by The Green anaconda is also known as the Giant Snake, South American Water Python, South American Green Python, Anaconda or Sucuri. Native to the Amazon rainforest of South America, the green anaconda is actually the world’s largest and longest-living snake. This species is especially famous for being regularly brought to the screen by filmmakers.
The green anaconda is really the world’s heaviest and one of the world’s longest snakes. Green anacondas can grow to more than 29 feet, weigh more than 550 pounds, and measure more than 12 inches in diameter. To picture how big that is, if about five ten-year-olds lie down head to foot, they’d be about the length of this huge snake.
The primarily nocturnal anaconda species tend to spend most of its life in or around water. They have the potential to reach high speeds when swimming. They tend to float beneath the surface of the water with their snouts above the surface. When ᴘʀᴇʏ passes by or stops to drink, the anaconda sᴛʀɪᴋᴇs (without eating or sᴡᴀʟʟᴏᴡɪɴɢ it) and coils around it with its body. The snake then ᴄᴏɴsᴛʀɪᴄᴛs until it has sᴜꜰꜰᴏᴄᴀᴛᴇᴅ the ᴘʀᴇʏ.
Primarily aquatic, they eat a wide variety of ᴘʀᴇʏ, almost anything they can manage to overpower, including fish, amphibians, birds, a variety of mammals, and other reptiles. Particularly large anacondas may consume large ᴘʀᴇʏ such as tapirs, deer, peccaries, capybaras, and caimans, but such large meals are not regularly ᴄᴏɴsᴜᴍᴇᴅ.
Green anacondas take a high risk by feeding on larger ᴘʀᴇʏ, which occasionally lead to serious ɪɴᴊᴜʀɪᴇs or even ᴅᴇᴀᴛʜ. Some also feed on ᴄᴀʀʀɪᴏɴ and conspecifics, usually inside or around water. Large anacondas can go weeks to months without food after eating a large meal, because of their low metabolism. However, females show increased postpartum feeding rates to recover from their reproductive investment.
Cᴀɴɴɪʙᴀʟɪsᴍ among green anacondas is also known, most recorded cases involving a larger female consuming a smaller male. While the exact reason for this is not understood, scientists cite several possibilities, including the dramatic sᴇxᴜᴀʟ dimorphism in the species, and the possibility that a female anaconda requires additional food intake after breeding to sustain the long period of gestation. The nearby male simply provides the opportunistic female a ready source of nutrition.
