Idea #474 – Observing a big un anaconda in French Guyana
Anacondas are semi-aquatic non venomous constrictor snake. Eyes and nostrils of anacondas are positioned on the top of the head, so allowing them to inhale and to see their prey while their voluminous body remains immersed under the surface. The big anaconda is less long than the python, one of the longest sorts of snakes, it is nevertheless heavier and more massive. He can weigh beyond 200 kg and be 38 cm one diameter. Females are bigger than males, measuring on average between 6 and 8 m, whereas males measure 4 m in 6 m. We find them mainly in the North of South America, in Venezuela, in Colombia, in Brazil, in the Ecuador, in the North of Bolivia, in the northeast of Peru, in Guiana, in Guyana, in Suriname and to Trinidad.
The anaconda feeds mainly on big rodents, on tapirs, capybaras, peccaries, fishes, tortoises, dogs and on aquatic reptiles as caimans. He can swallow a prey bigger than the size of his mouth because his jaw can dislocate itself and is connected(bound) in a cowardly way with the skull. It uses its teeth as studs to take forward the prey in the oesophagus. Its digests its preys thanks to powerful gastric juices, the digestion lasting from four to five days.
Anacondas have a bad reputation with the local inhabitants who share their biotopes. These consider them as cannibals, although, most of the time, if an anaconda feels the presence of a human being in its zone, it run away in the opposite direction.
Where is it?
Kourou, Guyane
