The average adult size of the pythons I rescue is three to three and a half meters in length, with a handful being around the four meter mark. A python crossing that busy road, in a suburb, was just bizarre! Last year, I was fortunate enough to rescue a four meter specimen on Link Road in Waterfall, whom was just under four meters long and who weighed thirty-one kilograms. How I wish to see a specimen at that size! Sadly, such giants are very rare, especially anywhere near suburbia. The Southern African Python can reach impressive lengths of five meters or more, and can weigh over sixty kilograms. Our Southern African Python (P.natalensis), and in northern parts of Africa, there is the Rock Python (P.sebae). Their lifespan in the wild is about ten years.Previously known as the Rock Python, the species has since been split into two subspecies. Baby snakes are about 2 feet long when they are born and are almost immediately able to swim and hunt. Reproductionįemale anacondas retain their eggs and give birth to two to three dozen live young. Jaws attached by stretchy ligaments allow them to swallow their prey whole, no matter the size, and they can go weeks or months without food after a big meal. Anacondas are nonvenomous constrictors, coiling their muscular bodies around captured prey and squeezing until the animal asphyxiates. They reach their monumental size on a diet of wild pigs, deer, birds, turtles, capybara, caimans, and even jaguars. Their eyes and nasal openings are on top of their heads, allowing them to lay in wait for prey while remaining nearly completely submerged. They are cumbersome on land, but stealthy and sleek in the water. On Land and in WaterĪnacondas live in swamps, marshes, and slow-moving streams, mainly in the tropical rain forests of the Amazon and Orinoco basins. Other anaconda species, all from South America and all smaller than the green anaconda, are the yellow, dark-spotted, and Bolivian varieties.

Females are significantly larger than males. Green anacondas can grow to more than 29 feet, weigh more than 550 pounds, and measure more than 12 inches in diameter. Learn how they maintain their massive size. The semiaquatic snakes weigh as much as 550 pounds, and can be as long as a school bus.

Largest anaconda ever