In fact, the larger the snake, the larger the margin of error. People are generally really bad at estimating length, especially for larger snakes. Reports of outsize anacondas that cannot be verified are usually due to distortions in perception, or a snake skin being disproportionately stretched and inaccurately measured. It is important to note that when a dead anaconda's hide or skin is laid out it can be stretched very easily, expanding to much longer lengths than the snake exhibited when alive.

No one has caught and measured an anaconda anywhere near that size. Also no one thought about building a snake enclosure to fit such a huge snake. There are some historical reports of early European explorers of the South American jungles seeing giant anacondas up to 100 feet long and some of the native peoples of the South American jungle have reported seeing anacondas up to 50 feet long. They are very well camouflaged in the swamps and bogs in which they thrive. They are solitary creatures that are somewhat shy and not many of them are easily seen.

If you've seen the stories circulating around the Internet about the world's biggest snake being held in captivity in Indonesia (back in 2003), then get the straight dope on .Īnacondas in the wild spend most of their time hanging out in rivers hunting for their food. Anacondas in the jungles of South America can grow as big around as a grown man! Even though the longest python is longer than the record-holding anaconda, the girth of the anaconda is far bigger. The python holds the world's record for length of a snake, with the longest ever measured at 33 feet.

The other snake that competes with the anaconda is the Asiatic Reticulated Python ( Python reticulatus). She wasn't weighed at the time she was caught, but scientists estimate that she must have weighed over 500 lbs. The largest anaconda ever measured was almost 28 feet long with a girth of 44 inches. 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). If you look in the records there is a lot of controversy over which snake holds the world's record for massive size.

What is largest anaconda ever found