Scientists have discovered a previously unrecorded species of enormous anaconda in the Amazon that can grow to 7.5m and weigh about 500kg, making it the world’s largest and heaviest snake to date.
Until now, four species of anacondas were known, with the largest, the green anaconda, found in tropical areas of South America, including the Amazon, Orinoco, and Esequibo river basins, as well as several smaller watersheds.
These anacondas, which live in South American rivers and marshes, are well-known for their lightning speed and ability to kill prey by coiling around, asphyxiating, and swallowing it whole.
A recently published decades-long investigation has discovered that the green anaconda is genetically two different species.
Researchers working with the indigenous Waorani people captured and investigated numerous specimens of the newly described northern green anaconda (Eunectes akayima) in the Bameno region of Baihuaeri Waorani Territory in Ecuador’s Amazon.
Scientists documented several anacondas belonging to the new species “lurking in the shallows, lying in wait for prey” as they paddled canoes down the Amazon River system.
“The size of these magnificent creatures was incredible – one female anaconda we encountered measured an astounding 6.3 meters long,” study co-author Bryan Fry from the University of Queensland said in a statement.“There are anecdotal reports from the Waorani people of other anacondas in the area measuring more than 7.5 meters long and weighing around 500 kilograms,” Dr Fry said.
The new species, described in the journal Diversity, separated from the previously known southern green anaconda approximately 10 million years ago, with a genetic difference of 5.5%.
To put this in context, humans and chimps differ by only approximately 2%.
According to researchers, the discovery is critical for the conservation of anacondas, which are apex predators that are essential to preserving ecosystem equilibrium.
A healthy anaconda population indicates that their habitats are thriving, with enough food and clean water, but diminishing numbers of the snake may suggest environmental distress, scientists believe.
“So knowing which anaconda species exist, and monitoring their numbers, is crucial,” researchers write in The Conversation.
Anacondas and their habitats are being threatened by land fragmentation caused by industrialized agriculture, forest fires, droughts, climate change, and heavy metal pollution from oil spills.
“Of particular urgency is research into how petrochemicals from oil spills are affecting the fertility and reproductive biology of these rare snakes,” Dr Fry said.