Characteristics, description and lifestyle of the anaconda. Huge anaconda under water The largest anaconda in the world how many meters

03.05.2020

There are many myths and legends about the giant anaconda, and it is sometimes difficult to determine where the truth ends and fiction begins. And it’s all to blame for the huge size of this snake, as well as the inaccessibility of habitats and the hidden lifestyle of the animal.

The giant anaconda has a number of other names: green or common anaconda, as well as water boa.

Description, vernal view of the anaconda

It is interesting! The first official mention of the anaconda in a work of fiction is found in the story "Chronicles of Peru" by Pedro Cies de Leon, which was written in 1553. The author claims that this information is reliable and describes the anaconda as a huge snake 20 feet long with a reddish head and evil green eyes. She was subsequently killed, and a whole fawn was found in her stomach.

Anaconda is a world fauna, with females growing much larger than males. According to the most reliable and verified information, the usual length of this snake does not exceed 4-5 meters. Swedish zoologist G. Dahl in his diaries describes an animal he caught in Colombia more than 8 meters long, and his compatriot Ralph Bloomberg describes anacondas 8.5 meters long. But such sizes are rather an exception to the rule, and stories about caught 11-meter anacondas are nothing more than hunting stories. The case of the capture of a giant anaconda 11 m 40 cm long, described in 1944, is also classified by modern scientists as myths and believe that the size of the snake was greatly exaggerated.

The body of the anaconda is pale greenish in color, covered over the entire surface with light brown oval spots, on the sides they alternate with a number of round grayish-yellow marks with a dark edging. This color is an ideal camouflage in dense tropical thickets among fallen leaves and snags. In the aquatic environment, this coloring also helps the anaconda track down prey and hide from enemies among algae and stones.

The body of the anaconda consists of a spine and a tail, and the ribs of the snake are very flexible and elastic and can strongly bend and straighten when swallowing large prey. The bones of the skull are also elastic, interconnected by soft ligaments that allow the head to stretch and allow the anaconda to swallow a large animal. Language, like all snakes, is incredibly sensitive and mobile, it plays an important role in the study of the environment and communication. Hard and dry scales cover the body like armor, protecting it from enemies. To the touch, the scales are smooth and slippery, which makes catching the anaconda a very difficult task.. Anaconda sheds her skin at a time with a solid "stocking", for this she actively rubs against stones and driftwood.

Habitat

Anaconda lives in the humid tropics and waters of South America. Its greatest number is in Venezuela, Paraguay, Bolivia and Paraguay. Also, the anaconda can often be found in the jungles of Guiana, Guyana and Peru, but due to the fact that the reptile leads a very secretive and inconspicuous way of life, its number has so far only an approximate value. Therefore, it is still a problem for scientists to accurately count the number of anacondas in a particular region. The dynamics of the population is also poorly monitored, and the Red Book indicates that there is no threat of extinction of the species. According to a number of scientists, the anaconda does not belong to animals that are threatened with extermination. Anaconda lives in many public and private zoos around the world, but it is very difficult to create comfortable conditions for breeding, and therefore snakes rarely live up to 20 years in captivity, and the average life expectancy in zoos is short: 7–10 years.

Anaconda is an aquatic inhabitant and lives in the quiet and warm waters of creeks, rivers and channels.. It can also often be found in small lakes in the Amazon basin. Anacondas spend most of their lives in or near water, lying on rocks or in dense tropical thickets, stalking their prey among leaves and snags. Sometimes he likes to bask in the sun on a hill, occasionally climbs trees. In case of danger, it hides in the nearest body of water and can be under water for a very long time. During the dry period, when rivers and canals dry up, anacondas are able to burrow into the silt and coastal soil, being motionless until the onset of the rainy season.

It is interesting! The structure of the head of this giant snake, its nostrils and eyes are not located on the sides, but on top, and when tracking down prey, the anaconda hides under water, leaving them on the surface. The same property helps to escape from enemies. Diving to a depth, this snake closes its nostrils with special valves.

Despite its gigantic size, the anaconda often falls prey to a jaguar or caiman, and a wounded snake can attract the attention of a flock of piranhas, which can also attack a weakened animal.

Compared to the anaconda constrictors we are used to, they are much stronger and more aggressive. They can bite or attack a person, but more often still prefer not to get involved in a conflict. Left alone with a giant reptile, you need to be very careful and do not provoke the anaconda with loud sounds or sudden movements.

It is important! An adult man is able to cope alone with an anaconda, the length of which does not exceed 2-3 meters. The strength and musculature of this snake far exceeds the strength of a boa constrictor; it is generally accepted that one turn of the body of an anaconda is several times stronger than one turn of a boa constrictor. There is a widespread myth that these snakes are able to put a person into a state of hypnosis, this is not true. Like most pythons, the anaconda is not poisonous, but nevertheless its bite can be very painful and dangerous to humans.

Since time immemorial, there have been many myths and legends that describe the anaconda as a predator that often attacks humans. The only officially recorded case of an attack on a person is an attack on a child from an Indian tribe, which can be considered an accident. When a person is in the water, the snake does not see him completely and can easily be mistaken for a capybara or a deer cub. Anaconda does not prey on humans, and local Indian tribes often catch anacondas for the sake of tender and pleasant meat, and various souvenirs and crafts for tourists are made from leather.

The famous English zoologist Gerald Durrell describes his hunting for the anaconda and describes it not as a formidable predator, but an animal that defended itself poorly and did not show aggression. The zoologist caught her by simply grabbing her by the tail and throwing a bag over the head of the "fierce anaconda". Once in captivity, the snake behaved rather calmly, moving weakly in the bag and hissing softly. Perhaps she was small and very frightened, which easily explains such a "peaceful" behavior.

Nutrition

Anaconda hunts in the water or on the shore, suddenly attacking its prey. It usually feeds on mammals and small reptiles. Agouti rodents, large waterfowl and fish often fall prey to the giant python. Larger anacondas can easily swallow a caiman or capybara, but this does not happen often. A hungry anaconda may, on rare occasions, prey on turtles and other snakes. There is a known case when an anaconda attacked a two-meter python in a zoo.

This huge snake is able to sit in ambush for long hours, waiting for the right moment. When the victim approaches the minimum distance, the anaconda makes a lightning throw, clings to the victim and wraps around it with a steel grip of a muscular body. Despite popular belief, these snakes, like pythons, do not break the bones of their prey, but strangle it, gradually squeezing the chest and lungs. Often the anaconda creeps into villages and attacks small livestock, even domestic dogs and cats can become its victims. Among anacondas, cases of cannibalism are known, when adults attack young ones.

reproduction

Anacondas lead a solitary lifestyle and gather in several individuals only for the breeding season.. Usually this time falls on the wet rainy season, which in the Amazon Valley begins in late April. The female marks her tracks with a special substance that contains pheromones and attracts sexually mature males. Several adult animals huddle around the female in a huge pile, hiss and arrange battles. When mating, like other snakes, anacondas twist into a tight ball, and the male covers and holds the female with special rudiments, making specific creaky sounds. Since several males participate in mating at once, it still remains unexplored which of them she prefers, the largest, the youngest, or the one who was the first to “date”.

