continued from last week

The Amazonian river monster

Although there are many species of python, there are only three species of the closely related anaconda. The biggest and most widely distributed is the Common or (Green) Anaconda (Eunectes murinus). While it is known as anaconda internationally, in South America this name is not used, instead it is referred to mainly as sucuriu, camudi, or huilla.

The anaconda inhabits the river systems of Columbia, Venezuela, Guyana, Surinam, French Guyana, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, and Bolivia. It also occurs on the island of Trinidad. The anaconda is marked with blackish oval or lozenge-shaped spots and rings on an olive-green, grey or brown background. It is often referred to as the "water boa," for while other boas occasionally dive into the water, the anaconda, whose nostrils can close hermetically, remains immersed much longer and is more truly aquatic.

Most herpetologists believe the anaconda rarely exceeds 30 feet in length. However, during the past 150 years there have been persistent reports of giant specimens well over twice this size being encountered in remote areas. 

In fact, there are four species of snake that often attain a length in excess of 20 feet and to which the term "giant" has been applied. 

Apart from the Common Anaconda, the other three are the African (or Rock) Python (Python sebae), the Indian Python (Python molurus) - which of course inhabits Sri Lanka - and the Reticulated Python (Python reticulata) of South East Asia.

"We all stared ahead at a large dark object, resting on a moon-lit sand bar not far from us. An indescribable feeling of awe seized me. I knew now that I was to face the awful master of the swamps, the great silent monster of the river, of which so much had been said, and which so few ever meet in its lair. The snake was coiled, forming an enormous pile of round, scaly monstrosity, large enough to crush us all to death at once. I felt as if I were spellbound, unable to move a step farther or even to think or act on my own initiative."

This description of an encounter with a Common Anaconda is by Algot Lange, from his manhood enhancing book In the Amazon Jungle (New York, 1912). John C. Murphy and Robert W. Henderson comment on this description in Tales of Giant Snakes: A Historical Natural History of Anacondas and Pythons (Florida, 1997). They observe that it illustrates "common attitudes towards snakes in general and, perhaps, giant snakes in particular. Here is an organism capable of (1) arousing great curiousity and almost reverence in humans ('the great silent monster'); (2) repulsing the people looking at it (scaly monstrosity'); (3) killing a group of people simultaneously ('crush us all to death at once'); and (4) apparently casting a spell, leaving the writer immobile ('unable to think or act on my own'). 

As an adolescent, one of my favourite adventure books was Major Percy H. Fawcett's Exploration Fawcett (London and New York, 1953. American edition entitled Lost Trails, Lost Cities.) It is set during the first decade of the 20th century, when a frontier dispute arose between Brazil, Bolivia and Peru. The Royal Geographical Society of London was called in to act as mediator and sent Major Fawcett (a man who knew Ceylon well) to make a thorough survey of the area in question. In order to perform this task he had to penetrate the dense jungles of the Amazon, in which he was to vanish without trace for 20 years.

My principal fascination for Exploration Fawcett as a young reader was the author's vivid description of an encounter with a giant anaconda, a dramatic illustration of which adorned the cover of my 1960s paperback edition. It was in early 1907 that Fawcett first heard of the existence of giant anacondas in the Lower Amazon. At a small outpost on the edge of unexplored territory he met a man who told him that he had once killed an anaconda 58 feet long. Fawcett was convinced that this was an exaggeration, but several months later, while travelling upstream on a tributary of the River Amazon, any doubts he entertained were dispelled:

"We were drifting easily along in the sluggish current not far below the confluence of the Rio Negro when almost under the bow of the boat there appeared a triangular head and several feet of undulating body. It was a giant anaconda. I sprang for my rifle as the creature began to make its way up the bank, and hardly waiting to aim smashed a .44 soft-nosed bullet into its spine, ten feet below the wicked head. At once there was a flurry of foam, and several heavy thumps against the boat's keel, shaking us as though we had run on a snag.

"With great difficulty I persuaded the Indian crew to turn in shore-wards. They were so frightened that the whites showed all round their popping eyes, and in the moment of firing I had heard their terrified voices begging me not to shoot lest the monster destroy the boat and kill everyone on board, for not only do these creatures attack boats when injured, but also there is great danger from their mates.

