What the largest snake in the world looks like. The largest snakes in the world: photos of giant reptiles, terrifying

Animals

At all times, snakes have caused ambiguous and contradictory feelings in people. Some adored snakes, considering them a symbol of extraordinary wisdom and healing. Others, however, attributed them to the category of demonic beings belonging to the other world. Ignorance and fear have given rise to many all kinds of incredible myths and legends. Most often, these stories were built on the bloodthirstiness of these reptiles, their strength, insatiability and size.

There have always been rumors among people that such huge snakes, which by one of their types instill fear and sow panic. The length of such giants can reach 18 or even 21 meters! However, in truth, these reptiles never grow to such incredible sizes, although some of the modern snakes, compared to their ancestors, can indeed be quite large.

1st place. Green anaconda

Green anaconda (lat.Eunectes murinus) - lives in South America (in the rainforests of the Amazon and Orinoco), belongs to the family of boas and is quite rightly considered one of the largest and heaviest snakes on the planet. Anaconda is also called "water boa".


Although the reticulated python is somewhat longer than the green anaconda, it cannot surpass it in volume. It can reach 8.8 meters in length, the mass of an adult anaconda is from 227 to 250 kg, and the body diameter is up to 30 cm! I would like to note right away that the females of the green anaconda are much larger than the males.

2nd place. Reticulated python

Reticulated python (Latin Python reticulatus) - a resident of the South and South-East Asia, found in tropical forests, mountain slopes and woodlands. Belongs to the genus of true pythons (Latin Python). Today it is the longest snake: it can grow up to 9.7 m, but its mass is slightly less than that of the anaconda - 158 kg.


However, the largest of them can grow up to 10 meters, average length- 4-8 m. According to unconfirmed data, a python lived in one of the zoos, the length of which was 12.2 m. It is interesting that the longest reticulated python is a female named Samantha. She was kept in captivity and was over 7.5 meters long. She was caught in Borneo and died in 2002 at the Bronx Zoo (USA).

3rd place. Dark tiger python

The dark brindle, or Burmese python (Python bivittatus) is the third largest non-venomous snake in the world. The longest tiger python was over 9 meters long and weighed almost 100 kg! These snakes live in tropical forests, wetlands and river valleys of Eastern India, Myanmar, Cambodia, Nepal, southern regions of China, as well as Java, Hainan and Indonesia.


Interestingly, the Burmese python is one of the few predators that can afford to hunt jackals and jaguars, it may even give a real rebuff to the anaconda itself. Despite their significant mass, they swim and dive perfectly, and young individuals are excellent at climbing trees.

4th place. King Cobra

The king cobra (lat.Ophiophagus hannah) is the largest poisonous snake on the planet, it is considered the longest among poisonous snakes, belongs to the family of asps (lat.Elapidae). It lives in South and Southeast Asia, mainly in India, Pakistan, Indonesia and the Philippines. Life span king cobra is also impressive - more than 30 years, and it grows throughout its life.


In length it can reach up to 5.5-5.7 meters, weight up to 12.5-12.7 kg. It is worth noting that with their symmetrical, large shields on the head, slender build and smooth dorsal scales, asps (externally) are similar to snakes, therefore they are often called "poisonous snakes".

5th place. Gaboon viper

The Gabonese viper (Latin Bitis gabonica) is a poisonous snake belonging to the genus of African vipers. Lives in Central and East Africa south of the Sahara. An unusually thick snake in relation to its length. She has a large, wide, flat, triangular head with small eyes and a very short tail.


With a length of only 2 meters, the viper weighs up to 20 kg! Refers to viviparous snakes... There are usually about 60 cubs in a brood. is considered the largest of the viper family, and is also the owner of the longest poisonous teeth among all representatives of its kind.

6th place. Bushmaster

Bushmeister (lat.Lachesis muta) is a poisonous snake, the largest representative of the viper family living in South America. The length of this viper can reach up to 2.5-3.65 m (rarely up to 4 m). Bushmaster's poisonous teeth can be up to 2.5 cm long, some of them grow teeth up to 4 cm! Bushmaster leads single night image life. It hunts for rodents, on occasion attacks birds, lizards and other snakes. Can live up to 20 years.


Interesting fact: thanks to the latest archaeological finds, as well as the research carried out by the Museum and the Smithsonian Research Center, the largest and longest snake in the world is considered to be the Titanoboa constrictor, which lived 60 million years ago in Colombia. Its length was more than 15 m and it weighed more than a ton (about 1.135 kg).

V different time travelers claimed that they saw with their own eyes or heard from eyewitnesses about snakes 30-40 meters long living in the Amazon. However, of the recognized as reliable, the maximum is considered to be the length of a giant anaconda, measured by a Colombian geologist in 1944, who studied the jungle of Colombia in search of oil deposits. He claimed that the specimen he found had a length 11 meters 43 centimeters... It was not possible to save this specimen of the snake: according to the researcher, the snake stunned by him, after measuring its growth, came to its senses and crawled away. Thus, no one else saw her. Nevertheless, this result is officially recognized and entered into the Guinness Book of Records.

