Green anaconda

Common Name:
Green Anaconda
Scientific Name:
Eunectes murinus
Type:
Reptiles
Diet:
Carnivore
Group Name:
Bed, knot
Average Life Span In The Wild:
10 years
Size:
20 to 30 feet
Weight:
Up to 550 pounds
IUCN Red List Status:
Not evaluated
Current Population Trend:
Unknown

What are green anacondas?

A member of the boa family, South America’s green anaconda is the heaviest snake in the world. Its cousin, the reticulated python, can reach slightly greater lengths, but the enormous girth of the anaconda makes it almost twice as heavy.

Green anacondas can grow to more than 29 feet, weigh more than 550 pounds, and measure more than 12 inches in diameter. Females are significantly larger than males.

There are currently three other anaconda species listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN): yellow, dark-spotted, and Bolivian anacondas. All three are from South America and all smaller than the green anaconda.

A study published February 2024 might add a new name to the list. Researchers found that green anacondas are actually two genetically distinct species. The original Eunectes murinus, or southern green anaconda, and Eunectes akayima, the northern green anaconda, are 5.5 percent different, genetically. Humans are at most two percent genetically different from chimpanzees.

Habitat

Anacondas live in swamps, marshes, and slow-moving streams, mainly in the tropical rain forests of the Amazon and Orinoco basins. They are cumbersome on land, but stealthy and sleek in the water. Their eyes and nasal openings are on top of their heads, allowing them to lay in wait for prey while remaining nearly completely submerged.

Diet and hunting

They reach their monumental size on a diet of wild pigs, deer, birds, turtles, capybara, caimans, and even jaguars. Anacondas are nonvenomous constrictors, coiling their muscular bodies around captured prey and squeezing until the animal asphyxiates. Jaws attached by stretchy ligaments allow them to swallow their prey whole, no matter the size, and they can go weeks or months without food after a big meal.

Reproduction

Female anacondas retain their eggs and give birth to two to three dozen live young. Baby snakes are about 2 feet long when they are born and are almost immediately able to swim and hunt. Their lifespan in the wild is about ten years.

Conservation

Though they originated in South America, green anacondas have spread through some Caribbean Islands and have been spotted in Florida.

According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, they are not yet established and encounters are unlikely—however, they are considered an invasive species because of their size, the variety of animals they might eat, and a lack of natural predators.

The IUCN currently classifies the green anaconda as a species of least concern when it comes to extinction risk—but this classification is based in part on how widely distributed a species is.

The northern green anaconda, described February 2024, has a much smaller range than the southern, which means they're more vulnerable.

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