I saw once a documentary about a marsh land in Southern America where anacondas hang out, this area had water up to your knees and it was full to the brim with these massive snakes. I was looking at it and trying to figure out why twenty men were walking around in this habitat with water up to their knees, it dawned on me that they must be there in case of an attack, or some one got bitten by a snake at least there would be some people to get him out of there if needed be. It also occurred to me that there was crocodiles here, maybe they are there to scare them off, you know safety in numbers and all that jazz.

The camera swung around to show a few lily pads move around a bit looked to me like a Crocodile was moving away from the bunch of men standing there, all I could say is better you than me buddy knock yourself out.

These men started to pursue the moving object into the wooded area that lay behind the marsh land. The next thing I saw was a bit of a struggle in the bush and some guy screaming “I have it” I thought to myself there is no way that is a crocodile, how would a skinny guy like that catch a crocodile. Before I could finish what I was thinking about he flew is the only word for it out of the bush about 15 feet or so back into the marsh land. Me being the sceptic that I am thought this is staged, it even looked fake the way it happened, I was about to switch it off and another guy said that he got it and the other 17 men rushed to give him a hand. So I left it playing and to my amazement when the camera man came closer you could see that it was a massive snake.

I had never seen any thing as big as this snake. It had taken a Goat from one of the farmers locally and swallowed it and was heading off to digest it when the farmer alerted the film crew, they were there to film something completely different that day but ended catching this event.

They pulled the snake out and hooded its head, it took 20 men to hold this snake down and probably could have done with more by the looks of the way things were going for them. You could make out the outline of the goat horns and every thing as it was wedged head first half way down the snake. The snake was 29 feet long and the width of it was nearly 3 foot that is one chunky snake. I never thought that a snake could grow that large well if its going to go around munching on goats and such animals why wouldn’t it. What came into my mind is what if that wasn’t the biggest snake in the world and there was something bigger??

The Anaconda

Controversy over which is the largest snake in the world is still on going there are parts of the world that are still undiscovered like the Amazon Rain Forest and the Congo Basin Rain Forest. Many of these parts are still undiscovered and perfect habitats for snakes to go unnoticed and left to grow as big as they like the recorded biggest Anaconda was measured 29 feet long and 2 and a half feet thick. This however isn’t the largest snake it’s the largest in bulk ratio to length bu not the biggest.

The anaconda is a predator it hunts its prey they have very bad sight but with its tongue it can detect exactly where the prey is they have a great sense of heat too, it would be like wearing heat sensor goggles that you see on army helicopters or police helicopters using to determine where the enemy lays, this kind of technology came from the studies of the snake and proved itself to be highly accurate for us. It works even better fo the snake. Anacondas have fangs but these are not poisonous fangs like other snakes they are just simply to hold the prey while they ingest their prey. The way the anaconda kills its prey is to bite onto it establishing a hold on it just like the goat above and it wraps itself around the goat squeezing it so it can’t breath it has that tight of a hold on it that its blood stops pumping around its body and the goat dies. It then begins the swallowing process this could take anywhere up to 6 hours to ingest. They swallow the prey whole starting with the head dislocating its jaw to get the whole thing in. It can take up to three days for the snake to digest the goat. They live in the southern parts of the Amazon Rain Forest in areas where there are rivers and marshlands for cover they also like to live alone. When confronted with danger they just slip away from what ever it is they only attack when the are hungry any other time they are quite shy. Anacondas give birth to live young around 24~35, unlike other snakes that lay eggs, because they are so shy it is hard to study them in the wild, they very rarely leave tracks for people to find them because they use the rivers and swamps to get around. The average size of these snakes are 20 feet long and about 300 pounds. Anacondas are part of the boa ~constrictor family this means that they wrap there bodies around their prey and crush them unlike the venomous ones that will poison you first.

The Python

The PYTHON is the longest snake in the world measuring at 33 feet long. The PYTHON can be found in Asia and parts of the Amazon these snakes are part of the boa constrictor family too, these also are non venomous and crush their prey. In Burma people have made these killing machines their pet but when they get to big the usually get let into the wild to kill neighbouring dogs and cats. There has been reports of humans getting eaten by these snakes in most cases they are the snakes owners, where the snake has latched onto them and wrapped around them killing them and eating them. What would posses you to keep one of these snakes is beyond me and I’m sure the victims of these snake attacks would be asking themselves the same question as they took their last breath. These snakes can grow as big as 33 feet and as thick as a telephone pole. These snakes are excellent swimmers too they can stay under the water for up to 30 minutes, they usually eat birds, rats as they grow bigger the prey gets bigger I saw one of these snakes swallow a whole pig.

It seems that these two snakes are duelling it out to see who can grow the longest or the thickest a scientist made a discovery of a fossil of a snake from not that long ago that measured over 45 feet long and weighed up to 2500 pounds so maybe there is a larger snake out there. This discovery was made in an abandoned mine shaft in south America. So the search continues…….