It is interesting! The fact that before mating the female eats intensively, since after the onset of pregnancy she will not be able to hunt for more than six months. The period of drought can last a very long time and the pregnant female actively seeks shelter protected from the sun with the remnants of life-giving moisture.

Usually pregnancy lasts 7 months, after which the female gives birth to up to 40 cubs.. Anaconda belongs to viviparous snakes and after giving birth, along with living offspring, it throws out undeveloped embryos and eats them along with dead cubs, thereby providing itself with some energy until the time when it can go hunting again. After birth, small anacondas are already completely independent and will soon spread out in search of small prey. Most of the babies die, becoming victims of small predators and crocodiles, but up to half of the offspring can reach adulthood.

Anaconda Enemies

The anaconda has many enemies, and the main ones among them are caimans, who also live in rivers and channels and lead a similar lifestyle. Also, cougars and jaguars often hunt the anaconda, often young or weakened animals during the drought period, as well as males that have lost their strength after mating, often fall prey to predators. But The main enemy of the anaconda is a man who hunts giant snakes for fun and entertainment.. The skin of the anaconda is also highly valued by tourists, making it attractive to poachers.

It is interesting! A small Paraguayan anaconda can be bought from private sellers, its price depends on the size and is 10-20 thousand rubles.

Anaconda (water boa) - a large non-venomous snake, belongs to the class of reptiles, the scaly order, the suborder of snakes, the infraorder lower snakes, the false-legged family, the subfamily, the genus of anaconda ( Eunectes).

According to etymologists, the name of the snake originates from the Sinhalese language and comes from the word "henakandaya", meaning "rattlesnake". Another version says that the anaconda got its name from the Tamil word, consonant with the word "anaconda", which translates as "elephant killer". In the scientific classification, the genus name sounds like Eunectes, which in Latin means “good swimmer”.

Anaconda - description and characteristics. What does an anaconda look like?

Anaconda is a very large snake, and females are much larger than males. In accordance with scientifically confirmed data, the largest female anaconda was caught in Venezuela: the length of the anaconda was 5 meters 21 centimeters, including the tail, and the body weight was 97.5 kilograms. Rumors about the capture of anacondas 9-11 m long are regarded by some scientists as false. Although the Soviet books indicate a different maximum length of this snake - 11.43 meters (Akimushkin I. "The World of Animals", "The Life of Animals", edited by Zenkevich, vol. 4, part 2).

Like all reptiles, the axial skeleton of the anaconda is divided into a body and a tail, consisting of vertebrae, the number of which can be 435 pieces.

The ribs of the snake are movable and diverge widely when swallowing large prey.

The skull of the anaconda is distinguished by a movable articulation of bones connected by elastic ligaments.

Thanks to this feature, the snake has the ability to open its mouth very wide, swallowing large prey whole.

The nostrils and eyes of the anaconda are located high on the head, thanks to which these snakes, like crocodiles, can breathe and at the same time be completely under water, guarding a potential victim.

The snake's eyes are protected by transparent scales (lids) and are adapted to track the movement of objects rather than focus images.

Anaconda teeth are long and sharp, but contain no venom. Therefore, an anaconda bite for a person can be very sensitive, but completely safe.

The snake's tongue is an important olfactory and gustatory organ that is in constant motion.

Due to the absence of mucous glands, the skin of the anaconda is dense and dry, shiny due to glossy scales.

The molting of the reptile occurs according to the principle of “turned inside out stocking” - the snake molts in a single layer at a time.

The body of the anaconda is evenly colored grayish green, yellowish or olive.

There are 2 rows of large dark spots along the spine - a classic example of disguise, perfectly hiding the snake against the background of the water surface and dark aquatic vegetation.

How long does an anaconda live?

Like most large snakes (and boas), anacondas grow throughout their life cycle, the first years are especially intensive, and when mature, they grow much more slowly. It is not known exactly how long the anaconda lives in natural conditions, but in captivity the average age of the snake is 5-6 years. The maximum recorded lifespan of the anaconda was 28 years.

Where does the anaconda live?

Anacondas live on the island of Trinidad, as well as throughout the tropics of South America: the range covers countries such as Venezuela and Peru, Brazil and eastern Paraguay, Ecuador, northern Bolivia, Colombia, Guyana and Guiana. A typical environment where the anaconda lives is quiet river channels with a weak current, river backwaters and swamps. If the reservoir dries up, the anaconda snake moves downstream along the riverbed or burrows into the silt and falls into suspended animation before the onset of the rainy season.

These huge snakes are excellent swimmers, because they spend almost their entire lives in the water, occasionally crawling ashore to bask in the sun, or climb trees, wrapping their bodies around lower branches.

What does the anaconda eat?

At the bottom of the river, the anaconda sheds its old skin, hunts in the same place or lies in wait for prey near the shore. The anaconda is a non-venomous snake, and it is characterized by a hunting method common to all boas: the snake motionlessly guards the prey, and then makes a sharp throw, wraps around the victim with a muscular body and strangles. But it does not press or break the animal's bones, as boas usually do. As a result, the victim of the anaconda dies of suffocation. Also, the snake can grab prey with its teeth.

The anaconda feeds on various types of mammals and reptiles, fish in the snake's menu occupies the least significant part.

Agoutis, iguanas and other waterfowl, as well as some large animals: capybaras, peccaries, young caimans, capybaras, and tupinambis, including rather large pythons, serve as food for her.

Illegible anacondas practice cannibalism. Also, small domestic animals often become victims of giant snakes:, and.

Despite powerful stomach acids, large food is digested for several weeks, leaving a significant supply of nutrients and energy in the reptile's body. Thanks to this feature, anaconda snakes are by no means voracious and can go completely without food for a long time.

Anaconda - photos, types and names

The anaconda genus includes 4 modern types of snakes:

Giant anaconda (common anaconda, green anaconda)(Eunectes murinus)

the largest species of anacondas with a body length of about 5-6 meters. The body of the snake is gray-green in color, the back is covered with 2 rows of large brown spots of a round or oval shape, arranged in a checkerboard pattern. A series of small yellow round marks with a black border runs along the lateral surface of the snake's body. The giant anaconda lives in the tropical zone of South America from Brazil and Paraguay to Bolivia, Peru and the island of Trinidad. The snake prefers slow-flowing, muddy backwaters and shallow lakes of the Amazon and Orinoco river basins.

