Anacondas are the largest snakes in the world. But then, where do anacondas live? Find out the answer from the article below.
Anacondas remind us of a famous Hollywood flick that featured this large snake. One of the most fearsome creatures of the world, anacondas are members of the Boa family. These are carnivorous predators and one of the longest snakes inhabiting the earth. Read the paragraphs below to know where anacondas live as well as understand a few facts about these deadly reptiles.
Where do Anacondas Live
The anacondas are inhabitants of the South American tropical rainforest. They live in areas mostly towards the east of Andes and all through the Amazon and Orinoco river basins. They are also found in the rainforest of Colombia, Venezuela, Northern Bolivia, and South Central Brazil. They love the Amazonian basin where the temperatures match their body temperature, tropical and cold.
Habitat in the Rainforest
Their habitat is mostly aquatic. These semi-aquatic snakes prefer living in water, as water can help support their humongous body weight. Their habitat consists of shallow caves or the branches of trees near the river bank. These snakes prefer swampy areas with calm waters than rivers with swift moving water. These snakes are quite slow and sluggish on land. When in water, they move with surprising agility and swiftness. They swim in water submerging their bodies with only their nostrils above the water surface.
Important Facts
- Anacondas are brownish green in color.
- They have scaly skin that looks moist, but when you touch it, you will find it rather dry.
- They have tiny teeth that helps then grab their prey.
- Although, one can be bitten by an anaconda, it is rarely fatal. This is because they are non-venomous snakes and do not have fangs.
- They use their nostrils to breathe and tongue to smell.
- They tend to emit a musk that is very foul-smelling and poisonous to small animals. This musk helps protect these snakes from attack of ticks and leeches when they are basking on land.
- Anacondas are really large snakes in length as well as weight. They are known to reach a height of about 29 feet and have a body diameter of 12 inches.
- They are solitary creatures and very shy. This is a stark contrast to the type of ferocious image created by the media.
- They are mostly nocturnal and come out to hunt at night.
- They are carnivorous and eat only meat. They can swallow pigs, deer, caymans, rodents, frogs, fish, etc. There are many rumors and a few reported cases of humans begin swallowed by these large reptiles.
- Anacondas do not kill their prey with venom, but they squeeze their prey to death. They coil their huge bodies around the victim and continue to squeeze. They squeeze till every bone in the victim’s body is broken and the victim is suffocated.
- When they are hiding under water, they pull their prey into the water and drown them to death. Then, they swallow the prey whole, as their jaws are made of stretchable ligaments.
- Once they have a meal, they will not hunt again for several weeks. The process of digestion takes several weeks depending on the size of their prey. The snake has to digest the food as soon as possible or else the prey will rot in their gut. They have the ability to regurgitate or vomit out their prey from their gut, if they cannot digest it.
- The most well-known species of anacondas are the green and the yellow anacondas. The green ones are called Eunectes murinus. They have a dark green skin color with black oval patches. This helps give it a perfect camouflage in wet vegetation. The yellow one is known as Eunectes notaeus. It is yellow in color and has black spots on its body. It is smaller in size than the green one.
The anaconda habitat is the tropical rainforest of South America. Anacondas, largest snake in the world, are vulnerable to one selfish predator, humans. Their habitats are destroyed by humans and they are killed for their skin. Some humans just kill it out of fear of snakes. One has to save the environment and prevent killing of these beautiful snakes. Anacondas are endangered species that need to be protected. They do not kill until they are threatened by man. This is all about these shy creatures who are misinterpreted as a deadly killers.