Green Anaconda : The largest snake on the planet

Not all the snakes in the world are known for their light agile body and venomous bite. Some of the snakes are that massive in size, that they do not require any of those typical snake characteristics to kill their prey or to defend themselves. Today we go are going to talk about that one snake who belong from a well known species of snakes which are known for their massive size. Yes, we are going to talk about the "anacondas" and specifically about the Green Anaconda which is the largest snake, not only in it's own class but also on the entire planet. So, let's go.

Eunectes murinus (Green Anaconda)

General Info

Green Anacondas are large sized snakes and are one of the 4 individual species belonging to the anaconda class. The other 3 species of anacondas are:

• Eunectes Beniensis (Bolivian/Beni Anaconda)

• Eunectes Notaeus (Yellow Anaconda)

• Eunectes Deschauenseei (Dark Spotted Anaconda)

These snakes are generally found in the tropical countries of South America like Trinidad, Bolivia, Colombia, Brazil, Peru and Paraguay. 

 Green Anacondas are known for their big size, green colored with black spots on them, their location at the swamps, gesture of placing their heads just above the water surface and their lethal killing ability of choking out the target.

They are not defined by the IUCN red list in terms of numbers as their current population is still unknown. Their lifespan is about 10 years in the wild but can also live up 30 years in captivity/artificial conditions (away from any threats or danger).

Physical Characteristics

These massive sized snakes have a beefy body structure with slow movement style, but just on land, as they can move/swim faster in the water. They have smooth edged diamond shaped narrow  head with big spherical eyes on them. They have an olive green body color with black spots on them with yellow strip of lines on either side of the head (near the eyes).

As for their body size, Their average length can vary from 9.54 to 16.40 feet (3 to 5 meters) in length with the females having greater dimensions as they are bigger than the male green anacondas. Also, their weight can be anywhere around 440 pounds (199.58 Kg) or more, again depending upon the genders. However the largest green anaconda was a female green anaconda having a length of 17.1 feet (5.21 meters) and a weight of 215 pounds (97.52 Kg) only.

They use their big body size for their advantage in hunting as they don't have any venom releasing glands in their body. They wrap their big body around their prey in order to choke out them out by restricting their movements and stopping their blood flow. They usually hunt on small mammals but they can also eat other bigger animals. Their jaws are designed to broaden it's covering area and swallow large animals though it as they can spread their mouth 4 times the girth of their body with the mouth opening angle of 150 degrees (or sometimes even more than that). The same is for the body, they can contain a large animal carcass inside them as their body can spread up to 48 inches (1.21 meters) in circumference.

Behavior and lifestyle

Despite become known for devouring huge animals, green anacondas are not that aggressive, at least not towards human. Even if they are disturbed or spooked, they try to escape or just ignore the humans in most cases. However disturbing them beyond a limit will certainly force them to attack anyone, specially the large ones.

Green anacondas mostly live alone and are only scene together during the mating season. They live most of their life in the water or areas near the water (mainly swamps). They sometimes come to the land but are mostly active in the water as they can move for fluidly in the water. Young green anacondas can also climb trees, but their ability to climb trees becomes limited as they grow into adults. 

(Female green anaconda strangling the male)

They usually hunt a night and sometimes during the day near the surface of the water. They wait for their prey to come near the water and after that they jump them and wrap their body all around their prey and then you know what happens afterwards. They prey on number of animals like fishes, birds, small and medium sized mammals like deer, wild boars, pigs, caimans, small alligators, capybaras and sometimes other young green anacondas. But hey, as mentioned before, they can also eat humans (only few cases were recorded). 

Biological features

Sexual dimorphism 

Green anacondas show sexual dimorphism, in which the females are larger than the males, both in size and weight. Therefore females require more food and energy to regulate their body functions, especially during the breeding season where the female loose almost half of their weight after giving birth to their young ones. Also, Green anacondas are ovoviviparous, means that they do not lay eggs. Instead, they give birth to their young ones as the eggs get hatched inside the females body.

Parthenogenesis

They also posses the ability to use facultative parthenogenesis, in which they produce babies even without the presence of males around them. 

Slow Metabolism 

They have fairly slow metabolism, as a result they usually take 90 to 120 days to digest an average sizes meal. Because of this factor they only eat up to 4 to 5 times a year.

Reproduction

Both female and male green anacondas reach sexual maturity at the age of 3 to 6 years. The mating season for them usually starts from late March and can last up to early May. During this period, the males are highly active and are wandering around in search of females. Either they meet the females by random or encounters or normally by following the trail of Pheromones which the female uses to let the males know about their location.

Females can mate with several males at once. The males in the area often try to fight each other while being on the females back to decide who will mate with the female. Usually the bigger and stronger male get the chance to mate with the female, however the female can also decide that with which she want to mate (as the female are bigger, stronger and slightly more aggressive than the males). Also as mentioned before, they can also produce babies even without the help of male reproductive cells if the males are not presence in that are or are very limited in numbers. 

After undergoing the gestation period of 6 to 7 months (~ 182 to 212 days), the females give birth to the young green anacondas. They can give to almost 100 young ones, however they mostly give birth to only 30 to 40 young ones on an average. At the time of birth, the young green anacondas are around 2.3 to 2.6 feet (0.70 to 0.79 meters or 27.6 to 31.2 inches) in length. After the birth, they are all by themselves. The babies must swim to the safe areas (the process of giving birth occurs in the water) after the birth as they vulnerable to any predators around them.

Facts and summary

• Green anacondas are the largest snakes on the planet. However don't confuse the word "largest/biggest" with the word "longest" as an another Reticulated Pythons are often recorded to be slightly longer than them.

• Green anacondas are one of the 4 species of snakes belonging to the family of the biggest snakes, and are the biggest among them.

• Their lifespan is around 9 to 10 years (in the wild) but can also live up to 30 years (in captivity).

• Green anacondas are not that aggressive as most people think they are.

• Green anacondas are ovoviviparous.

• Green anacondas show sexual dimorphism.

• Female can also give birth to their babies without mating with a male through a process called facultative parthenogenesis.

• They have slow metabolism and can take around 90 to 120 days to digest the food completely.

• They show cannibalism as they are also found to eat other small green anacondas.

• Smaller green anacondas can also climb trees.

• They are good swimmers and spend most of their life in the water.

• They can remain under water for around 10 minutes.

• They sometimes form "breeding balls" which is the structure created when several males wraps their body around one female and fight each other to decide who will mate with female.

• At the early stages of their life (After the birth), they grow rapidly in size and length. However after they reach the stage of sexual maturity (in 3 to 6 years), their growing process becomes slower.

• Anacondas are part of the family known as Boidae (commonly known as boas), and they are not a separate species.

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Related : Saltwater Crocodiles