Paraguayan anaconda, she is southern or yellow anaconda(Eunectes notaeus)

has a length of 2 to 4 meters. Most representatives of the species are yellow in color, but there are greenish and gray individuals. The body of the anaconda is decorated with a large pattern of black or brown spots of a round or oblong shape with a light middle. The Paraguayan anaconda lives in the stagnant or low-flowing waters of Paraguay, northern Argentina and southern Bolivia.

Eunectes beniensis

a snake resembling the Paraguayan anaconda in appearance, and in this regard, there is a possibility of classifying this species as Eunectes notaeus. The length of the anaconda is 4 m, the snakes have a brownish-olive or brown back color and a gray-brown-yellow color of the lower body. The pattern is represented by 5 longitudinal dark stripes on the head and hundreds of evenly dark spots on the back. This species of anaconda inhabits swamps and humid forests in the northeast of Bolivia and, possibly, in the adjacent territories of Brazil.

Anaconda Deschauensea(Eunectes deschauenseei)

a rare, little-studied species, whose representatives are relatively small in size: the length of an adult anaconda is 1.3-1.9 meters. The snake lives in a swampy area in the northeast of Brazil and in Guiana.

Anaconda is the largest reptile that lives on the planet. These huge snakes cause, if not panic fear, then outright panic. The weight of 150 kilograms and the length of 10 meters are not fantastic fragments from an adventure book, these are real facts. What is the largest anaconda in the world today recorded, and what reward awaits the brave man who caught a snake more than 10 meters?

Giants of the Animal World: Descendants of Ancient Serpents

Ancient books mention powerful and great snakes that can swallow a person and even digest a healthy bull. Evolutionary biologists are still arguing about the origin of reptiles.

Some believe that the snake originated from reptiles, while others refute this fact, expressing an opinion about the relationship between the snake known today and the ancient water descendant. The huge ancient fossils displayed in museums are comparable to the size of a school bus. The findings and assumptions of many biologists and scientists are still the subject of controversy and hypotheses that are still waiting for scientific confirmation or refutation.

Mysteries of the big size: what is known about anacondas today?

Thanks to existing facts, myths turn into a frightening reality. A deadly predator with powerful musculature, a forked tongue for tracking prey, and strong, recurved teeth for grasping food, this is the largest carnivorous reptile on the planet, the anaconda.

The snake's habitat is the hard-to-reach places of Venezuela, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador and Paraguay. The low-flowing places of the Amazon River and the lakes of the Orinoco Basin provide anacondas with the opportunity to catch even cattle. Snakes are aquatic, but can easily move on land.

The lack of information and little knowledge of the existing snake population does not provide an opportunity to more accurately establish some facts: how many individuals live in the world, what is their life expectancy in the wild, and how realistic are the statements about the existence of individuals over 20 meters. It is known that females are three times larger than males, their size and mass allows them to capture larger prey, and the eaten porcupine can be digested for about a week.

Three types of anacondas are known:

giant anaconda;
ordinary;
green.

The snake lies in wait for the victim, as a rule, near the reservoir. Favorite treats are iguanas, waterfowl and turtles. Cases of cannibalism for a snake are a characteristic feature. In the zoo, the anaconda strangled and ate a 3-meter python, which was with her in the same terrarium.

Anaconda and man

Man and his way of life attracts reptiles. Cases are recorded when the female showed interest in small children, dogs and pets. The reptile is considered dangerous when meeting a person in the water. Here her agility and strength doubles. While on land, the anaconda is quite apathetic relative to humans. Cases when an anaconda attacks a person are rare and are considered the exception rather than the pattern. When meeting a person, the anaconda opens its large mouth, trying to scare. The snake perceives a person as a predator, not food.

The cases of the meeting of a man and an anaconda, described in books, are classified as "legends". Since there are no reliable facts and documents confirming the existence of a snake more than 10 meters. A common story, described in detail in books, concerns 1944, when an anaconda measuring 11 meters and 43 centimeters was caught by geologists in the jungles of Colombia. So far, no reptiles with the indicated sizes have been found. A special award of $50,000 (established in America) awaits the brave man who will catch and deliver an anaconda larger than 9 meters and 12 centimeters.

Huge death machine - South American anaconda

The impact force of the anaconda is like that of a heavyweight boxer, a group of powerful muscles that wrap around the victim and kill without the slightest drop of poison. The victim dies of suffocation. The main advantage of the reptile is its weight and muscles, wrapping itself around the victim, the snake does not allow breathing. After the anaconda feels that the victim has been suffocated, it is time to eat. Large and curved teeth swallow and push food, and the pharynx of the reptile at the time of swallowing is stretched to an impressive size.

The largest anaconda in the world resides today at the Zoological Society of New York. Length and weight are listed in: 9 meters long and 130 kg live weight. Claims of capturing a specimen larger than 15 meters today have no confirmation. In nature, there are anacondas 4-5 meters long. Large reptiles are rare.

Weaknesses of a fearsome reptile

The natural habitat for anacondas is ponds with large thickets. Here the prey is hunted, stocking up with the right amount of fat for bearing offspring. Increased appetite is characteristic of the anaconda in the premarital period. The female absorbs a large amount of food, because during pregnancy (7 months) she will not eat food. Bearing offspring for some snakes ends tragically: death from starvation at the end of the term is a frequent occurrence.

The process of eating food is also considered a dangerous moment for the life of a reptile. Indeed, at this moment the snake is defenseless against a potential enemy, and if another predator sees it during the period of ingestion of food, most likely, the snake itself will become a victim. If we take into account such a distinctive feature as the duration of swallowing for more than 5 hours, then there is plenty of time for the snake to be swallowed by a predator. The reptile becomes a victim of an attack by a jaguar, caiman or a flock of piranhas in a pond.

Queen snake: interesting facts

Anaconda is the snake that was considered little studied until the 20th century. Scientists, trying to find out some features of the life and activity of the reptile, moved for several years to live in places of its accumulation. Each new fact is news in the world of science.

Today, the following is known about the anaconda:

the female is larger and stronger than the male;
scientific name - Eunectes;
anaconda - the most "water-loving" snake;
the snake strangles the victim until it feels the beats of the heart;
teeth serve as a means to capture the victim, the main power of the reptile is its muscles;
females give birth to live fry while other reptiles lay eggs;
the number of descendants - 25-30 pieces;
from one brood up to a year, only 20-30% of individuals survive;
at the beginning of the mating season, the female anaconda spreads a scent in the air that attracts the male;
eyes and nostrils are located at the top of the head;
growth does not stop throughout life;
life expectancy in captivity - 5 years, in nature - 35-40;
acids are able to dissolve even large bones;
after defecation of the reptile, it is impossible to make out which animal was eaten.

