by How big do anacondas get in the Amazon
Many legends and lore circulate around the length of the Giant Anaconda. The Green Anaconda, or Eunectes murinus, is the heaviest, largest, and longest snake in South America. The Python still takes the title of the world’s longest snake, but in terms of diameter and weight, the anaconda is not only the largest in South America and the Amazon rainforest but also the world. The heaviest and longest anaconda ever recorded weighed a whopping 500 lbs (227 kilograms) and measured a monster 27.7 feet (8.43 meters) in length, with diameter of 44 inches (1.11 meters)!
Since early explorations of the Amazon – particularly during the late 19th and early 20th centuries –, there have been numerous reports that contained alleged sightings of humongous giant anacondas, said to grow as long as 40 feet (the equivalent of 12 meters long)! So, what do Anacondas eat? When it comes to the Amazon food chain, all four Anaconda species are practically on top, with their only ᴘʀᴇᴅᴀᴛᴏʀs being the occasional Caiman or Jaguar. The majority of a Green Anaconda’s prey are fish, birds, and small mammals which ᴠᴇɴᴛᴜʀᴇ too close towards the water’s edge. They occasionally eat other reptiles as well, including other Anacondas! The reason for cannibalism among the species isn’t quite understood, other than it usually takes place when a larger female ᴇᴀᴛs a smaller male – that’s nature for you! It is also true that Green Anacondas are capable of eating larger animals such as Capybaras, Tapirs, and even Caimans, though they tend not to do so on a regular basis.
There is a theory that explains why some individual anacondas’ size tends to be far-fetched – and it’s something that happens when people meet up with other large animals that are actually not so gigantic as they appear, such as bears, crocodiles, giraffes, sharks, elephants, squids, whales, etc… –: since primates have spent tens of millions of years coexisting with large snakes, humans evolved to possess hyperactive snake-detecting circuits in the brain; as a result, a lot of people perceive certain serpents (like anacondas) as being much bigger than they actually are.
