48-430: Anacondas or water boas are a group of large boas of the genus Eunectes . They are a semiaquatic group of snakes found in tropical South America . Three to five extant and one extinct species are currently recognized, including one of the largest snakes in the world, E. murinus , the green anaconda . Although the name applies to a group of snakes, it is often used to refer only to one species, in particular,
96-549: A gigantic snake that crushed large animals by coiling around their bodies and crushing their bones. Henry Yule in his 1886 work Hobson-Jobson , 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 described a ' tiger ' being crushed to death by an anaconda, when there were never any tigers in Sri Lanka. Yule and Frank Wall noted that
144-516: A low-water season (known popularly as summer), and a wet season (known popularly as winter) during which, the rivers flood the adjacent, low-lying forests. The climate of the basin is generally hot and humid . In some areas, however, the summer months (June–September) can bring cold snaps, fueled by Antarctic winds traveling along the adjacent mountain range. The average annual temperature is around 25-degree and 28 degree Celsius with little to no distinction between summer and winter season. Amazonia
192-572: A result male mate choice favours larger females. Large size is also favoured in males because larger males tend to be more successful at reproducing, both because of their size advantage in endurance rivalry and their advantage in sperm competition because larger males are able to produce more sperm. One reason that males are so much smaller in Eunectes is that large males can be confused for females, which interferes with their ability to mate when smaller males mistakenly coil them in breeding balls; as
240-455: A result, there is an optimum size for males where they are large enough to successfully compete, but not large enough to risk other males trying to mate with them. During the mating season female anacondas release pheromones to attract males for breeding, which can result in polyandrous breeding balls; these breeding balls have been observed in E. murinus , E. notaeus , and E. deschauenseei , and likely also occur in E. beniensis . In
288-566: Is scarcely populated . There are scattered settlements inland, but most of the population lives in a few larger cities on the banks of the Amazon and other major rivers, such as in Iquitos – Loreto in Peru , Manaus - Amazonas State , and Belém , Pará . In many regions, the forest has been cleared for soya bean plantations and ranching (the most extensive non-forest use of the land); some of
336-410: Is 1.5 million distributed. There are an estimated 100 uncontacted tribal groups. The largest organization fighting for the indigenous peoples in this area is COICA . It is a supra organization encompassing all indigenous rights organizations working in the Amazon basin area, and covers the people living in several countries. The river is the principal path of transportation for people and produce in
384-541: Is derived from the name of a snake from Ceylon ( Sri Lanka ) that John Ray described in Latin in his Synopsis Methodica Animalium (1693) as serpens indicus bubalinus anacandaia zeylonibus, ides bubalorum aliorumque jumentorum membra conterens . Ray used a catalogue of snakes from the Leyden museum supplied by Dr. Tancred Robinson . The description of its habit was based on Andreas Cleyer , who in 1684 described
432-626: Is land. The splash tetra is famous for laying its eggs on plants above water, keeping them moist by continuously splashing on them, the South American lungfish can survive underground in a mucous cocoon during the dry season, some small rivulid killifish can jump over land between water sources (sometimes moving relatively long distances, even uphill) and may deliberately jump onto land to escape aquatic predators, and an undescribed species of worm-like Phreatobius catfish lives in waterlogged leaf litter near (not in) streams. Some of
480-530: Is little known on the biology of wild anacondas. Most of our knowledge comes from the work of Dr. Jesús A. Rivas and his team working in the Venezuelan Llanos . Rivas et al . revised the taxonomy of Eunectes , describing a new species of green anaconda ( Eunectes akayima ) and merging E. deschauenseei and E. beniensis with E. notaeus , which resulted in the recognition of only three species of anaconda. The result of their phylogenetic analysis
528-480: Is located in the countries of Bolivia , Brazil , Colombia , Ecuador , Guyana , Peru , Suriname , and Venezuela , as well as the territory of French Guiana . Most of the basin is covered by the Amazon rainforest , also known as Amazonia . With a 5.5 million km (2.1 million sq mi) area of dense tropical forest , it is the largest rainforest in the world. The Amazon River begins in