The largest anaconda in the world, which was caught and measured by a person, is not considered an indicator. After all, it is known that the length of a reptile in the wild can reach 15 meters or more. The facts known to scientists every year change the understanding of the real parameters of this giant. Perhaps in a few years a new record for the longest snake in the world will be set. After all, climatic changes on the planet and a decrease in the number of reservoirs only contribute to the growth of this population. Every year the length of the anaconda increases.

Anacondas are definitely the largest reptiles living on our planet. They are incredibly huge, because they reach a length of 10 meters and weigh about 140 kilograms. One of their appearances terrifies even the greatest daredevils, because it was not in vain that in ancient times there were myths about huge snakes capable of swallowing a person whole.

Now the stories have become a reality and not everyone dares to approach such a creature. Official length the largest anaconda in the world is 11.4 meters. It was found in Colombia, in the swamps, which are the most favorite place for such reptiles. Basically, these giant snakes live in Brazil, Paraguay, Peru and Ecuador. They often appear in the vicinity of the Amazon, where the current is not so fast. There they have the opportunity to attack cattle, because the volume of their body allows them to easily cope even with a bull.

It is known that, being the largest snake, the anaconda spends most of its time in the water, but it can also move perfectly on land. She is a cold-blooded creature. Her body does not generate its own heat, so she has to look for sunny places where she can keep warm. Suitable conditions are 25-27 degrees of heat, but if it gets hotter, the reptile begins to look for a secluded place to cool off.

They have special teeth that are designed to capture the victim. In fact, anacondas wrap their prey in rings and, due to the power of their body, squeeze it so that it begins to suffocate. They do not relax their grip until they feel that the victim's heart has completely stopped. After the largest snake in the world, the anaconda begins to absorb its food and this process is lengthy. It all depends on the size of the prey, but sometimes it takes about 6 hours just to completely swallow the victim. During this period, she is more vulnerable than ever, because she has nothing to attack and defend with. The acids that the reptile has can successfully dissolve even the thickest bones, and after defecation, no one will ever be able to say what the giant snake managed to catch, eat and digest .

Even a photo of the largest anaconda will not be able to convey all its power and massiveness. Scientists, despite the fact that it is extremely difficult to study these reptiles, not only because of their size and the threat they pose, but also because they are extremely difficult to find, have found that anacondas grow throughout their lives. . At the same time, in captivity they live a maximum of 5 years, and in freedom their age reaches 30-37 years.

It is proved that among these creatures the largest are females. The volume of their body is twice, or even three times the size of males. During the mating season, they release a special smell into the air, thereby inviting a partner. At one time, the female gives birth to 20 to 30 fry, but no more than 30% of them survive, otherwise the inhabitants of Brazil and Colombia would have big problems.

This is due to the fact that from the very first second of their birth, newborn anacondas take care of themselves. They get their own food and learn to survive in the harsh world around them. Their length at the time of birth is already almost a meter, but despite this, as well as their innate ability to swim, they can become easy prey for caimans, jaguars and even birds.

100 Great Wildlife Records Nepomniachtchi Nikolay Nikolayevich

THE LARGEST SNAKE IN THE WORLD - ANACONDA

Anaconda (Eunectes murinus) - the world's largest snake - inhabits the entire tropical South America east of the Cordillera and the island of Trinidad. The average size of an adult anaconda is 5–6 m, but occasionally there are individuals up to 10 m long.

A unique, authentically measured specimen from Eastern Colombia reached 11 m 43 cm (however, this specimen could not be preserved). The main color of the body of the anaconda is grayish-green with large dark brown spots of a rounded or oblong shape, alternating in a checkerboard pattern. On the sides of the body there is a row of small light spots surrounded by a black stripe. This coloring perfectly hides the anaconda when it lurks, lying in a quiet backwater, where brown leaves and tufts of algae float on gray-green water. Anaconda's favorite places are low-flowing branches and backwaters, oxbow lakes and lakes, swampy lowlands in the Amazon and Orinoco river basins. In such secluded corners, the anaconda, lying in the water, guards its prey - various mammals that come to drink (agouti, paka, peccaries), waterfowl, sometimes turtles and young caimans. Domestic pigs, dogs, chickens, ducks also fall prey to the anaconda when they approach the water.

Anaconda often crawls ashore and takes sunbaths, but does not move far from the water. She swims well, dives and can stay under water for a long time, while her nostrils are closed with special valves. When the reservoir dries up, the anaconda moves to the neighboring ones or goes downstream the river. During the dry period, which may occur in some areas, the anaconda burrows into the bottom silt and falls into a stupor, in which it remains until the rains resume. The process of molting at the anaconda also often takes place under water: in captivity, it was necessary to observe how the snake, having plunged into the pool, rubs its belly against its bottom and gradually pulls the crawl out from itself.

Anaconda is ovoviviparous, and the female bears from 28 to 42 cubs 50–80 cm long, but occasionally she can lay eggs. They do not live long in captivity - usually 5–6 years, the maximum life expectancy in captivity is 28 years. The main food of the anaconda is rabbits, guinea pigs, rats, but it also eats various reptiles, fish, and sometimes swallows snakes. Once a 5-meter anaconda strangled and ate a 2.5-meter dark python, which took her only 45 minutes. Contrary to the numerous "terrible" stories of "eyewitnesses", the anaconda cannot be considered dangerous for an adult. Single attacks on people are made by the anaconda, apparently by mistake, when the snake sees only a part of the human body under water, or if it seems to her that they want to attack her or take away her prey. Only the case of the death of a thirteen-year-old boy swallowed by an anaconda, cited by R. Blomberg, is quite reliable. Local hunters, as a rule, are not afraid of the anaconda and kill it whenever possible. A number of myths and superstitions that exist among Indian tribes are associated with this snake.

COL FAUCETT'S 19 METERS ANACONDA

In the folklore of every nation there are legends about dragons and daredevils who fought with them. Is there a real basis for these myths?

There is - say scientists-realists. These myths are generated by the finds in the earth of the bones of gigantic lizards of the Mesozoic - the rest is a figment of the imagination. The dragon from the engraving depicting the duel of the medieval knight Winkelried is very similar to the plesiosaur. This sea lizard looked like a giant snake being pulled through a giant sea turtle.

The legend of St. George, scientists believe, is a reflection of people's persistent dislike for snakes, which is especially characteristic of Western culture. And it is no coincidence that when we want to call for silence or draw attention to ourselves, we emit a half-whistle-half-hiss.

Other zoologists, experts in unraveling the secrets of the animal world (even the term “cryptozoologist” appeared), believe that the prototypes of dragons lived in the historical era, and maybe they live to this day.

