Meet the 33-foot-long Anaconda and Learn Some Facts About the World’s Largest Breed of Snakes

A shocking video uploaded on YouTube captures the moment a 33-foot-long anaconda was discovered by construction workers who couldn’t believe what they were seeing.

This gigantic beast of a snake, which tips the scales at nearly 900 pounds (408 kg), revealed itself in late September 2016 after the workers carried out a controlled explosion in the Cava of Altamira, situated in northern Brazil. To put things in perspective, a python named Medusa, crowned by the Guinness Book of World Records as the longest snake in captivity, and who resides at Kansas City’s Edge of Hell and Beast Haunted Houses, is a “mere” 25 feet in length.

The video of the 33-footer not only highlights the ridiculous length of the anaconda but also its impressive diameter, measuring in at around 40 inches (1 m). After encountering the snake, the construction workers chained it to a crane so that it could showcase the animal’s underbelly, which featured yellow spots. Not surprisingly, there were plenty of YouTube commenters who expressed anger at the way the snake was treated. Some speculated that the builders offed the massive snake monster rather than let it go on its merry way, but there has never been any confirmation of this. Others surmised that the controlled explosion was the culprit, as it appears that the anaconda’s head is flat, a possible indication that debris had fallen onto it. Regardless of how the anaconda – whom we’re calling “Theodore McLongsteen” – met his demise, the fact is that no amount of wizard magic is going to bring him back to life. Judging from the comments, it’s not something that folks are going to accept anytime soon. One viewer said, “If this video is real, what were those guys thinking?! If the snake grew to be that big, who knows how old it was. But now it’s dead… all so those workers could go viral.” Wrote another: “Humans see this huge, rare snake, it’s probably the last species of its kind on earth, so of course they decided to kill it for publicity.” Perhaps the most heartbreaking comment came from a user who observed: “For all we know that anaconda had a family. A wife. A child who was getting ready to go off to college. Their lives are completely shattered now, and who knows if they will ever trust construction workers ever again.” But another user brought up a very good point with the following message: “Let this be a lesson to all anacondas near and far. Instead of haphazardly crawling around controlled-explosion sites, maybe abide by all of the warning signs that were probably posted all over the area?”

We aren’t done with you yet! We would never end this article without throwing out some stone-cold facts about anacondas! So here are five of them:

It comes as no surprise that Theodore was such a long dude given that anacondas tend to be. In fact, it is not uncommon for them to grow as long as 30 feet. They are non-venomous, so they aren’t going to strike you the way a cobra would. Instead, they wrap their thick, muscular bodies around their prey, subduing and suffocating them when lunchtime arrives. And then it’s down the hatch.

In spite of their size, anacondas have mighty impressive swimming abilities. We aren’t going to get silly over here and claim they put the graceful swan to shame, but next time you find yourself roaming around the Amazon, you would be advised to avoid rivers, swamps, marshes, and – just to be safe – bathtubs.

Female anacondas are larger than their male counterparts and are capable of giving birth to as many as 80 offspring at once. They are also ovoviviparous, and we fully expect all of our readers to know what this means, as you are no doubt highly educated in matters of biology.

Anacondas only need to eat once every few weeks, but when they do develop an appetite, no animal great or small is safe. Sure, they’ll munch on fish and snack on birds, but thanks to their specialized jaw structure that permits them to stretch their mouths widely, they won’t hesitate to eat a delicious jaguar if the opportunity presents itself.

Like most snakes, anacondas don’t have the greatest of eyesight and no amount of LASIK surgery is going to correct that. But thanks to their pit organs, a unique heat-sensing biological structure, they are able to hunt for prey even in chilly, murky waters.