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The terrifyingly large green anaconda is the world’s biggest snake

The largest snake in the world, the green anaconda, can grow to be nearly the length of a school bus. Anyone with ophidiophobia, I suggest you look away.

The good people over at National Geographic have gotten up close and personal with the green anaconda (aka the largest, slipperiest snake known to the planet) and they’ve documented it all so we don’t have to.

Not to be confused with Nicki Minaj’s anaconda, this snake is the biggest and most nope thing (I refuse to say animal), and it is indeed what nightmares are made of.

green anaconda world's biggest snake
Photo: Edouard Paiva via National Geographic

The green anaconda comes in at 250 kg and let’s be real – unless you are Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, you probably don’t stand a chance against this thing. And unlike The Rock, the snake excels under-water and has eyes and nostrils on the top of its Voldemort-esque head, so you can bet it’ll be dragging you into a South American river before you can even see it peeking out at you.

A quintessential carnivore, the green anaconda prefers eating wild pigs, deer, birds, turtles, capybara, caimans, and even jaguars. With the aforementioned jaguars, the snake prefers to eat them whole, after they have squeezed them to death between their jaws – a far cry from me scoffing my mum’s Sheperd-less pie on my lunch break.

Whilst the snake may not be the longest in the world (it’s cousin, the reticulated python, can grow slightly longer) it is by far the heaviest. Nevertheless, the green anaconda can grow to almost 9 metres and measure more than 30 centimetres in diameter. Yikes.

Lucky for us here in Australia, the green anacondas reside far from this side of the world. But if you happen to find yourself near a swamp or slow-moving stream in the tropical rain forests of the Amazon and Orinoco basins – be sure to keep your wits about you.

Check out some more stats on the dinosaur snake over at National Geographic.