The image of the dragon is extremely popular in China, but it is difficult to agree that its real prototypes, barely reaching two meters, - the Chinese alligator (Alligator sinensis) or the striped monitor lizard - are the only more or less "dragon-like" reptiles in China. No, these applicants are clearly unworthy of the title of dragon. The Belgian cryptozoologist Bernard Euvelmans believes that the mysterious animal depicted on the Babylonian gates of the goddess Ishtar, known to the Babylonians under the name "sirrush" and dedicated to the god Marduk, is nothing more than ... a dinosaur. The scientist believes that the Babylonians portrayed the lizard from life or according to the descriptions of eyewitnesses. Sirrush really looks like a reconstruction of a dinosaur, and next to it we see figures of animals that are by no means fabulous, but common at that time in Mesopotamia: now exterminated lions and wild bulls of aurochs.

In tropical Africa, there are still rumors about giant reptiles - eaters of hippos, which are similar to ceratosaurs. The indigenous population sincerely believes in their existence, and some Europeans saw them. To what are these testimonies attributed? A game of sick imagination?

... Karl Hagenbeck combined an observant naturalist and an enterprising businessman. Would he have invested a lot of money in a chimerical enterprise - catching the mysterious “chipekwe”, which was equipped with his most experienced trapper Hans Schomburgk? Before that, Schomburgk brought pygmy hippos to Europe, to the Hagenbeck Zoo - they were also considered a chimera, and now this chimera (and even with offspring) can be seen in zoos. At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century, a whole series of amazing discoveries of large animals was made in Central Africa: mountain gorilla, okapi, broad-faced rhinoceros, giant forest pig.

But Schomburgk, having become seriously ill, did not catch the Chipeque.

In the legends, a maiden was always sacrificed to dragons, which in the end became a reward for a knight. In those places where they worshiped crocodiles, this monstrous custom was a reality until recently ... How to regard this relic: maybe it is the maintenance of the cult of the "substitute"?

Belief in the dragon persisted for a long time: until the 18th century, their stuffed animals were brought to Europe. One such effigy was shown in Hamburg to Carl Linnaeus. The creator of modern biological systematics easily established: the "dragon" was skillfully combined from pieces of snake skin, a marten's skull, and eagle's paws. The disgraced owner of the "dragon" was so furious that Linnaeus had to urgently leave Hamburg to avoid revenge.

The science of reptiles called the small lizard “dragon” and suggested cryptozoologists to abandon fruitless searches, leaving myths to folklorists: reptiles still live on Earth, the size of which is able to compete with dragons.

The dragons that will be discussed are giant false-legged snakes, boas and pythons. Let us make a reservation right away: not all pseudo-legged giants, but all giant snakes more than 5–6 m long are pseudo-legged.

It was them that Pliny, Aristotle, Elian had in mind when they wrote about "dragons", putting into this concept the general meaning: "big snake". They retain the rudiments of the pelvic girdle and hind limbs - the ancestors of snakes were lizards, but the separation occurred in the Cretaceous period. The appearance of a modern snake is so perfect and complete that in the East there was an expression “to attach legs to a snake”, that is, to do something ridiculous and useless to anyone. In boas and pythons, the remains of the legs look like two short, sharp black spurs (or two claws) at the base of the tail. When snakes mate, intertwining in an "embrace", the screeching of spurs on the skin is heard in the jungle (or in the terrariums of zoos) from afar.

The existence of giant snakes somewhere "on the edge of the Oecumene" was known in ancient times. The army of Regulus, during a campaign in Africa, allegedly met a huge snake that killed many soldiers until they killed him himself. Pliny saw his skin, which was then brought to Rome. According to him, it was about 40 m long. The King of Egypt, Ptolemy II, the son of Ptolemy, an associate of Alexander the Great, had a hunting farm “Ptolemais termon” on the shores of the Red Sea. There he was brought from the depths of Africa a living "snake thirty cubits long."

Ancient authors attributed to such snakes the ability to ... choke and swallow elephants. These myths have been around for over 1,500 years in scientific literature. Edward Topsell even described how the snake does this: it hides its head in the crown of a tree, hanging its tail like a rope. When an unsuspecting elephant comes up to cut off branches with its trunk and send it into its mouth, the snake throws an arrow at it, grabs its head with its mouth so as to close the eyes of the elephant, and strangles it. In general, the method of hunting is described correctly - except for the size of the victim.

Tamils in the south of Hindustan call giant snakes "anai-kolra" - "elephant killer". Most likely, the Tamils, who knew the fauna of their region much better than the Europeans, attributed the ability to kill elephants (by poison, not by strangulation) to the king cobra (Ophiophagus Hannah); but the Tamil nickname took root in the literature of past centuries in relation to giant snakes and even firmly stuck, slightly distorted, to a snake that can only meet an elephant in a zoo if it crawls out of a terrarium. This is the anaconda (Eunectes murinus), an inhabitant of the Amazon and Orinoco basins.

This snake is called the "spirit of the Amazon", the "mother of the waters"; the Indians of the basins of the rivers where it is found prefer not to call it by its proper name - so great is the fear of it. And one of the tribes, the Taruma, considers the anaconda to be its progenitor. The Indians believe that the gigantic anaconda can transform, for example, into a boat under a white sail; and when the first paddle steamers slapped across the Amazon, frightening the caimans, the myth was "modernized." At night, a snake-spirit in the form of a steamboat floats along the river, the portholes are lit, the voices of the team are heard, and then the “ghost steamer” stops at the first village that comes across. Residents who take it into their heads to take some cargo on board are never destined to return ...

What is a real anaconda, and not a mythical one?

“... We were slowly drifting downstream near the confluence of the Abunan with the Rio Negro, when almost under the very bow of the boat a triangular head and several feet of a wriggling body appeared. It was a giant anaconda. I rushed for the gun and, as she was already climbing ashore, with hasty aim, I put a blunt-nosed bullet into her spine, ten feet below the satanic head. The river immediately churned and frothed, and several heavy blows shook the bottom of the boat, as if we had stumbled upon a snag ...

With great difficulty I persuaded the Indians to turn towards the shore. In fear, they rolled their eyes so that only whites were visible ...

As accurately as possible, we measured its length; in that part of the body that protruded from the water, there were forty-six feet, and another seventeen feet were in the water, which totaled sixty-two feet.

The passage quoted is by Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett. Being in the service of the governments of several Latin American countries, the British colonel was engaged in a complex and dangerous business: he outlined a demarcation line between three states - Colombia, Venezuela and Brazil - in an area where no white man had set foot before him. He saw things there that no one believed him later: ape people, lost cities, and even ... ghosts; in his diary, stories about all these wonders are interspersed with surprisingly vivid and accurate descriptions of the nature of South America and the life of the peoples inhabiting it. Fawcett was acquainted with the famous writers Henry Ryder Haggard and Arthur Conan Doyle. Arthur Conan Doyle was inspired by Fawcett's stories to write his Lost World.