Moreover, although the New York Zoological Society in the 30s of the XX century announced a prize of $ 1,000 to anyone who presents evidence of the existence of an anaconda over 12.2 meters long, the prize has remained unclaimed. Later, the ex-President of the United States Theodore Roosevelt increased the amount of the prize to 6,000 dollars, and, on the contrary, reduced the desired length of the snake to 9.12 meters. V this moment the size of the prize is $ 50,000, and the desired length is 10 meters, and the award is still waiting for its hero.

The average length of a giant (green) anaconda is 5-6 meters, some specimens reach 8-9 meters.

To date, the longest snake on Earth is considered to be the reticulated python that lives in Asia.

According to unconfirmed reports, the record python that lived in one of the Japanese zoos in the 80s had a length of 12 meters 20 centimeters. However, officially the longest specimen entered in the Guinness Book of Records is considered to be a python caught back in 1912 on the island of Celebes (Sulawesi) in Indonesia. Its length was 9 meters 75 centimeters... The largest reticulated python kept in captivity is a female Samantha with a length of 7 meters 50 centimeters caught on an island in Borneo. She died in 2002 at the Bronx Zoo (New York). After her death, the record holder's laurels passed to the python Fluffy, the pet of herpetologist Bob Clark, who lived at the Columbus Zoo (Ohio, USA). Its length was 7.3 m, and the weight is about 135 kg. Fluffy died in 2010 at the age of 18 due to an internal tumor.

The average length of reticulated pythons is 4-8 meters.

Thus, the anaconda and the reticulated python to this day vie with each other for the right to be called the longest snakes on Earth.

The largest snakes on Earth are non-venomous. They kill their prey by strangulation, twisting tight rings around it. Here it is worth mentioning the possible danger of these snakes for humans.

Giant snakes that attack brave travelers in the deep jungle and eat people are a favorite plot of many adventure stories. However, contrary to the imagination of the writers, anaconda is not dangerous for an adult. Cases of giant snakes attacking people are rare and are caused, as a rule, by the fact that the snake did not calculate its strength or made a mistake in estimating the size of a person, seeing only part of his body under water. No specialist has seen a snake that could swallow prey weighing more than 60 kg. However, such snakes can be dangerous to children and adolescents; there are known cases of fatal attacks by reticulated pythons on children. Nevertheless, despite their gigantic size and aggressiveness, reticulated pythons are often kept in terrariums.

Cases of anacondas attacks on humans are also rare. Georg Dahl, who explored the jungle South America, wrote: “I was asked if I would dare to meet a boa constrictor in the forest. To this I can quite sincerely answer that I have met them more than a dozen times in the forest, and they, in my opinion, are no more dangerous than amateur sausages. Boa constrictor and sausage are about equally aggressive. In order for a boa constrictor to start getting angry, you need to irritate him strongly. He often expresses his displeasure with loud hiss. And if you still bother the boa constrictor, he is able to bite you, as if angry dog... And it will not immediately let you go with its thin, bent back teeth. "(Anaconda belongs to the subfamily of boas; in the old literature, anacondas were also called water boas, as they lead an aquatic lifestyle).

It should be recognized that giant snakes suffer much more from human hands than people from them. First, they are eaten in many countries. Secondly, their leather with beautiful patterns is used for the manufacture of shoes, as well as handbags and other haberdashery products.

Many zoos in the world contain giant snakes and there they, as a rule, do not show any aggressiveness. Free-living pythons, reaching 6 m or more, can, of course, be dangerous to humans. However, when they are attacked or want to grab, they defend themselves by trying to bite, and almost never try to throw their rings at the enemy - they do this only with the prey they are going to eat.

The largest poisonous snake on Earth is the king cobra (hamadryad), which lives in Southeast Asia and India. The largest specimens of the king cobra reach 5.5 meters. The average size these snakes - 3-4 meters.

By the way...

Measuring snakes is not easy. Of course, the most accurate result will be obtained if the snake is extended to its full length. But for a large snake such a posture is unnatural, and such a strong animal will never allow itself to be "straightened" for measurement. In a dead snake, the body stiffens, so making a measurement is even more difficult. As for the measurement of the removed skin, while it is fresh, it can be increased by as much as 20%! And since snake skin is sold by the meter, snake hunters usually remember to do this procedure.

Throughout the existence of mankind snakes caused admiration and fear in people at the same time. Some people consider the snake a symbol of wisdom and longevity, others argue that the reptile belongs to the other world and is mythical creature... Rumors combined with fear have created many legends around this animal. All myths told about the incredible size of the snakes, their bloodthirstiness and gluttony.

Nowadays, there are also rumors that there are reptiles of incredible size, which reach 20 m or more in length. In fact, these are just rumors, snakes of such huge sizes have not been found in nature. However, there are some individuals that are much larger than their ancestors, we will talk about them today.

10. Gyurza. She lives in the territory former countries Soviet Union and is considered the largest viper in these parts. On average, its length is 2 m and weight is 3 kg. The venom of this snake is toxic, so if bitten it is necessary to provide first aid and immediately go to the hospital.

