Venezuela: Los Llanos – Green Anacondas

Take this, Ice Cube! Los llanos is ideal to see green anacondas in the wild, and it was totally not how I expected to see them (I did see anacondas in the Amazon in the water and in Pantanal before). We stopped on the side of the road and the guides jumped into a shallow knee-deep muddy marsh with sticks, poking around them. Apparently, anacondas spend 90% of their time submerged in shallow waters just like this. In a few minutes, they found one and it turned out to be a massive female – over 5m long and probably 150 lb / 70kg. When they pulled it out of the mud, it actually had 3 smaller anacondas twisted all around it – apparently this was a so-called “mating ball” and the smaller ones were males mating with a much larger female. The males quickly dispersed, while the guides pulled out the massive beast. Totally surreal! It took three people to hold it and safely lift it up on our shoulders! Again – totally surreal! The giant snake was pretty calm and cooperated for pictures. It did seem like it had a recent meal inside of it. Adult anacondas prey on the abundant wildlife of the Los Llanos savanna, like capybaras, caimans, turtles, wading birds, white-tailed deer, and peccaries. They seize prey with needle-sharp teeth to hold it fast, then instantly wrap their body coils around the victim to cause rapid circulatory arrest and asphyxiation before swallowing it whole. And turns out the massive 5m snake wasn’t even the largest the guides had seen in Los Llanos – they can grow to 7m and 250lb / 120kg!