The biggest snake in the world can be measured by length or by girth and mass. Green anacondas are the biggest snake in mass and girth, having diameters of up to 30 centimeters and lengths up to 9 meters. Most weigh around 250 kilograms. This is a little frightening considering that they are an aquatic snake, so the most that you will usually see of them is their head sticking out of the water! They are also known to ambush their prey by dangling from trees. Green anacondas are a non venomous member of the boa constrictor family and reside in the Amazon River in South America. Green Anacondas kill by wrapping their bodies around their prey and squeezing them to death; either by suffocation or internal bleeding. They do bite; but their bites are not fatal. They are known to eat fish, birds and mammals including animals as big as a jaguars and crocodiles.
Typically, Green anaconda females will mate with more than one male at the same time; from 2 to 12 that coil up into a massive mating ball that can remain that way for weeks. Green anacondas are ovoviviparous, meaning that they hold their eggs inside their body until they hatch and give birth to 20-30 live babies who have to fend for themselves right away.
Green anacondas are not endangered according to the IUCN, but trade in their skin is illegal in most countries.
The biggest snake in the world by length is the Reticulated python at 9.1 meters, just barely beating out the Green anaconda. This Southeast Asian snake is slender and land dwelling although it likes to live around bodies of water. The Reticulated python is a species of the Python family. Both anacondas and pythons kill their prey by constriction, but the main difference between these two species is that unlike the Green anaconda, the Reticulated python is oviparous, meaning that she lays eggs outside her body and protects them by wrapping herself around them. Their diet consists of mostly mammals and birds, but there have been reports of attacks on humans; possibly in defense. One python suffocated a man to death by trying to swallow him head first and getting stuck on the man’s shoulders!
Pythons are farmed in Southeast Asia for their skin and meat, which is considered a delicacy in the region.
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