The Altamont Enterprise — Thursday, March
16
4,1999
Nature adventure: Hunting the world's heaviest snake
By Chip Foster
Herpetologist Jesus Rivas
studies anacondas, the world's
largest snakes. Not too long ago,
Rivas and I watched a film of his
team catching the snakes in the
wilds of Venezuela.
The camera is trained on the
backs of the researchers as they
trudge knee-deep through water
completely covered with thick
foliage. Suddenly, a large, perfectly camouflaged snake's head
ceived funding from the National Geographic Society, the
Smithsonian Institution, and
other sources. The National
Geographic and the Discovery
Channel have both made feature
documen-taries of his work. The
"people-hunting snake" footage
will appear in the Discovery
feature.
The word "anaconda" comes
from Sri Lanka (formerly Ceylon), the small island off the tip
A backwards jerking motion
can tear your flesh or
break the snake's teeth
pops up through the greenery
like a periscope. Steadily, it
glides forward towards the
people. The cameraman's voice
can be heard, "Uh... Mark.
There's a snake right behind
you."
As the snake approaches the
person, it rears its head back in
striking position. At the last moment, Rivas steps in and grabs
the snake, preventing the attack.
However, there is no mistaking
the intended action: The anaconda was hunting the person.
The immediate image in people's minds of anacondas is of
enormous constrictors that eat
alligators deep in the rain forest
of South America. How much of
this is true? How big are anacondas really? How do they live?
Are they really the terrifying
killers portrayed in the 1997
movie Anaconda?
In 1992, Rivas, a Venezuelan,
began to study the green anaconda, Eunectes murinus, for a
Ph.D. thesis at the University of
Tennessee. At the time, there
was no scientific knowledge of
the animals. Rivas's work, the
first systematic study of anaconda biology in the wild, re-
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of India. Anaconda means "elephant killer." The name, suitable
for a creature of mystery and
legend, was later applied to the
snake, which lives half a world
away in South America, a place
without elephants.
Despite its Old World name,
the anaconda exists only in this
hemisphere. It belongs to the
Boiidae, a family of primitive
snakes that includes the pythons
of the Old World and the boas,
which exist in both hemispheres.
To find anacondas, Rivas returned to Los Llanos in Venezuela. Los Llanos is an area of
flat alluvial plains that stretches
across Colombia and Venezuela.
As on the African savanna, few
trees mark the open grassland of
Los Llanos. The equatorial heat
distorts the distant horizon.
During the wet season, the
entire plain is flooded. Nature
abounds. Flocks of ducks,
cormorants, and wading birds
Photo by Jesus Rivas
blanket the earth and fill the sky.
Chip Foster holding a large green iguana, a lizard that can be
Fish and turtles create a constant
found basking in trees and feeding on the grasslands.
popping noise at the water's
edge as they dip below the
surface. No room remains on the American alligator. And dotting goes Rivas, clad in a hat to block
shores of rivers for the basking the grasslands are countless the tropical sun, a loose-fitting
caiman, a cousin of the capybara, the world's largest ro- shirt, shorts, and no shoes.
dents. It is a veritable treasureRivas prefers to hunt anacontrove of wildlife.
das barefoot so as best to feel the
During the dry season — Jan- snakes under the water hyacinth
uary through April — the vast and other vegetation that thickly
tracts of water shrink to isolated covers the water's surface. He
pools across the land. Aquatic by risks confrontation with stingnature, anacondas concentrate ray fish and electric eels, as well
in these pools, making it easier as leeches and other invertebrate
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for the researchers to locate and nasties of the tropics, in order to
capture them. Into these pools
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touch. Others choose to wear
shoes, but Rivas finds more
snakes with his feet than he sees
in the muddy water.
The capture is simple — grab
the snake and pull it put of the
water. However, there are two
dangers one must keep in mind:
The bite and the muscle. Anacondas have a nonvenomous
bite they use to defend themselves and to hunt. Numerous
thin teeth, like needles, angle
inward, toward the back of the
mouth. The teeth don't kill, as
with poisonous snakes, but grab
hold and anchor the prey while
the snake coils around it.
Rivas, who has been bitten
many times, says it's important
not to react by pulling away. A
backwards jerking motion can
tear your flesh or break the
snake's teeth, a dangerous injury. The snake will release its
hold in a matter of seconds and
the remaining wound is no
worse than a paper cut. Furthermore, unlike in the movie,
the large ones are rather slow
and sluggish on land. One can
easily avoid a bite by properly
anticipating it.
The coils of an anaconda are a
realistic and fatal hazard for
people in the field. Snakes of this
size seem to be all muscle.
Strength in numbers is the best
means to combat the superior
muscle strength of an anaconda.
If ever there is a problem, a second set of hands can undo the
constriction force of the snake by
unwinding it from the tail end.
There, the snake is weakest and
most vulnerable to a group of
adversaries working together.
Among the a n a c o n d a s
Four years ago, I found my
way to Los Llanos to gawk at the
birds, marvel at the caimans,
and catch the anacondas. With a
group of friends, I stepped off
the plane to the searing heat of
the tropical sun and saw the
smiling face of Rivas, anacondaman extraordinaire, eager to
show us his work.
Our first excursion into the
field was to track a male that Ri vas had fitted with a radio
transmitter one week before, in
hopes that he would lead us to a
female. Male anacondas do not
fulfill the notion of "world's
7th
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Events planned for
Girl Scout Week
DELMAR — The Hudson
Valley Girl Scout Council will
celebrate the 87th birthday of
Girl Scouts March 7 to 13 with a
series of activities and programs.
The following activities are
happening around the Capital
Region during this week-long
celebration:
Girl Scout Sunday, March 7,
noon, St. Ambrose Church,
Latham. Girl Scouts will attend
Mass in uniform.
Daisy Scouts Present Gifts to
New Moms and Babies, March
12, 1 p.m., Maternity Wing,
Albany Medical Center.
Trefoil Dinner, March 10, 6
p.m., Century House, Latham.
The "Price is Right" Program,
March 13, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.,
Siena College, Foy Campus
Center. Over 150 girls will learn
about producing and selling consumer goods, profits, and more.
Bumper Bowling Bash, March
13, 1 to 3 p.m. or 3:30 to 5:30
p.m., Del Lanes, Delaware
Avenue, Delmar.
Plan your
week with
The Enterprise
D. J.'s MARQUETTE
187 Main Street
861-5353
March is Deli Month at D.J.'s
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Marlboro Cigarettes - $ 2.69 Pi<
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$5.18 2pk
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X-Large Eggs - $ .99 dz.
2% Milk
$2.49 gal
(Special Limited Time Offer)
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