Giant SNAKES

Ancestor of the giant snakes

The biggest snake yet discovered, Titanoboa cerrejones, slithers alongside one of its presumed prey, a primitive crocodile, 60 million years ago in an artist's conception.

At least 42 feet long (13 meters) and weighing 2,500 pounds (1,135 kilograms), the snake was "longer than a city bus ... and heavier than a car," said University of Toronto Mississauga biologist Jason Head, who announced the find.

4 June 2009 a Lisburn man Mike Warner (73) and his son Greg (44) have done, seeking evidence that this was the home of the Yacumama and actually capturing a picture of the creature. A leviathan of the jungle, which reports say reaches 40 metres in length and two metres in diameter, it dwarfs any snake known to science.

This anaconda is not green but dark brown and is known by the locals as the 'black boa' or 'Yacumama'.

"Yacumama is translated as Mother of the Water and reports of this giant snake abound throughout the Amazon basin and history."

Giant Anaconda

After an exhausting 12 days in the jungle and a 30 hour trip back home the father and son team were finally able to examine their photo evidence in more detail, over 700 photos and five hours of video.
"The data is immense and will take months to fully appreciate but already it supports our theories of 'channels' created by these giants as they make their way through the dense jungle knocking down trees 90 feet tall, but more importantly we managed to catch one of these reclusive giants on camera as it made its way through one of its watery channels."



It was Colonel Percy Fawcett, who was commissioned by the Royal Geographical Society of London in 1906 to map an area of the Peruvian Amazon in a dispute over rubber production who, after an encounter with a giant anaconda, first documented large 'trails 6 feet wide' or what are now called 'channels'.

Giant snake caught in Electric fence

These photographs of a large snake that has died after being caught in an electric fence have been circulating via email since 2005. The photographs are genuine. However, in most versions of the email, the description that accompanies the images is inaccurate.

The version discussed here claims that the snake was caught on an Australian sheep farm after the owner put up an electric fence to kerb the mysterious disappearance of some of his sheep.  A number of other versions have similar cover stories set in different areas of the world.

In fact, the photographs were taken on the Silent Valley Game Ranch in Limpopo Province, South Africa. A web page on the game ranch website explains:

Giant snake caught in Electric fence

The snake in this picture had eaten a full grown Impala ewe and, sadly, caught itself in an electric fence.
Over four metres in length, this was a large specimen. When the python was skinned we found a full grown Impala ewe had just been swallowed.

The African Rock Python is identified as the third largest species of snake in the world.

Giant Congo snake (Congo Rainforest AFRICA): A giant, brownish-green snake was photographed by a Belgian helicopter pilot in 1959. The photo (at top of page) has been extensivly analysed and the results are always the same; it shows a snake somewhere between 40 and 50 feet in length. If so, this would be the biggest snake on earth (save for the giant anaconda that is).

Pumina (Zaire AFRICA): Giant snakes that are well known to the natives. The giant Congolese snake in the photo may be a pumina.

Giant snake in Congo

We discovered that the “snake photo was originally published (per Newton’s Encyclopedia of Cryptozoology) April 28, 1949, in the newspaper A Provincia do Pará, credited to Joaquim Alencar. The snake was alleged 45 meters, and was found on the Rio Abuna (Acre State). There’s been a fair bit of confusion over the details over the years, and different lengths have been reprinted along with the same photo at different times. The locality details printed on the photo sent to you appear to be another variant.”

The green anaconda is believed to be one of the world's largest snakes, believed to max out at around 30 feet. However, there is some indication that a similar snake once got much larger. These animals had been seen throughout the Amazon, but there appears to be some confusion with different animals. The Minhocoa is a large burrowing animal that may be serpentine, it will be delt with elsewhere. There are reports of snake like animals that have features more typical of sea serpents (saucer-like phosphorescent eyes, vertical undulations), and they will also be mentioned elsewhere. The third type of cryptid is the one this article covers: the giant anaconda. The coloration of these animals is nearly identical to that of the green anaconda, they are blackish brown with dark rings and oval spots. Stories of these animals were quite common, and the reported animals reached considerable sizes.

Giant snake Brazil

Percy Fawcett's encounter is one of the most commonly told, and that one was "only" 62 feet in length. After his encounter, Colonel Fawcett found out about a specimen 80 feet long that had been shot, and stories of snake trails 6 feet wide (his snake was a foot wide!). One specimen that was 80 feet long supposedly had 4 capybaras and an ox in its stomach. Two of the largest encounters had been photographed; interestingly the film from both cases was developed in the same shop in Manaus. The first snake, which was shot on the Brazil-Colombia border, was supposedly 95 feet long and weighed 2 tons. The second picture shows a snake supposedly 110-150 feet long shot (500 times) near Fort Tabatinga. Although the cases are interesting, the first photo appears to be a hoax, and the second it too ambiguous to be used as evidence. Snakes this large are no longer commonly seen, the last reports come from the 1940's.

