Anaconda

The Amazon Basin, filled with more than one hundred snake species, makes the perfect home to the anaconda snake. It is one of the few snakes that inhabits the water only, although it is capable of moving onto dry land. It preys on whatever comes in its reach, such as rodents, tapirs, capybaras, deer, peccaries, fish, turtles, birds, sheep, aquatic animals, and on the rare occasion people. Anacondas are good swimmers and not usually found in trees. They eat about only once every one or two weeks. They are usually squirmy, but when they are digesting their meal they are sluggish. Small anacondas are one hundred pounds, fifteen feet long, and eight inches wide. Fully grown, on average they are twenty feet long and weigh three hundred fifty pounds. It is rare, but anacondas can reach up to twenty-seven feet long and can weigh up to five hundred pounds. Anacondas kill their prey by first biting it on the neck, taking care not crush it, and then suffocating it to death. This video is of wildlife in the Amazon Region, including the anaconda. Click here to view.