--- title: "Green Anaconda (Eunectes murinus) | AnimalTracks.wiki" description: "Up to 550 pounds of camouflaged ambush predator, with eyes and nostrils on top of its head, that kills with suffocating coils." image: "https://animaltracks.wiki/images/animals/green-anaconda-1.webp" published: "2026-09-01" updated: "2026-09-24" --- # Green Anaconda (*Eunectes murinus*) > **Status**: Checked against 9 sources, listed under Sources below. > **Tagline**: Up to 550 pounds of camouflaged ambush predator, with eyes and nostrils on top of its head, that kills with suffocating coils. > **Soundtrack Vibe**: Thrash Metal & Speed Metal // Sepultura, "Roots Bloody Roots" > **Soundtrack Links**: [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/track/6ursmCnbc9oDRGa2yHKkoZ) | [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUCodt4zVw4) > **Vibe Match**: Pounding drums and downtuned riffs that tighten bar by bar, for a snake that throws coils of muscle around its prey and kills it by constriction, through respiratory arrest and circulatory failure. ## Biological Superpowers & Stats - **Taxonomy**: *Eunectes murinus* - **Danger Level**: High - **Conservation Status**: Least Concern ([IUCN Red List](https://doi.org/10.2305/iucn.uk.2021-2.rlts.t44580041a44580052.en)) - **Superpower**: A stretchy, ligament-hinged jaw that swallows prey whole; death comes from suffocating coils, or just as often, from drowning near water. - **Habitat**: Slow-moving rivers and streams, flooded Llanos grasslands, and rainforest swamps across the northern regions of South America - **Diet**: Fish, birds and small mammals as juveniles; deer, capybaras, caimans, tapirs and large birds as adults - **Tags**: reptile, rainforest, freshwater, wetlands, apex-predator ## Natural History & Behavior ## An Ambush Built Around a Periscope Its eyes and nostrils sit on top of its head, letting a green anaconda "see and breathe while swimming in the water," and its camouflage leaves a submerged anaconda virtually invisible from a short distance away. Females are considerably larger than males, and can reach 30 feet (9 meters) long, 12 inches (30.5 centimeters) across and 550 pounds (250 kilograms). San Diego Zoo calls South America's green anaconda "the heaviest snake in the world." The US Geological Survey, citing a 2000 study, reports that breeding females are at least five times the size of breeding males. The average life span in the wild is about 10 years; anacondas live much longer in human care, with some reports of them reaching their late 20s. ## Teeth, Coils and a Stretchy Jaw It grabs hold of prey with needle-sharp, curved teeth, throws coils of muscle around the body, and death follows from respiratory arrest and circulatory failure. Feeding usually happens near water, where prey are as likely to drown as to die from constriction. Its jaws are attached by stretchy ligaments, which let it swallow prey whole and headfirst, though large prey carries a risk of injury. Juveniles tend to eat fish, birds and small mammals; adults can take much larger animals, including deer, capybaras, caimans, tapirs and large birds. Green anacondas have slow metabolisms, and apart from breeding females, they only need to eat once every few weeks. ## A Female With Options Mating generally runs from March to May, during the dry season. Males form groups of up to 13 around one female, a "breeding ball" in which they compete for access to her, and the mating can last up to a month. Afterward she may eat one or more of the smaller males, as she will not eat again during the seven-month gestation. She gives birth to live young in the water, 20 to 40 at a time, and the largest litter on record was 82. > **A mother without a mate** at Ueno Zoo in Tokyo had been kept alone for eight years and two months when she died of pneumonia in 2015. Her autopsy found two almost fully developed but dead female offspring, and at all 16 informative DNA markers they carried only her alleles and no paternal ones. The researchers call it the first case of parthenogenesis in *Eunectes* validated by DNA analysis. ## Range, Status, and a Contested Name Green anacondas are native to the northern regions of South America: most abundant in Colombia's Orinoco basin, Brazil's Amazon basin and Venezuela's flooded Llanos grasslands, and also found in Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Guyana, Paraguay, French Guiana and Trinidad. The IUCN lists *Eunectes murinus* as Least Concern, though habitat loss, hunting and the international pet trade work against it. In 2024 Rivas and colleagues named the northern green anaconda, *Eunectes akayima*, as a separate species, saying the two separated about 10 million years ago and differ notably in how much bigger females grow than males. Other researchers argued that the original description broke the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature and sank the new name as a synonym; the describers' later paper says it rectifies earlier oversights in that description. The zoo and government pages behind the size, range and lifespan figures here do not mention the split. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### How big and heavy can a green anaconda get? Females are the larger sex. They can reach lengths of up to 30 feet (9 meters), a diameter of 12 inches (30.5 centimeters), and weights of up to 550 pounds (250 kilograms). *(Source: [Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute]())* ### How does a green anaconda kill its prey? It seizes prey with sharp, curved teeth, then coils around the body; death follows from respiratory arrest and circulatory failure. It usually feeds near water, where prey are just as likely to drown as to die from the squeeze. *(Source: [Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan]())* ### What is a green anaconda's "breeding ball"? During the mating season, males form groups of up to 13 around one female, called a breeding ball, in which they compete for access to her. The mating can last for up to a month. *(Source: [Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute]())* ### Can a female green anaconda reproduce without a mate? Yes. A female caught in Guyana lived alone at a Tokyo zoo for over eight years. When she died, she was carrying two female young whose DNA, at 16 markers, showed no sign of a father, which the researchers say is the first DNA-confirmed case in the anaconda genus. *(Source: [Shibata et al. 2017]())* ## Sources 1. [Green anaconda. Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute.]() 2. [Anaconda. San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance.]() 3. [Eunectes murinus (Anaconda, Green Anaconda). Animal Diversity Web, University of Michigan.]() 4. [Eunectes murinus (Linnaeus, 1758). USGS Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database.]() 5. [Shibata et al. (2017). Facultative parthenogenesis validated by DNA analyses in the green anaconda (Eunectes murinus). PLOS ONE.]() 6. [Rivas et al. (2024). Description of the Northern Green Anaconda (Eunectes akayima sp. nov. Serpentes; Boidae): What Is in a Name? Diversity.]() 7. [Vásquez-Restrepo, Alfonso-Rojas & Palacios-Aguilar (2024). On the validity of the recently described northern green anaconda Eunectes akayima (Squamata, Serpentes). Bionomina.]() 8. [Calderón et al. (2021). Eunectes murinus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2021: e.T44580041A44580052.]() 9. [Rivas (2023). What can studying anacondas tell us about Titanoboa cerrejonensis? Exploring the life of an extinct giant snake using an extant pretty big snake. The Herpetological Journal.]() *Published September 1, 2026. 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