Snake skull on the island of Shikoku

Mt. Tsurugi, the second highest peak on the island of Shikoku, is steeped in mystery. According to one local legend, the mountain is actually a giant man-made pyramid, and another legend says that a hoard of King Solomon’s secret treasure lies buried within. A giant snake believed to be guarding that treasure has been sighted on many occasions.

In May 1973, a group of 4 forestry workers reportedly encountered a 10 meter (33 ft) long snake as big around as a telephone pole. The creature was described as having shiny black scales, and it reportedly made a loud chirping sound.   In the months that followed, local officials organized a large-scale hunt for the snake, enlisting the help of hundreds of volunteers.  While the creature was not apprehended, thesearchers did find what appeared to be giant snake tracks that measured 40 centimeters (16 in) wide and passed alongside fallen trees.

A local history museum has in its collection a large jawbone measuring 34 centimeters (13 in) across, which many believe belongs to the giant snake. Others speculate it belongs to a shark.

Reports of giant anaconda date back as far as the discovery of South America when sightings of snakes upwards of 12m(40ft)began to circulate amongst colonists and the topic has been a subject of debate ever since among cryptozoologists and zoologists. Anacondas normally only grow to size of 6 metres (20 ft), and 250 kilos in weight,but tales of truly gigantic specimens persist. Indeed, although some python species can grow longer in length,the anaconda, particularly the Green Anaconda, is the heaviest and largest in terms of diameter of all snakes, and is often considered the biggest extant snake in the world. It is not uncommon for a fully grown anaconda to attack and kill a jaguar or caiman. Yet, despite the snake's large size, no specimens above the size of 10.5 metres (34 ft) have been captured, and anacondas of this proportion are considered cryptids.

The first recorded sightings of giant anacondas were from the time of the discovery of South America, when early European explorers entered the dense jungles there and claimed to have seen giant snakes measuring up to 18 metres (59 ft) long. Natives also reported seeing anacondas upwards of 10.5 metres (34 ft) to 18 metres (59 ft). It is unquestionable that anacondas above 9 m (30 ft) in length are rare; the Wildlife Conservation Society has, since the early 20th century, offered a large cash reward (currently worth US$50,000) for live delivery of any snake of 9 metres (30 ft) or more in length, but the prize has never been claimed despite the numerous sightings of giant anacondas. In a survey of 1,000 wild anacondas in Venezuela, the largest captured was 5 metres (16 ft) long, far short of the length required.

January 26, 2007

Guard dogs protecting a fruit orchard in Malaysia have met their match - a 7.1-metre long python that swallowed at least 11 hounds before it was finally discovered by villagers.
"I was shocked to see such a huge python," orchard-keeper Ali Yusof told the New Straits Times.

The paper published a picture of the captured snake, which was almost long enough to span the width of a tennis court and as thick as a tree trunk.

Villagers did not harm the snake, but tied it to a tree and then handed it to wildlife officials, the paper said today.

Facts 

If you look in the records there is a lot of controversy over which snake holds the world's record for massive size. The dimensions that have earned the anaconda the title of king is its total body mass or its weight (the sheer physical bulk of it). The other snake that competes with the anaconda is the Asiatic Reticulated Python (Python reticulatus). The python holds the world's record for length of a snake, with the longest ever measured at 33 feet. Even though the longest python is longer than the record-holding anaconda, the girth of the anaconda is far bigger. Anacondas in the jungles of South America can grow as bThe longest snake ever found is a reticulated python that was found in Sulawesi Island, Indonesia in 1912. It was 33 feet long.

While it is believed that the American water boa (known as the anaconda) may grow larger or heavier, the largest snakes found both in the wild and in captivity are reticulated pythons.

The largest snake ever held in captivity was a python named Colossus. She lived at the Pittsburgh Zoo in Pennsylvania and at the time of her death she was 28.5 feet long, had a girth of 37.5 inches and weighed an estimated 320 pounds.

What is the longest snake ever recorded?

The longest snake ever recorded was a 11.5 meter green anaconda from South America (Oliver 1958 and Gilmore and Murphy 1993). Some biologists dispute this and consider the maximum length to be only 9 to 9.5 meters.

The longest Python?

The longest python on record was a reticulated python that reached a length of 10.1 meters. While it was common to find individuals with lengths up to 8 meters in the wild only a few decades ago, few wild creatures today exceed 5 to 6 meters.

Longest snake in Africa?

The African Rock Python is the longest African snake. One individual reached a length of 9.75 meters.

Source: Wikipedia