Animal：Green anaconda — GIANT among snakes
【明報專訊】Indeed, snakes come in all sizes. If there were to be giants among them, it would definitely be the green anaconda(森蚺，粵音嚴) of the boa family(蚺科).
Female green anacondas are much larger than the males. An average female is around 6m long (there are records of up to 12m), 30cm in diameter and weighs almost 250kg! This makes the green anaconda the largest and heaviest snake in the world!
These gigantic snakes are mainly found in the swamps and grasslands of the Amazon and Orinoco rainforests in South America. Their dark olive-green skin with brown and blackish round patches gives them good camouflage among the tropical vegetation.
(text and photos: Ocean Park Hong Kong)
A combination of power
Like all boas, the green anaconda is not venomous (有毒的). But its sheer size is its biggest weapon, and is used expertly in combination with many other awesome features. The green anaconda's Jacobson's organ (犁鼻器) inside its mouth and the forked tongue both helps it identify things by smell, allowing it to locate prey or mates, and to navigate in their environment. On top of that, it has pit organs (頰窩器官) along its upper lip, with which it detects warm objects.
All these different sensory abilities added together enable the green anaconda to find its prey. It can be anything which happens to come along—bird, reptile, mammal. It quietly lies in ambush... and strikes! It then coils itself around the captured prey, squeezing until the prey is deprived of air. All the while, its needle-sharp, curved teeth lock the prey in a firm grip.
The green anaconda has very special jaws joined together with stretchy ligaments. It can open its jaws really wide and swallow its prey whole, whatever the size! After a big meal, the green anaconda can then go without food for weeks or even months!
Independent since birth
At the age of three to four, the green anaconda is sexually mature and will mate every other year during the dry season. The female incubates its eggs inside its body for seven months, and gives birth to 24 to 36 live young ones by the end of the wet season. At birth, the baby snakes can be 60cm long and are ready to swim and hunt immediately! There is no parental care needed whatsoever!
As in the case of most animals in the wild, the major threat to the green anacondas is the loss of habitat because of deforestation and human activities. Though it is also hunted for its skin, the biggest threat of all is fear. In face of this enormous animal, people are afraid they will be attacked and choose rather to kill. It is therefore important that we understand more about the world of nature around us. It is equally crucial that we protect rainforests and freshwater resources.
[Smarties' Power English 第275期]
