Trailing the mythical anaconda.

• Author: Thorbjarnarson, John

LONG A SUBJECT OF FANTASTIC FABLES, THE WORLD'S LARGEST SNAKE IS NOW THE FOCUS OF A FIRST-EVER SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH PROJECT IN VENEZUELA

Many of my fondest memories of Venezuela have anacondas in them. I can vividly recall my first encounter with a sizable anaconda. It was in the afternoon of a clear, hot day. I was walking along a raised dike road through a flooded savanna with a group of biologists, including my future wife, Ximena. Peering between the trees that lined the road, we spotted a large, coiled serpent basking on a small island, a raised knoll about 160 feet from the edge of the dike. As good biologists, we decided to catch the animal and measure it. Four of us waded out through knee-deep water and, as we got closer and saw just how large the snake was, we began to question the wisdom of our decision. Nevertheless, we persisted and soon were wrestling with a large, writhing snake on what turned out to be a rotten log full of stinging fire ants. The ants, ironically, became a much greater problem than the snake and kept stinging us long after we had the anaconda under control. Triumphantly, we carried our prize back to shore where the rest of the group awaited. It was the first anaconda any of us had ever gotten a good look at, but after a few minutes of close inspection, I realized that we had nothing with which to measure the snake. Following a short discussion, I took off my shoe and measured the snake at thirteen-and-a-half sock lengths, which, after careful calibration of my sock, turned out to be about sixteen feet. I think Ximena remained forever impressed by my ingenuity on that occasion.

For the most part small and secretive, snakes as a group have been spectacularly successful. With the exception of some of the world's colder climes, they can be found almost anywhere, from tropical seas to desert sagebrush. Yet there are not a great many people who would find such an encounter as ours pleasurable, as there are few other creatures that inspire such fear and loathing as these legless reptiles. The vast majority of snakes, however, are harmless to people, and many are even beneficial because of their predilection for eating rodents. Contrary to popular belief, snakes are not slimy, and keep to themselves as much as possible. In many ways, though, we are also drawn to snakes; they fascinate us in a way that few other animals do. For example, certain kinds of snakes - venomous ones such as rattlesnakes and cobras - quickly come to mind because of the potential threat, however small, they represent; but it is the giant snakes of the world - the pythons, boa constrictors, and anacondas - that seem to enthrall us the most.

A large anaconda is indeed a striking creature to behold. Its head, with a prominent red stripe, is dwarfed in comparison to the improbable bulk of the body, with its glossy skin and bold, black markings on an olive-yellow background. The anaconda's sheer size and bizarre proportions invite incredulous stares when seen behind the glass cages of zoos or wildlife parks, and it is not hard to understand why some encounters with free-living anacondas in the remote backwaters of South America have led to stories of animals of mythical proportions.

Perhaps more than any other snake, stories about anacondas have been subject to wild exaggeration and hyperbole. Padre Gumilla, a Jesuit priest who lived in the llanos of Venezuela alluring the seventeenth century, wrote that the anaconda hypnotized and captured its prey using invisible poisonous vapors that issued from its mouth. More recently, Dr. James Oliver, former curator of reptiles at the New York Zoological Society, related an account of a 1948 newspaper story about a 156-feet-long anaconda battling army soldiers and even knocking over buildings!

There are actually two different species of...