"We stepped ashore and approached the reptile with caution. It was out of action, but shivers ran up and down the body like puffs of wind on a mountain tarn. As far as it was possible to measure, a length of 45 feet lay out of the water, and 17 feet in it, making a total length of 62 feet. Its body was not thick for such a colossal length-not more than 12 inches in diameter -but it had probably been long without food. I tried to cut a piece out of the skin, but the beast was by no means dead and the sudden upheavals rather scared us. A penetrating foetid odour emanated from the snake, probably its breath, which is believed to have a stupefying effect, first attracting and later paralysing its prey. Everything about this snake was repulsive.

"Such large specimens as this may not be common, but the trails in the swamps reach a width of six feet and support the statements of Indians and rubber pickers that the anaconda sometimes reaches an incredible size, altogether dwarfing the one shot by me. The Brazilian Boundary Commission told me of one killed in the Rio Paraguay exceeding 80 feet in length!"

When Fawcett returned to London and reported his encounter with a giant anaconda he was denounced as a liar. However, as the father of crypto-zoology, Bernard Heuvelmans, remarks concerning this episode in his On the Track of Unknown Animals (English edition, London, 1958):

"One can read through his notebooks from end to end without finding any trace of exaggeration about the size and ferocity of the animals which he met on the Amazon. What he saw he always reported in a very matter-of-fact way; his interpretations are sometimes fantastic, but his observations never are."

On the other hand, Murphy and Henderson (1997) declare that Fawcett's story "is questionable not only because of the extreme size, but also because of his comment about its bad breath." As they point out, despite numerous reports like Fawcett's of giant snakes, the New York Zoological Society's $50,000 reward for any healthy, live specimen 30 feet or more in length remains unclaimed, even though it has been on offer for many years.

In fact, reports in English of giant water-snakes inhabiting South America go back at least to 1769 (the year after Edwin's account) when Edward Bancroft provided a matter-of-fact description of a commodee (anaconda) in An Essay on the Natural History of Guyana (New York, 1769): 

"It measured thirty three feet some inches; and in the largest place, near the middle, was three feet in circumference. It had a broad head, very wide mouth, and large prominent eyes: From the middle it gradually tapered to the tail, which was small, and armed with two claws (anal spurs) like those of a Dunghill Cock, and in the mouth was a double row of teeth. On the middle of the back was a chain of small black spots, running from end to end; and on each side, near the belly, another row of spots, similar and parallel to those on the back; and below these several large black spots centered with white; the rest of the body was brown."

Several decades later saw the publication of Captain J. G. Steadman's Narrative of a Five Year's Expedition Against the Revolted Negroes of Surinam in Guiana on the Wild Coast of South America; from the Year 1772 to 1777 (New York, 1796), in which there appeared the first account of a dramatic encounter with a large anaconda. There were to be many subsequent accounts of a comparable nature over the next century and a half-Fawcett's being a typical example. Such accounts usually conform to a certain scenario. It begins with humans stumbling on snake and being initially overcome by awe. Humans then take courage from the fact that they are armed. They fire at the creature, but their shots merely wound, and it lashes out with extraordinary power. Humans withdraw until commotion subsides, when they renew onslaught. After several such gargantuan struggles, in which it is riddled with bullets, the creature succumbs. 

"We had not gone above twenty yards through mud and water, the Negro looking every way with an uncommon degree of vivacity and attention; when starting behind me, he called out 'Me see snake!' and in effect there lay the animal, rolled up under the fallen leaves and rubbish of the trees: and so well covered, that it was some time before I distinctly perceived the head of this monster, distant from me not above sixteen feet, moving its forked tongue, while its eyes, from their uncommon brightness, appeared to emit sparks of fire. I now, resting my piece upon a branch, for the purpose of taking surer aim, fired; but missing the head, the ball went through the body, when the animal struck round, and with such an astonishing force as to cut away all the underwood around him with the facility of a scythe mowing grass; and by flouncing his tail, caused the mud and dirt to fly over our heads to a considerable distance."

