Anacondas or water boas are a group of large
snakes of the
genus ''
Eunectes''. They are found in tropical
South America. Four
species are currently recognized.
Description
Although the name applies to a group of snakes, it is often used to refer only to one species, in particular, the common or
green anaconda (''Eunectes murinus''), which is the largest snake in the world by weight, and the second longest after the
reticulated python.
Etymology
The South American names ''anacauchoa'' and ''anacaona'' were suggested in an account by
Peter Martyr d'Anghiera, but the idea of a South American origin was questioned by
Henry Walter Bates
Henry Walter Bates (8 February 1825, in Leicester – 16 February 1892, in London) was an English naturalist and explorer who gave the first scientific account of mimicry in animals. He was most famous for his expedition to the rainforests of ...
who, in his travels in South America, failed to find any similar name in use. The word anaconda is derived from the name of a snake from Ceylon (
Sri Lanka) that
John Ray described in Latin in his ' (1693) as '. Ray used a catalogue of snakes from the
Leyden museum supplied by Dr.
Tancred Robinson, but the description of its habit was based on
Andreas Cleyer who in 1684 described a gigantic snake that crushed large animals by coiling around their bodies and crushing their bones.
Henry Yule
Sir Henry Yule (1 May 1820 – 30 December 1889) was a Scottish Orientalist and geographer. He published many travel books, including translations of the work of Marco Polo and ''Mirabilia'' by the 14th-century Dominican Friar Jordanus. ...
in his ''
Hobson-Jobson
''Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive'' is a historical dictionary of Anglo-Indian words and terms from Indian languages which came in ...
'' notes that the word became more popular due to a piece of fiction published in 1768 in the Scots Magazine by a certain R. Edwin. Edwin that described a '
tiger' being crushed to death by an anaconda, when there actually never were any tigers in Sri Lanka.), and it is the former that occurs in Sri Lanka.
Yule and
Frank Wall noted that the snake was in fact a python and suggested a
Tamil origin ' meaning elephant killer. A
Sinhalese origin was also suggested by Donald Ferguson who pointed out that the word ' (' lightning/large and ' stem/trunk) was used in Sri Lanka for the small whip snake (''
Ahaetulla pulverulenta'') and somehow got misapplied to the python before myths were created.
The name commonly used for the anaconda in Brazil is ''sucuri'', ''sucuriju'' or ''sucuriuba''.
Species and other uses of the term "anaconda"
The term "anaconda" has been used to refer to:
* Any member of the genus ''
Eunectes'', a group of large, aquatic snakes found in South America:
** ''
Eunectes murinus'', the green anaconda – the largest species, found east of the Andes in Colombia, Venezuela, the Guianas, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil and
Trinidad and Tobago
** ''
Eunectes notaeus
The yellow anaconda (''Eunectes notaeus''), also known as the Paraguayan anaconda, is a boa species endemic to southern South America. It is one of the largest snakes in the world but smaller than its close relative, the green anaconda. No s ...
'', the yellow anaconda – a small species, found in eastern Bolivia, southern Brazil, Paraguay, and northeastern Argentina
** ''
Eunectes deschauenseei'', the darkly-spotted anaconda – a rare species, found in northeastern Brazil and coastal French Guiana
** ''
Eunectes beniensis'', the Bolivian anaconda – the most recently defined species, found in the Departments of
Beni
is a Japanese R&B singer, who debuted in 2004 under the Avex Trax label. In 2008, Arashiro left Avex Trax and transferred to Universal Music Japan where she started to perform as simply Beni (stylized as BENI).
She was initially best known fo ...
and
Pando in
Bolivia
** The term was previously applied imprecisely, indicating any large snake that
constricts its prey,
though this usage is now archaic.
** "Anaconda" is also used as a metaphor for an action aimed at constricting and suffocating an opponent – for example, the
Anaconda Plan
The Anaconda Plan is the name applied to a strategy outlined by the Union Army for suppressing the Confederacy at the beginning of the American Civil War. Proposed by Union General-in-Chief Winfield Scott, the plan emphasized a Union blockade ...
proposed at the beginning of the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...
, in which the Union Army was to effectively "suffocate" the Confederacy. Another example is the
anaconda choke
Arm triangle choke, side choke, or head and arm choke are generic terms describing blood chokeholds in which the opponent is strangled in between their own shoulder and the practitioner's arm. This is as opposed to the regular triangle choke, whi ...
in the martial art
Brazilian jiu-jitsu, which is performed by wrapping your arms under the opponent's neck and through the armpit, and grasping the biceps of the opposing arm, when caught in this move, you will lose consciousness if you do not tap out.
See also
*
South American jaguar
The South American jaguar is a jaguar (''Panthera onca'') population in South America. Though a number of subspecies of jaguar have been proposed for South America, morphological and genetic research did not reveal any evidence for subspecific ...
, a competitor or predator
Notes
References
{{Set index article, snakes
Eunectes
Snake common names