Researchers from the University of Queensland ventured into the Ecuadorian Amazon to seek the previously unrecorded northern green anaconda (Eunectes akayima) at the invitation of the Waorani people.
They had been alerted to the presence of anacondas “rumored to be the largest in existence,” the scientists stated.
The team accompanied the local hunters on a ten-day expedition to the Bameno region of Baihuaeri Waorani Territory. There, they encountered several anacondas lurking in the shallows, patiently waiting for prey, according to Professor Bryan Fry, a biologist from the University of Queensland who headed the expedition.
Anacondas, which are enormous, non-poisonous constricting snakes, typically inhabit or live near water in warm regions of South America.
“The size of these majestic creatures was astonishing – one female anaconda we encountered measured an incredible 6.3 meters (20.7 feet) in length,” Fry reported.
The discovery was made while the team was filming for National Geographic’s upcoming series “Pole to Pole with Will Smith.”
The researchers also mentioned that they had heard anecdotal reports of snakes as large as 7.5 meters (24.6 feet) in length and weighing 500 kilograms (1,100 pounds) in the area.
According to the UK’s Natural History Museum, green anacondas are the world’s heaviest snakes, with the heaviest individual on record weighing 227 kilograms (500 pounds), measuring 8.43 meters long (27.7 feet), and 1.11 meters wide (3.6 feet). While another species, the reticulated python, is often longer – often reaching lengths of more than 6.25 meters (20.5 feet) – it is not as heavy.
However, experts who examined the creatures found that the newly identified northern green anaconda species had diverged from the southern green anaconda approximately 10 million years ago and that they differ genetically by 5.5 percent.
“This is quite significant – to compare, humans differ from chimpanzees by only about 2 percent,” Fry remarked. The findings have been documented in the MDPI Diversity journal.
The team then set out to assess the genetics of the green anaconda with other specimens elsewhere to determine if they are an indicator species for the health of ecosystems, warning that the Amazon is facing numerous threats.
“Agricultural expansion-induced deforestation in the Amazon basin has resulted in an estimated 20-31 percent loss of habitat, which may affect up to 40 per cent of its forests by 2050,” Fry said.
He added that rare species like the anacondas are under threat from habitat degradation, forest fires, drought, and climate change, as they exist in such unique ecosystems.