Fawcett did not return from his last trip, and his notes were published by the youngest son Brian, published in the form in which they were written, without cutting the places that cause skepticism and ridicule. The episode of the meeting with the nineteen-meter anaconda Brian Fawcett commented bitterly: "When the news of this snake reached London, my father was declared a notorious liar."

But this skepticism is quite justified - how many times have you heard how adventurers and scientists who returned from the “green hell” swore by all the saints, assuring that they managed to see or shoot a snake much more than 10 m long. served as a pirogue (it was the same length or "much longer than our pirogue"), but if it was possible to lay it down with a bullet, then at the last moment it came to life and slipped away. Well, how can you not remember about the huge fish that always breaks off the hook! So the prize set by the New York Zoological Society in the 1930s remains unclaimed: a thousand dollars to anyone who presents physical evidence of the existence of an anaconda over 40 feet (12.2 meters) long, despite the fact that ex-President Theodore Roosevelt enlarged it 5 thousand dollars, reducing the length of the required snake to 30 feet (9.14 m). Nowadays, the award has been increased to 50 thousand, but no one has come for it!

But let's stop laughing. There is nothing fantastic in the fact that the anaconda, which the miner “killed” and managed to measure, could come to life and slip into the water, there is nothing fantastic. The level of organization of the nervous system of huge reptiles is quite low, and, figuratively speaking, they do not immediately realize that they are killed. So the fabulous trophy becomes a victim of piranhas and caimans at the bottom of the river. Therefore, the herpetological world, after reporting that in 1944 in Colombia, a petroleum geologist, having measured a “killed” anaconda with a steel tape measure (which then “came to life” and crawled away), received 11 m 43 cm, decided: to consider this figure reliable, maximum for anaconda. However, this case is an exception: zoologists believe only museum data.

However, it is not always possible to believe the size of the removed and dried skins. The length of one tiger python (Python Tolurus), measured immediately after death, was 247 cm, and the length of its dried skin was 297 cm.

However, they often talk not only about the fantastic size of the anaconda, but also about cases of its hunting for people. True, few of these stories stand up to criticism, although even a medium-sized anaconda is quite strong enough to strangle a person. It can be firmly said that a person attacked by a five-six-meter snake will not free himself without outside help. Employees of the “snake” institute of Butantan and the police of São Paulo officially recorded the case when a person was strangled by a snake 3.75 m long. In 1939, in the circus arena in Belgrade, a python 4 m long strangled the artist who worked with him. If you unexpectedly step on this snake, falling, say, waist-deep into a swamp, then its reflexes will work instantly - before it realizes that you are not its prey. But this does not mean that the snake is stalking people and deliberately chasing them in order to devour them.

Nevertheless, there are rare exceptions to the rule: Rolf Blomberg, who was the first to penetrate the holy of holies of the "mother of waters", described two such cases; two are also known for Asian pythons: dark (Python molurus bivittatus) and reticulated (Python reticulatus). A case is widely known when a reticulated python on the island of Salebabu strangled and swallowed a fourteen-year-old boy, and in two more cases out of three, teenagers became victims of huge snakes ...

Rumor attributes a tendency to cannibalism to hieroglyphic pythons (Python sebae), and only on one of the islands of Lake Victoria, in other parts of the range this was not noticed behind them. But do not rush to blame the pythons: these terrible inclinations were developed in them ... the people themselves are serpent worshipers, who, on the orders of the priests, fed the weak and children to the pythons ...

There is no doubt that giant snakes see a person and “smell” the smell and warmth of his body (they have special organs for this) when a person does not suspect this, but they switch to aggression only with a direct threat from the latter.

Robert Shelford, curator at the Sarawak Museum, warned against being uncritical about reports of snake attacks. He noted two cases where forensics helped unmask killers who, by wrapping the corpses of their victims in rattan vines, attempted to mimic strangulation by a python. They did not know that the hug of a python does not leave scars ...

For some reason, giant snakes do not include humans in the list of their usual victims. Here the anaconda can feast on a crocodile - two-meter caimans were removed from its stomach. There were such cases in zoos: once in the Moscow Zoo, a boa constrictor entered his neighbor's crocodile and "without further ado" swallowed it. Anaconda - a thunderstorm of deer, bakers, capybaras, she also eats fish and turtles. Loosely attached jaws, a protected brain, and an exposed windpipe allow it to swallow large animals. Contrary to popular belief, giant snakes never break the victim's ribs, the snake's compression intensifies with each movement of the prey's chest until breathing stops; its strength is such that the ribs can be twisted out of the vertebrae. They do not "lick" a dead body before eating - this observation was made by those who saw prey regurgitated by a frightened snake.

When the reservoirs dry up in the summer, the anaconda sinks into silt and falls into a stupor, which was already known to Alexander Humboldt. Eyewitnesses say that its twisted rings, covered with a gray dried crust of mud on top, are similar to the imprint of the shell of a Jurassic ammonite mollusk - it remains in such a half-asleep state until the start of the rainy season.

Much further south lives another species of anaconda - Paraguayan (Eunectes notaeus). This anaconda does not exceed 2.5 m and has a brighter color, but in all other respects it is similar to its northern sister. Southern anacondas are more often found in zoos than giant anacondas. They breed there quite often.

Who knows, you might still come across an anaconda like the one Colonel Fawcett shot? From the Eocene deposits in Egypt, the remains of the Gigantophis snake, about 15–18 m long, are known. Zoologists believe that its estimated length, calculated on the basis of the size of the vertebrae, is noticeably overestimated and that modern snakes are larger than fossils.

In addition to anacondas, there are many boas in South America, and in the Eastern Hemisphere there are pythons, whose fame is somewhat less scandalous. The common boa constrictor (Boa constrictor) is the most famous. In South America, boa can be found not only in the selva and pampas: both in a rural house and in an Indian hut, a boa constrictor is a welcome guest. On the island of Grenada, one boa constrictor that crawled into an apartment was found in a toilet bowl.

Gerald Durrell wrote well about the constrictor: “The boa constrictor exterminates rats much more diligently than any cat, and besides, it is more beautiful as a decorative element: the boa constrictor, gracefully, as only snakes can do, wrapped around the beam of your house, is not the worst decoration. for a dwelling than beautiful rare wallpaper, and besides, you have the advantage that the decoration earns its own living.

