The largest-known snake in the world is the Anaconda, or Eunectes murinus, of South America. It holds the world's official record for size of snakes, encountered by petroleum geologist in eastern Columbia in the 1940's, measuring 37 1/2 feet in length. The anaconda can live in fresh water and could be a eat some smaller sea serpent, or lake monster reports. Like all snakes, the anaconda is carnivorous. While some snakes use poison to kill or paralyze their victims, the anaconda, like its Eastern Hemisphere cousin of almost the same size, the python, kill by constriction. the Anaconda kills its prey by looping its body around an animal, can use its powerful muscles to squeeze until the animal can no longer breath. The anaconda lives in Central and tropical South America (including the Amazon). It is a member of the Boa family of snakes and is dark green in color with round markings. It is sometimes referred to as the "water boa." Because the anaconda's weight is usually supported by liquid, it can grow larger than snakes that make their homes in trees. The water-based anaconda often finds it convenient to drown its victims rather than suffocate them by constriction.

 

This anaconda just swallowed a crocodile!

Snakes swallow their victims whole. The snake's jaw can be unhinged from the skull to allow something much larger than the snake's girth to be swallowed. Once the food is inside, the snake must be digested it quickly before it rots in the snake's gut. If a snake cannot digest his prey before bacteria does, the snake will be forced to get rid of it. The large anacondas feed on deer, pigs, caiman (a creature that looks like a small crocodile), and fish. The snake usually wraps his extended jaws around the head of the victim and swallows working its way down to the victim's feet. This allows the unfortunate animal's limbs to neatly fold inward rather than present an obstacle to ingestion.