In 2024, scientists announced the discovery of a new species of anaconda in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Now, in a new nature series, filmmakers have released shocking, never-before-seen footage of a snake encounter in the wild.
The anaconda seen in the video, which appears in an episode of National Geographic’s upcoming documentary series “Pole to Pole with Will Smith,” is estimated by Frye to be a female, 16 to 17 feet (4.9 to 5.2 meters) long. Even though blue anacondas are not venomous, one of the Huaorani guides who helps catch the snakes says there is a risk of an anaconda bite. Anacondas are constrictors, meaning they kill their prey by wrapping their bodies tightly around it and suffocating it before swallowing it whole.
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Scale specimens collected in 2022 revealed that giant anacondas, previously thought to belong to one species, actually constitute two separate species. They are Eunectes murinus, an already confirmed southern giant anaconda, and Eunectes acaima, a newly discovered northern giant anaconda.
“Discovering new species often involves putting in place a rigorous scientific process that allows serendipity to occur, rather than active exploration,” Fry, a professor of toxicology at the University of Queensland in Australia, told Live Science in an email. “In this regard, the study of the genetics of the iconic green anaconda is textbook.”
Genetic analysis shows that E. murinus and E. akayima diverged 10 million years ago. Since then, northern and southern green anacondas have accumulated thousands of genetic differences, amounting to a whopping 5.5% of their total DNA. By comparison, the level of mismatch between human and ape DNA is about 2%.
As its name suggests, the northern green anaconda lives in the northern Amazon basin, which includes Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Trinidad, Guyana, Suriname, and parts of French Guiana. The southern anaconda, on the other hand, is found in the southern Amazon basin, which stretches across Brazil from Peru and Bolivia to French Guiana. Both species live in wetlands and rivers and spend most of their time underwater. Their olive green coloring helps them blend into their surroundings, which helps green anacondas ambush larger prey such as capybaras (Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris), caimans, and deer.
Green anacondas are the heaviest snakes in the world, with some specimens weighing over 550 pounds (250 kilograms) and measuring over 12 inches (30 centimeters) in girth. Female northern green anacondas grow the largest and heaviest, while their male counterparts have a more slender body. This means that female and male northern green anacondas hunt different prey and occupy different positions in the food chain, Frye said.
“Females and males live in the same environment, but they feed differently,” he says.
The northern blue anaconda is the fifth described anaconda species in the world, and there may be more hidden there, Fry told Live Science. “Despite the fact that anacondas have more fame than other reptiles, they’re actually relatively unknown,” he says.
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While knowing the presence of the northern blue anaconda is important in itself, differences in the diets of males and females can also provide clues about the health of the ecosystem and its people, Fry said. Female northern green anacondas feed lower on the food chain than males, preying on animals such as deer. Because males eat more predatory fish and caimans, they accumulate more toxins left in the environment from accidents such as oil spills than females, he said.
The male northern green anaconda’s diet is similar to that of humans living in the Amazon. Therefore, the toxin concentrations in these anacondas provide an estimate of the pollution that people are exposed to, and that pollution is high, Frye said.
“Concentrations of the heavy metals cadmium and lead, powerful endocrine disruptors that are characteristic of oil spills, were more than 1,000 percent higher in men than in women,” he said. “It’s not a subtle difference. It’s a red flag.”
Based on these findings, Fry is developing a wild food guide for the Huaorani people. “Recommendations include asking pregnant women and young children to avoid top predators that are likely to carry higher levels of contaminants, such as arapaima and arowana. [two types of predatory freshwater fish]” he said.
“Pole to Pole with Will Smith” premieres January 13 on National Geographic and January 14 on Disney+ and Hulu.
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