It makes prey capture a whole lot easier for these semiaquatic reptiles.Īnacondas kill by constriction, using their jaws to seize the victim before immobilizing it with tightly wrapped coils. Thus, a swimming or soaking anaconda can easily see and smell what's going on above the water. Not only do the snakes have eyeballs situated on the tops of their heads, but the nostrils are also located in this region. They seldom venture far away from flowing or standing water - although some species may choose to hunt in forests on occasion. 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 have an affinity for slow-moving rivers, muddy swamps and seasonally flooded plains. 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. The biggest anaconda ever reliably documented was 27.2 feet (8.3 meters) long. A common length for this species is about 19.7 feet (6 meters) - although males, being the smaller of the two sexes, rarely exceed 13.1 feet (4 meters). Well, green anacondas are nowhere near that size.

Named Titanoboa, it's thought to have reached 50 feet (15.2 meters) in overall length and weighed approximately 2.5 tons (2.26 metric tons). The fossil record tells us that a colossal serpent really did slither across the continent 60 million years ago.

Amazon folklore is packed with stories about giant monster snakes extending 60 to 100 feet (18.2 to 30.4 meters) long.

Anaconda size