The anaconda snake is a kind of boa snake. It is massive and beautiful and comes in 4 different sorts, Green anaconda, Yellow anaconda, Dark-spotted anaconda and Bolivian anaconda. The anaconda snake is most commonly found in the tropical swamps of the rainforests in South America and actually in the swamps of the island Trinidad. It is aquatic which means that it spends most of its time in the safety of water and usually only comes up to land for some sun or to feed.

When the anaconda snake hunts for food, it is most probable that is will lie perfectly still and await its prey. With its nostrils and eyes on the top of its head, the anaconda snake can move through water without anyone even suspecting that it is there. The anaconda snake is not poisonous but relies on its sheer strength and size to overpower its prey. It does, though, have teeth but these are only used to grab an initial hold of the anacondas prey, it will then use its muscles to suffocate its future meal, like a constrictor, or drag it into the water and drown it. The usual food for the anaconda snake is rodents, deer, fish, birds, sheep and even dogs, so while travelling through areas with anaconda snakes you might want to keep a short leash on Fido.

The anaconda snake does not chew its food but instead, like all other snakes, it swallows its prey whole starting with its head. This is for the obvious reason not having the legs bending the other way. The jaws of the anaconda snake can unhinge and powerful muscles moves wavelike to pull and push the prey further and further down the snakes mouth. In the anaconda snakes stomach the flesh is digested and thereafter the bones and fur is regurgitated.

Most snakes lie eggs when after mating, but some like the anaconda snake give birth to live young. This makes them instantly mobile and a little less vulnerable at least the first time in their life. An anaconda snake can live well into its thirties.

The locals that shares land with the anaconda snake kills them upon sight, this is because it is commonly believed that the snake kills humans. Even most people not living with the snakes believe this due to false facts in movies. That the anaconda snake kill and eat humans are mainly wrong, it would rather leave than encounter human beings and although a bad tempered snake, not very suitable for a pet, deaths caused by anacondas are extremely few.

As it turned out the name anaconda snake has travelled a long way. “Anaikondran” is a word from the Tamil, a classical language with over 74 million speakers in India, Sri Lanka and Singapore, which simply means “elephant killer”, probably referring to the large snakes living in those parts of the world. As the widely travelled Spanish settlers encountered the snake during the colonization of America, they simply called this enormous snake by the name it was called elsewhere, hence the name Anaconda snake.

Anaconda Snake articles:

Anaconda Snake Care
Green Anaconda Snake
Yellow Anaconda Snake