About Green Anacondas

The green anaconda (Eunectes murinus) has long been more myth than reality. Although CGI stand-ins may occasionally grace Hollywood blockbusters, the real thing tends to sit quietly in the Amazonian rain forest, awaiting its next meal. The green anaconda doesn't really need to be exaggerated: as the largest snake in the world, it is more than large enough to eat jaguars whole.

  1. Geography

    • The green anaconda is a South American species, typically found east of the Andes and mainly in the Amazon and Orinoco basins of the tropical rain forest. Green anacondas live most often in swamps and marshes, or by slow-moving streams where it can wait for its prey: while cumbersome on land, green anacondas can actually move quite gracefully in the water.

    Size

    • Green anacondas are the largest snakes in the world, regularly reaching lengths of up to 29 feet and weighing in at over a quarter of a ton. Although its cousin, the reticulated python, may grow to be longer, it's the green anaconda's girth that makes up the bulk of its size - it can measure up to a foot in diameter. Even newborn anacondas are two feet in length, which is large enough that they can actually hunt and swim almost immediately after being born.

    Identification

    • Most green anacondas only grow to about 18 to 20 feet in length, although their girth remains one of their most distinctive features. It possesses a distinctive coloring: an olive green background overlaid black splotches. Its head is relatively narrow, and is highlighted with distinctive orange-yellow striping along the sides. And hunting largely in the water, the green anaconda has evolved eyes that are set high on its head to allow for maximum visibility.

    Features

    • The green anaconda feeds on anything in the forest that is smaller than itself - which does not corner it down. Although it typically subsists on smaller fare - fish, birds and reptiles - it has also been known to eat wild pigs, deer, and even jaguars. The jaws of the green anaconda are attached by ligaments that allow them to swallow prey whole. Like other boas, they capture their meals by way of constriction, until its prey is either suffocated or crushed.

    Risk Factors

    • Anacondas have become iconic in horror films as not just the largest, but one of the most terrifying animals in nature. And while there is actually more than one type of anaconda - such as the yellow, dark-spotted, and Bolivian anacondas - the green anaconda remains the largest. Contrary to their Hollywood image, they have never been proven to grow over even thirty feet in length, or to terrorize unwitting packs of photogenic Amazonian explorers. There are, of course, several documented cases of anacondas feeding on humans - but never on camera.