Thus Captain Steadman begins his narrative. Having wounded and enraged the snake, he and the other members of his party take to their heels and board their canoe. However, Steadman is made to believe that the anaconda is neither able nor inclined to pursue them and he is encouraged to renew his attack: 

"I now found the snake a little removed from his former station, but very quiet, with his head as before, lying out among the fallen leaves, rotten bark, and old moss. I fired at it immediately, but with no better success than the other time: and now, being but slightly wounded, he sent up such a cloud of dust and dirt, as I never saw but in a whirlwind, and made us once more immediately retreat to our canoe: where now, being heartily tired of the exploit, I gave orders to row towards the barge; but David still intreating him to permit him to kill the animal, I was, by his persuasion, induced to make a third and last attempt, in company with him. Thus, having once more discovered the snake, we discharged both our pieces at once, and with this good effect, that he was now by one of us shot through the head. 

"David ran leaping with joy, and lost no time in bringing the boat-rope, in order to drag him down to the canoe; but this again proved not a very easy undertaking, since the creature, notwithstanding its being mortally wounded, still continued to wreathe and twist about, in such a manner as rendered it dangerous for any person to approach him. The Negro, however, having made a running noose on the rope, and after some fruitless attempts to make an approach, threw it over his head with much dexterity; and now, all taking hold of the rope, we dragged him to the beach, and tied him to the stern of the canoe, to take him in tow. Being still alive, he kept swimming like an eel; and I having no relish for such a shipmate on board, whose length (notwithstanding to my astonishment all the Negroes declared it to be but a young one come to about its half growth) I [dispatched it and] found upon measuring it to be twenty-two feet and some inches, and its thickness about that of my black boy Quaco, who might then be about twelve years old." (See accompanying illustration.)

The anaconda is as large as it is simply in order to exploit prey species that are too big for ordinary-sized snakes. 

As the anaconda is the king of constrictors, larger specimens are able to overpower deer, pigs, crocodiles, capybara - the largest rodent in the world - and even other large anacondas. The anaconda uses a swift bite to hold its prey, followed by a coiling of a loop or two around the main body of the victim's heart. 

Once these loops are in position, the snake will steadily constrict with incredible strength until the pressure interferes with the heart and causes circulatory arrest. Although suffocation occurs simultaneously with circulatory arrest, it is not the cause of death, as commonly believed.

Humans may also be attacked and eaten, but these are rare events. Considering the semi-aquatic nature of this snake, it is no surprise to find that attacks almost always occur in rivers or swamps. Murphy and Henderson (1997) believe that some attacks on humans may well be defensive, such as the incident reported by Charles Kingsley in At last: A Christmas in the West Indies (New York, 1890). It concerns some sisters who went to bathe in a lagoon:

"As they disported themselves, one of them felt herself seized from behind. Facing that one of her sisters was playing tricks, she called out to her to let her alone; and looking up, saw, to her astonishment, her three sisters sitting on the bank, and herself alone. She looked back, and shrieked for help; and only just in time, for the huilla (anaconda) had her. The other three girls dashed in to her assistance. The brute had luckily got hold of her bathing-dress, and held on stupidly. The girls pulled; the bathing dress, which was luckily of thin cotton was torn off; the huilla slid back again with it in his mouth into the dark labyrinth of mangrove-roots: and the girl was saved."

Other attacks are more deadly in intent, such as the following examples documented by Ralph Blomberg in "The Giant Snake Hunt" (Natural History, 1956): "One man was killed on the Napo River in Ecuador, when he went for a swim and was entwined by one of these snakes. 

"He struggled in vain to get away but was drawn underwater and carried off. He was later found farther downstream, dead and bearing distinct marks of the ghost-squeeze. Evidently the reptile had been unable to devour so large a victim.

"The other incident occurred at the mouth of the Yasuni River, a tributary of the Napo. Some children were bathing, and a boy of 13 suddenly disappeared. His friends were sure they saw bubbles rising from a spot near the shore, and one of the boys dived down to search. 

He came up pale with fright. He had felt around for his friend in the water and had touched something he was sure was an enormous snake-an anaconda! He had often been told that a gigantic anaconda haunted the river hereabouts."

In fact it is more common for anacondas to be eaten by humans than the other way about - a predation that is much less remarked upon. Snakes of many kinds form part of the diet of people of diverse cultures, and the anaconda is no exception. The Yanamamos Indians of Venezuela are one tribe that takes nutritional advantage of the protein-rich meat of the anaconda. They employ the method of wrapping the snake in leaves before roasting it. 

Although the meat has been described as coarse, stringy and flavourless (apart from a slight fishy taste), it is often found on restaurant menus in the region, especially French Guyana.

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