet (0.48 meters) tall.īeing amphibious, they regularly cross paths with anacondas. Another notable beast often taken by large anacondas is the capybara. Adults have been known to swallow up caimans: feisty crocodilians related to alligators. Wild anacondas feed on fish, lizards, birds, bird eggs, other snakes, carrion and a variety of mammals. However, according to new research involving the red-tailed boa ( Boa constrictor), the real cause of death is cardiac arrest. Naturalists used to think that snakes who used this technique were, in effect, strangling their prey. According to " The New Encyclopedia of Snakes" by Chris Mattison, there've been "several authenticated reports" of large "retics" measuring about 28 feet (8.5 meters) from end to end.Īnacondas kill by constriction, using their jaws to seize the victim before immobilizing it with tightly wrapped coils. Lengthwise, the Asian reticulated python probably has it beat. So, as a species, the green anaconda is considered the world's heaviest snake - but not necessarily the longest. The biggest and bulkiest Eunectes murinus can weigh 440 pounds (200 kilograms) or more. Despite his best efforts, he couldn't avoid stretching out the skin as he worked-which gave it a post-mortem length of 34.58 feet (10.54 meters). After he skinned the reptile, Lamar measured its disembodied hide. The freshly slain corpse was a respectable 24.58 feet (or 7.49 meters) long. Lamar proved this point in 1978, when he killed a wild anaconda of ample size. The problem is, those are really easy to distort. Some claims hinge on enormous skins cut from dead snakes. Yet rumors of anacondas growing two or three times larger persist.
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