The lengths I will go to see a snake

Richard Collins travels to South America in search of an anaconda.

MONICA, the anaconda, is an enormous constrictor snake. The locals claim that she is 11 metres long, but this is surely an exaggeration. Seldom exceeding a length of eight metres, anacondas are the world’s heaviest snakes, but not the longest. A python, shot in Indonesia in 1912 and measuring 10 metres, is the longest snake ever recorded. I would not like to be the one to measure Monica; she is a formidable creature.

Anacondas live along the rivers, and in the swamps, of South America. The fishermen of the Parana river, which separates Brazil and Paraguay, became fearful of a particularly large one in their area. A posse was organised and Monica was captured. Accompanied by a retinue of park wardens and fishermen, she was taken to the Iguaçu Bird Park, where there is a reptile enclosure. There she remains in custody, fed and found, until the experts decide what to do with her. Sleeping peacefully in her compound, she resembles a large coil of electrical cable, about a quarter of a metre thick and military green in colour.