9. Eastern brown snake. The length of this reptile is 2.5 m. It is most often found in Indonesia or Australia. The brown snake is one of the most dangerous and occupies 4th position in this rating. It is considered dangerous because of its powerful poison and the ability to very quickly attack the victim.

8. Bushmaster. This snake is recognized as the largest in South America, where it is also the largest representative of the pit viper. Most often, the Bushmeister reaches 3 m, but there are also individuals 4 m long. It is also worth noting that with its impressive size, the snake weighs only 3 kg.

7. Black mamba. This individual is the most dangerous and poisonous on African continent... Its length is 4.5 m. It is extremely undesirable to meet with it, so you should avoid abandoned termite mounds and bypass the hollows of trees.

6. An ordinary boa constrictor. This snake belongs to the pseudopod family and reaches a length of 5 m. The reptile feeds mainly on birds or rodents.

5. King cobra. Among poisonous snakes, the king cobra is the longest, it reaches a length of 5.6 m. Despite its name, this snake is not a cobra, but is own kind Ophiophagus. The bite of this snake is fatal in most cases. When this snake tries to protect itself from a person, it bites without spraying poison.

4. Indian python. It is 6 m long, differs from the common python in that it has light eyes and spots on the sides. Such individuals may still have red or pink stripes along the body.

3. Burmese python. The top three included an individual that reaches 9 m in length. The snake is recognized as the largest python, which has a brindle color. The weight of this animal is 70 kg.

2. Green anaconda... Relatively recently, this individual was caught in Colombia, after measurements it turned out that its length is 11 m.Today, the anaconda is the largest living snake in the world, it weighs almost 130 kg. Usually the length of this species is 7-8 m. You can see this huge animal in New York by visiting the Zoological Society.

Python named "Samantha"

"Fear has big eyes" - this is how they say about exaggerated fears, about invented things and phenomena that are actually much smaller than fictitious sizes. This fate did not pass by the information about the length and size of the snakes. Very often you can find information about snakes 15-30 meters long, although such in nature have not been recorded. The Guinness Book of Records included only a specimen of a reticulated python, 9.75 m long, which was shot on the island. Celebes (Sulawesi), Indonesia, in 1912

Also, it was reliably known about the largest reticulated python kept in captivity - a female more than 7.5 m long named "Samantha", caught in Borneo and died in 2002 at the Bronx Zoo (New York).

Although there was information about another, caught in 2002, a reticulated python with a length of 14.85 meters and a weight of 447 kilograms, in the same place, in Indonesia, but after careful study of the facts, it turned out that the length of this python was actually no more than 7 meters, and all the rest turned out to be the usual speculation and hoax to attract tourists.

On average, the longest snakes look like this:

Reticulated python

The longest snakes are considered representatives Reticulated python (Python reticulatus).

The largest individuals of the nominative subspecies can reach a length of 10 m or more. However, individuals with a length of 4-8 m are more common.

The name "reticulated" is due to the complex pattern on the body, which includes a chain of light diamond-shaped spots in the middle of the back and triangular, interconnected dark spots with light centers on the sides. The head is light. Scales with a strong iridescent tint.

This type of snake is widespread in South and Southeast Asia. The area covers Bangladesh, Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Nicobar Islands and the Philippines.

Anaconda

Second by sizeis Anaconda (Eunectes murinus).

Its average length is 5-6 meters, and specimens of 8-9 meters are often found.

The main color of the anaconda's body is grayish-green with two rows of large brown spots of a round or oblong shape, alternating in a checkerboard pattern. On the sides of the body there is a row of light small spots surrounded by black stripe... This coloration effectively hides the snake when it is hiding in calm water covered with brown leaves and bunches of algae.

Anaconda is not poisonous. Females are much larger and stronger than males.
Anaconda inhabits the entire tropical part of South America east of the Andes, as well as the island of Trinidad.

There are many anacondas in the zoos of the world, but it is rather difficult for them to take root in captivity. The maximum lifespan of an anaconda in a terrarium is 28 years, but usually these snakes live in captivity for 5-6 years.

Indian python

Closes the top three long snakes - Indian python orLight brindle python (Python molurus).

Large, up to 8 m long, snake, painted in brownish-brown tones. On the light brown background of the body, there is a number of large and dark dorsal spots of a reddish-brown color, and of an irregular quadrangular shape, in some places connected by jumpers. On the sides of the body there are two rows of small dark spots with middle light “eyes”.

Found in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh.

Boa (Boa constrictor or Royal boa constrictor) - a snake, which for some reason many people consider the largest in the world, barely reaches 5 meters.

Distributed in Central America and the Lesser Antilles. Prefers to settle in dry places, but close to water bodies. It feeds on small mammals, birds, and sometimes reptiles.

King Cobra

A King Cobra or hamadryad (Ophiophagus hannah) - the largest venomous snake in the world, has the greatest length among venomous snakes. Some specimens reach a length of 5.5 m, although the average size of an adult cobra is 3-4 meters.

Life expectancy is over 30 years. It grows throughout life.

The habitat of the king cobra - rainforests South and Southeast Asia (India, Pakistan, Indonesia and the Philippines).

The smallest snake in the world is only 10 centimeters long.