The largest representative of this species reaches a length of 5.6 m. Pythons have gone far ahead in this respect: the reticulated python is considered the longest snake in the world - in one of the zoos in Japan there is a specimen over 12 m long. It is not much inferior to hieroglyphic (9.81 m) and dark - a subspecies of tiger (slightly less than 10 m). Like a boa constrictor, reticulated and hieroglyphic pythons do not avoid human habitation, but quite the contrary - it is clear that it is easier for them to catch rats, chickens, dogs and cats than cautious forest game.

During their excursions, pythons climb into warehouses, penetrate into the holds of ships. One such python "hare" safely swam in the hold from Indonesia to England. Reticulated pythons have been repeatedly caught in the capital of Thailand - Bangkok, and once caught even in the palace of the King of Thailand. This was in 1907, when Thailand was still called Siam. The defiler of the royal chambers was immediately killed, and inside he was found to have recently lost a beloved Siamese cat of the royal family with a bell around his neck.

The reticulated python's passion for travel led it to be the first vertebrate to inhabit the island of Krakatoa in Indonesia. After the volcanic eruption in 1888, the island was completely flooded with molten lava flows and for a long time was devoid of flora and fauna, until the first settlers came. And an ordinary boa constrictor somehow swam 320 km across the sea and reached the island of St. Vincent. Pythons are skilled hunters: for hours they can lie in ambush without the slightest movement, pretending to be a rotten stump. Their gluttony is great: they found pythons, from the wall of the body of which antelope horns, porcupine quills protruded. Apparently, the snakes did not suffer from these inclusions. In 1948, an almost four-meter hieroglyphic python was delivered to the Dublin Zoo. Before entering the zoo, he lived for three months in captivity, and a year after his arrival in Dublin, the staff, cleaning his premises, found porcupine quills in the litter, undoubtedly swallowed almost a year and a half ago - hair (after all, the quills of hedgehogs and porcupines - this is a modified hair) snakes do not dissolve in the stomach juices. In the excrement of the snake, left eight days after its arrival from Singapore in Hamburg, they found fangs and hooves of a wild boar.

The higher the ambient temperature, the faster the digestion of pythons and other snakes. A python 2.5 m long at a temperature of 28 ° C digests a rabbit in four to five days, at a temperature of 18 ° C - in two weeks. When a rat was fed to a two-meter boa constrictor and an X-ray was taken, after 52 hours the rodent's skull was no longer visible, and after 118 hours the remains of the femur were barely visible in the stomach. Despite such an appetite, pythons can fast for a very long time. One hieroglyphic python starved in captivity for three years; The boa constrictor, which had been under observation for a year and a half on a hunger strike, lost only half of its weight. Python attacks are swift: a case is known when an adult leopard was taken from the stomach of a five-meter python. In single combat with this cat, the snake did not receive a single scratch. Jackals are also quite agile animals, but eyewitnesses observed how the hieroglyphic python twisted three of them one after the other. And one small python caught three sparrows in the terrarium at once, and the third one managed to catch on with its tail! Even the fast-paced mongoose gets to dine with the python.

Karl Hagenbeck, mentioned at the beginning of the story, somehow threw a goat weighing 12 kg to a seven-meter python, and he swallowed it; a few hours later he was also offered a sixteen-pound goat, which immediately followed the first.

Eight days later, a Siberian ibex weighing 35 kg fell at Hagenbeck, and the owner ordered, after cutting off his horns, to throw the corpse to the same snake Gargantua, believing that the snake would “save” this time, but she took the ibex for granted. A dark python swallowed a 54.5 kg pig at the Frankfurt Zoo.

In one zoo, a rhombic python (Morelia spilota) grabbed a rabbit at the same time as another python, a hieroglyph. So he calmly swallowed both the rabbit and his cage neighbor! Sometimes giant snakes in captivity show strange fastidiousness. In Paris, in a zoobotanical garden, rabbits, guinea pigs, kids, various birds were offered to the reticulated python - all to no avail. Finally, a goose was let into the cage, which the python immediately swallowed. It seemed that the fast was over, and the python would now eat everything. But it was not there - until his death, this python did not eat anything but geese.

Having satiated, the snake becomes clumsy - this feature is the basis of the method of catching pythons for zoos, used by hunters of the Malay Archipelago. A live piglet is placed in a cage made of bamboo poles and taken to where there is a chance to meet a python. The snake, having entered the cage, swallows the piglet, however, the distance between the bars is calculated so that everyone is allowed in, but no one is released. A satiated, swollen python has no choice but to curl up into a ball and wait for the arrival of the catchers.

Pythons, like anacondas, are credited with hunting for people, but these rumors are also groundless, although, I repeat, the pythons have enough strength for this. The story of how a ten-meter reticulated python, shot during the war in Burma, belched in agony the corpse of a Japanese soldier in uniform and helmet, should be classified as myths. However, the staff of zoo terrariums, who constantly have to deal with giant snakes, should not forget about the sharp teeth with which their jaws are seated, swift attacks and exorbitant strength.

Once in the Leningrad Zoo, a relatively small python in an instant pressed the hands of an attendant to the body, who grabbed him by the neck in order to put him in a bag and move him to another room. The attendant immediately began to resemble one of the sons of Laocoön, but he did not let go of the snake's neck, fearing that it would grab his nose. It was as if several car tires were put on him - only the head and part of the purple face were sticking out, and a wheeze was heard from the "tires". But this exotic picture, more appropriate in an adventure film than in the center of Leningrad, lasted no more than a minute - soon, by common efforts, the python was placed in a bag. Usually, when working with such snakes, there is a rule - the number of servants is determined at the rate of one person per one meter of the snake.

Anacondas and boas are viviparous reptiles, but this live birth is imaginary: the soft shell of the egg bursts before they are laid.

The zoo found an unusual caring anaconda: the female took eggs with an unexploded shell into her mouth and, biting it, helped the cubs to free themselves. She swallowed egg shells and underdeveloped eggs. Since the anaconda gives birth in the water, it is very important to help the serpent get out into the world in time. True, such care at such a low level of organization of the nervous system sometimes manifests itself not as it should, and the young are swallowed. The discovery of young and unfertilized eggs in the stomach during the autopsy of wild-caught snakes baffled zoologists until such cases were observed in captivity. Pythons, on the other hand, lay eggs and, moreover, “incubate” them. This fact became known as early as 1841, when a female python laid eggs in a zoobotanical garden in Paris. Subsequently, it was found that the temperature between the rings of the incubating female increased by 11–17 °C. It turns out that the brood snake continuously contracts the circular muscles (10-20 times per minute), which produces the heat necessary for the development of the embryo. In nature, pythons lay their eggs mostly in the rotten hollow trunk of a huge tree and curl up around the masonry there.

In captivity, pythons and boas live for quite a long time: from 18 to 40 years, the anaconda lived to 29. There are also capricious species: a short, or motley, python (Python curtus) from India, a dog-headed boa (Corallus caninus). In this tree snake, the slightest change in the musty atmosphere of a terrarium can provoke a prolonged hunger strike.

