Have you ever seen an Anaconda in real life? If you haven't, I highly recommend you to go and observe it.
As for the movies, the snake shown in Anaconda movie 1997 is the Green Anaconda. And no, they are not as dangerous as shown in the movies, at least not to humans. With an average length of 6 m (20 ft.) and a top length of 8.8 m (29 ft.) the green anaconda is one of the longest snakes in the world. With a girth of nearly 30 cm (12 in.) and a weight of 227 kg (550 lb.), it is the heaviest of all snakes.
There are a lot of misconceptions about these beautiful creatures because of the movies. Like one of the most common misconceptions is about their constriction capability. I am not saying that they are not strong enough but they surely can't crush or break the bones of the prey. Another misconception is that they suffocate it, squeezing the prey’s lungs too tightly to work. That's not true either. The truth is that the squeezing overwhelms the circulatory system. Blood cannot get to the brain, and the animal dies within seconds due to ischemia that is reduced blood flow. In general, anacondas typically constrict their prey in the water. Drowning is also a common cause of death for their prey.
While in real anacondas are extremely long, the longest one measured was only 33 feet. That’s not exactly tiny but it’s far smaller from the 40-feet size shown during the crawl of the film. Of course, there are informal stories of anacondas reaching lengths of 50 feet, but those are unreliable due to perspective of the coiled snake.
Being semi aquatic in nature, it generally spends most of it's time in the water. It's a nocturnal animal, so obviously the night gives it the benefits for hunting. Anacondas are basically ambush predators, feeding a variety of creatures including birds, mammals, reptiles and fish. Sometimes jaguars and large black caiman too. But they don't eat humans and generally maintain a distance unless provoked. Even then they won't chase and hunt down the whole crew to get their revenge unlike shown in the movies. Swimming gives them an advantage of being fast because they can't really have a swift motion on ground because of their huge size and weight.
And they are generally territorial animals that is they make their territories and of course they would know it very well like you know your home. So, if you go to an Anaconda's region at night, it'll have three benefits- swimming, dark and it's region while you have none.
Even though they're currently not endangered, they still do face persecution by humans, as they are often killed at sight due to fear of human ingestion. This is preposterous as human digestion by anaconda is highly unlikely and we should not kill them. Habitat loss in the tropical regions may soon take a toll on their population.
Thank you.
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