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Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of iHeart Radio, Hey brain

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Speaker 1: Stuff Lauren Volga Bam here. All snakes can swim, though

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Speaker 1: some are better at it than others. One of the

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Speaker 1: most powerful species alive today is the green anaconda, perfectly

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Speaker 1: at home and the rivers and swamp lands of the Amazon.

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Speaker 1: It's got eyes that face upward like a crocodiles, allowing

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Speaker 1: the creature to scan muddy banks for prey, concealing its

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Speaker 1: muscular coils below the water surface. That's why anacondas are

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Speaker 1: also called water boas the shoe fits, or it would

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Speaker 1: if they had any feet. Apart from the green anaconda,

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Speaker 1: science recognizes three other species, the yellow anaconda, the darkly

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Speaker 1: spotted anaconda, and the Bolivian anaconda. All four belong to

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Speaker 1: the Boa family, and they're all South American natives by

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Speaker 1: every metric, though the green anaconda stands out. Not only

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Speaker 1: is it the biggest member of the water Boa quartet,

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Speaker 1: but it's arguably the biggest snake in the world. Yet

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Speaker 1: trying to pin down the animal's maximum size is fraught

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Speaker 1: with challenges. Folklore is packed with stories about monster snakes

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Speaker 1: extending a hundred feet or thirty meters long. The fossil

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Speaker 1: record tells us that a colossal serpent really did slither

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Speaker 1: across the continent sixty million years ago, Named Titanaboa, it's

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Speaker 1: thought to have reached fifty feet that's fifteen meters in

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Speaker 1: overall length, and to have weighed approximately two and a

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Speaker 1: half tons. But the long and short of it is

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Speaker 1: that green anacondas are nowhere near that size. A common

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Speaker 1: length for this species is about twenty feet or six meters,

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Speaker 1: although male anaconda's, being the smaller of the two sexes,

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Speaker 1: rarely exceed thirteen feet or four meters. The biggest anaconda

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Speaker 1: ever reliably documented was twenty seven point two feet that's

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Speaker 1: eight point three meters long. Yet rumors of anaconda's growing

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Speaker 1: two or three times larger persist, and some claims hinge

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Speaker 1: on enormous skins cut from dead snakes. The problem is

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Speaker 1: those are really easy to distort, even if you're not

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Speaker 1: trying to Herpetologist William H. Lamar proved this point in

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Speaker 1: ninety eight when he killed a wild anaconda of ample size.

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Speaker 1: The freshly slaying corpse was a respectable twenty four point

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Speaker 1: six ft or seven and a half meters long After

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Speaker 1: he skinned the reptile, Lamar measured its disembodied hide. Despite

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Speaker 1: his best efforts, he couldn't avoid stretching out the skin

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Speaker 1: as he worked, which gave it a post mortem length

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Speaker 1: of thirty four point six feet or ten and a

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Speaker 1: half meters. The biggest and bulkiest green anaconda can weigh

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Speaker 1: four hundred and forty pounds that's two hundred kilos or

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Speaker 1: more so. As a species, it's considered the world heaviest snak,

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Speaker 1: but not necessarily the longest lengthwise, the Asian reticulated python

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Speaker 1: probably hasn't beat. According to the New Encyclopedia of Snakes

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Speaker 1: by one Chris Madison, there have been several authenticated reports

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Speaker 1: of these pythons measure about twenty eight feet that's eight

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Speaker 1: and a half meters from end to end. But back

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Speaker 1: to anaconda's they have an affinity for slow moving rivers,

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Speaker 1: muddy swamps, and seasonally flooded plains. They seldom venture far

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Speaker 1: away from flowing or standing water, although some species may

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Speaker 1: choose to hunt in forests on occasion. And not only

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Speaker 1: did the snakes have eyeballs situated on the tops of

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Speaker 1: their heads, but their nostrils are also located in this region. Thus,

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Speaker 1: a swimming or soaking anaconda can easily see and spell

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Speaker 1: what's going on above the water, which makes finding and

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Speaker 1: capturing prey a whole lot easier. Anaconda's killed by constriction,

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Speaker 1: using their jaws to seize the victim before immobilizing it

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Speaker 1: by tightly wrapping the animal in coils of their own body,

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Speaker 1: and naturalists used to think that snakes that use this

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Speaker 1: technique wereb in effect strangling their prey. However, according to

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Speaker 1: new research involving the red tailed boa, the real cause

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Speaker 1: of death is cardiac arrest. Wild anaconda's feed online for

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Speaker 1: dead fish, lizards, birds, bird eggs, other snakes, and a

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Speaker 1: variety of mammals. Adults have been known to swallow up caymans,

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Speaker 1: which are feisty crocodilians related to alligators. Another notable beast

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Speaker 1: often eaten by large anacondas is the capybara, Earth's biggest rodents.