Of the pythons, the most acceptable in captivity is the royal python (Python regius). It is quite small: the length of the largest is just over one meter. When picked up, it rolls into a tight ball, hiding its head, preferring passive defense. In West Africa, it is called “ball-snake” (ball-snake) or “shame-snake” (shame-snake). The kids there are playing with this python, like with a living puzzle, trying to unfold it, but it is not given.

Apart from these games, in West Africa he is not particularly offended, but on the contrary: when in 1967 an American trapper wanted to take out 1265 royal and hieroglyphic pythons he had caught from one African country, the indignant residents staged a whole demonstration of protest with smashing windows and threats reprisals. The chiefs of Nigeria, in past treaties with the British, have invariably made special reservations about the inviolability of pythons.

The hieroglyphic python is recognized as a totem by the Mandingo and other peoples of West Africa. In Dahomey, for example, spacious huts were provided for the sacred pythons. They were believed to visit every newborn in the first eight days after birth.

Despite their formidable fame, pythons and boas are by no means invincible: their encounters with mammals or other reptiles sometimes end badly for them. It happens that tigers, crocodiles and even hyenas gain the upper hand over them. And here is a completely incredible incident, and if it were not for the testimony of an impartial naturalist Jim Corbett, then one could doubt it: a python more than 5 m long was killed by two otters. These fearless predators attacked him at the same time, and therefore succeeded. And one giant snake had to fight off eight vultures at the same time, and these scavengers also won.

One naturalist, having heard the squealing and grunting of a herd of wild boars in the jungle, rushed there and found such a sight: a python grabbed a desperately squealing pig, and adult pigs, surrounding the snake, tore it with their fangs and trampled it with their hooves. The python released the boar, and the herd, frightened by the man, sped off. The python was so mutilated that he could not crawl any further. If the observer did not intervene, the pigs would simply gobble him up.

If a python happens to be inadvertently on the path of columns of wandering ants, which is not uncommon in Africa, it will not do well, and especially a clumsy, well-fed python. That is why the Ashanti hunters quite seriously assure that, having crushed large prey, the python, before starting the meal, makes reconnaissance - a circle through the forest: is an ant invasion threatened in the next one and a half to two hours?

However, man remains enemy number one for giant snakes. 12 million are transferred to the skin per year - they can encircle the globe along the equator!

And now, in addition to the interest in snake skin, there is an interest in live snakes. In 1970-1971, 100 thousand copies were delivered to pet stores in the United States alone. Some of the most popular snakes are small pythons and boas. Therefore, in the Red Book there was also a place for pseudo-legs: two species of boas from Madagascar (Acrantophis madagascariensis, Sanzitiia madagascariensis), a slender boa constrictor (Epicrates striatus), a tiger python, boas from Round Island (Bolyeria multocarinata, Casarea dussumieri). True, a zoologist from Moscow State University B. D. Vasilyev, having visited Madagascar, was convinced that there are still many boas there - several of them were even brought to Moscow, to the zoo, where the team is working on the problem of their reproduction in captivity. Rare tree pythons and amethyst pythons from New Guinea were bred in captivity by zoologist N. Orlov.

One of the rarest species is the Guatemalan boa constrictor (Ungaliophis continentolis). It was described in 1890, but until recently this species could only be judged by three specimens in museums. It was not possible to catch him, but once a certain herpetologist, looking through reptiles in one of the American zoos, recognized in a snake that was considered a young ordinary boa constrictor, a Guatemalan boa constrictor. The snake, like some other reptiles, arrived from Guatemala with a shipment of bananas and was sold for only two and a half dollars to the zoo in the same capacity: "common boa." Herpetologists rushed to rummage through the whole batch of bananas and to this day they rummage through all the batches from Guatemala, but how can luck fall out twice ...

Where boas and pythons are not deified, they are willingly eaten. In Vietnam, a three-meter dark python provides food for a whole family for a week. Piton meat tastes like veal. A. Brem, having obtained a hieroglyphic python in Sudan, ordered to "cook a piece of this meat." As he further wrote, “Its snow-white color promised much, but it turned out to be hard and resilient, so that we could hardly chew it. It tasted like chicken meat." It turns out that people ate pythons much more than people's pythons ...

Are there boas in our country? Yes, I have. These are boas in all their habits - ambushes, throws, strangling the victim with rings, only they didn’t come out tall, therefore they are called not boas, but boas ... They live in the steppes, semi-deserts and deserts of the North Caucasus, the Caspian Sea, as well as Kazakhstan and Central Asia. We have four types of them: eastern, western, slender and sandy boas (Eryxtataricus, E. jaculus, E. elegans, E. miliaris). The length of most of our snakes does not exceed 1.5 m. Only in the colubrid family there are snakes over 2 m long.

From the book All About Everything. Volume 1 the author Likum Arkady

What is the largest snake in the world? There are over 2000 different types of snakes. These creatures cause negative emotions in people, which has led to many erroneous stories about them. So, sometimes they say that there are huge, terrifying snakes with a length of 18 to 21

From the book The Newest Book of Facts. Volume 1 [Astronomy and astrophysics. Geography and other earth sciences. Biology and Medicine] author

What is the largest railway station in the world? The largest railway station in the world is Grand Central Station in New York. Trains arrive and leave it every two minutes. Half a million people pass through the station every day.

From the book Crossword Guide author Kolosova Svetlana

What is the largest venomous snake in the world? The largest venomous snake is the king cobra (Ophiophagus hannah), also known as the hamadryad, which lives in the tropical forests of Southeast Asia. Its length reaches 5.5 meters. The king cobra (locally called naya) is a good climber.

From the book 100 Great Wildlife Records author Nepomniachtchi Nikolai Nikolaevich

What is the largest snake in the world? The largest (in other words, the longest and thickest) snakes are found among non-venomous ones. The largest modern snake is the anaconda (Eunectes murinus), which lives along the banks of rivers, lakes and swamps in Brazil and Guiana. The length of the anaconda can reach

From the book The Newest Book of Facts. Volume 1. Astronomy and astrophysics. Geography and other earth sciences. Biology and medicine author Kondrashov Anatoly Pavlovich

What is the largest bird? The largest living bird is the African ostrich, which can grow up to 2.44 meters and weigh 136

From the author's book

THE SHORTEST SNAKE IN THE WORLD - THE DOUBLE-LINED NARROW SNAKE The longest specimens of this species (Leptotyphlops bilineata), which lives only on the islands of Martinique, Barbados and Santa Lucia in the Caribbean Sea, reach only 110 mm. True, there is an opinion that the brahmin blind (Fiamphotyphlops braminus)