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Speaker 1: Capybaras are shaggy, infamously friendly, web footed herbivores that stand

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Speaker 1: about one and a half feet that's half a meter tall.

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Speaker 1: Being amphibious, capybaras regularly cross paths with anacondas, and the

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Speaker 1: mammals know how to put up a fight. Older anacondas

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Speaker 1: sometimes display bite wounds left by capybaras that they've attacked.

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Speaker 1: And for green anacondas anyway, and for green anacondas anyway,

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Speaker 1: cannibalism isn't out of the question. At least four cases

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Speaker 1: have been observed. At this point, you may be wondering

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Speaker 1: if people are on the menu too. There's little doubt

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Speaker 1: that a sufficiently big green anaconda could kill and eat

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Speaker 1: a human being, yet no such incident has ever been

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Speaker 1: confirmed that said anaconda's, like most creatures, will defend themselves

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Speaker 1: if cornered. While none of these snakes are venomous, they

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Speaker 1: can inflict deep bite wounds. The snakes may also secrete

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Speaker 1: a foul smelling liquid when distressed. Probably just don't mess

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Speaker 1: with them. Among reptile keepers, anacondas aren't nearly as popular

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Speaker 1: as red tailed boas or big pythons. They need huge enclosures,

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Speaker 1: high humidity levels, and water dishes large enough for the

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Speaker 1: snakes to use as soaking pools and captive bread. Individuals

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Speaker 1: that have been handled all of their lives do tend

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Speaker 1: to be more docile than anacondas captured in the wild.

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Speaker 1: Even so, you shouldn't get an anaconda of any species

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Speaker 1: unless you're an experienced reptile hobbyist who understands large constrictors.

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Speaker 1: In twelve, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service banned

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Speaker 1: the importation and interstate transport of the yellow anaconda. Growing

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Speaker 1: up to fifteen feet that's four and a half meters long.

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Speaker 1: This snake could potentially threaten all sorts of native species,

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Speaker 1: and as the US Geological Survey report, free ranging yellow

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Speaker 1: anacondas have been sighted in Florida and Arkansas. Those snakes

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Speaker 1: were most likely former pets. Anacondas don't belong in the

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Speaker 1: Everglades or the Arkansas Delta, but in their natural habitat,

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Speaker 1: these reptiles are fascinating to watch. During the breeding season,

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Speaker 1: several male anacondas may attempt to mate with a single

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Speaker 1: female at the same time, the result being a breeding

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Speaker 1: ball with as many as thirteen love lorn male snakes

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Speaker 1: vying for attention around the lone female. Like most BoA's,

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Speaker 1: anacondas give birth to live young, with litters containing anywhere

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Speaker 1: from four to eighty two baby snakes, and we now

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Speaker 1: know the green anacondas don't necessarily need mates to get pregnant.

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Speaker 1: In one female kept at a British reptile park birth

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Speaker 1: three live babies, even though she had never been kept

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Speaker 1: with a male of her species. A near identical situation

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Speaker 1: unfolded at the New England Aquarium in twenty nineteen, known

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Speaker 1: as parthenogenesis. This style of a sexual reproduction has also

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Speaker 1: been observed in commodo dragons and Burmese pythons. Today's episode

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Speaker 1: is based on the article the Watery World of the

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Speaker 1: Monster Anaconda on how stuffworks dot Com, written by Mark Mancini.

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Speaker 1: Brain Stuff is production of I Heart Radio in partnership

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Speaker 1: with how stuff Works dot Com is produced by Tyler Clang.

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Speaker 1: For more podcasts from my heart Radio, visit the heart

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Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your

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Speaker 1: favorite shows.