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#1732776160513576-513: Is produced for use in urban areas. Exploitation of bushmeat , particularly deer and turtles is common. Extensive deforestation , particularly in Brazil , is leading to the extinction of known and unknown species, reducing biological diversity and adversely impacting soil, water, and air quality. A final part of the deforestation process is the large-scale production of charcoal for industrial processes such as steel manufacturing. Soils within
624-405: Is quite dense and its variety of animal inhabitants is comparatively high due to the heavy rainfall and the dense and extensive evergreen and coniferous forests . Little sunlight reaches the ground due to the dense roof of canopy by plants. The ground remains dark and damp and only shade-tolerant vegetation will grow here. Orchids and bromeliads exploit trees and other plants to get closer to
672-445: Is quite simple: frogs must always keep their skin moist since almost half of their respiration is carried out through their skin. The high humidity of the rainforest and frequent rainstorms gives tropical frogs infinitely more freedom to move into the trees and escape the many predators of rainforest waters. The differences between temperate and tropical frogs extend beyond their habitat. About 2500 fish species are known from
720-496: Is represented below: Eunectes murinus Eunectes akayima Eunectes notaeus Eunectes notaeus " Eunectes beniensis " Eunectes notaeus " Eunectes deschauenseei " In a response paper, Dubois et al . questioned the results of the mtDNA analysis above and the validity of Eunectes akayima . The name of the new species was considered a nomen nudum . The mating seasons in Eunectes varies both between species and within species depending on locality, although
768-579: The Andes Mountains at the west of the basin with its main tributary the Marañón River and Apurimac River in Peru . The highest point in the watershed of the Amazon is the second biggest peak of Yerupajá at 6,635 metres (21,768 ft). The Amazon River Basin occupies the entire central and eastern area of South America, lying to the east of the Andes mountain range and extending from
816-443: The green anaconda (E. murinus) , up to 13 males have been observed in a breeding ball, which have been recorded to last two weeks on average. In anaconda breeding balls, several males coil around one female and attempt to position themselves as close to her cloaca as possible where they use their pelvic spurs to "tickle" and encourage her to allow penetration. Since there are often many males present and only one male can mate with
864-535: The largest strict freshwater fish in the world. The bull shark and common sawfish , which have been recorded far up the Amazon, may reach even greater sizes, but they are euryhaline and often seen in marine waters. In contrast to the giants, there are Amazonian fish from several families that are less than 2 cm (0.8 in) long. The smallest are likely the Leptophilypnion sleeper gobies, which do not surpass 1 cm (0.4 in) and are among
912-463: The smallest fish in the world. The Amazon supports very large fisheries, including well-known species of large catfish (such as Brachyplatystoma , which perform long breeding migrations up the Amazon), arapaima and tambaqui , and is also home to many species that are important in the aquarium trade , such as the oscar , discus , angelfish , Corydoras catfish and neon tetra . Although
960-474: The Amazon are Portuguese and Spanish . There are hundreds of native languages still spoken in the Amazon, most of which are critically endangered . Many tribal groups live in the Amazon Basin, often in relative isolation. It is estimated 400 or more tribal groups have lived in the Amazon Basin for hundreds of years with their own culture, language, and lifestyle. Today total population of Amazon basin
1008-406: The Amazon basin and it is estimated that more than 1,000 additional undescribed species exist. This is more than any other river basin on Earth, and Amazonia is the center of diversity for Neotropical fishes . About 45% (more than 1,000 species) of the known Amazonian fish species are endemic to the basin. The remarkable species richness can in part be explained by the large differences between
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#17327761605131056-644: The Amazon basin, has several other cavefish species. The deeper part of the major Amazonian rivers are always dark and a few species have adaptions similar to cavefish (reduced pigment and eyes). Among these are the knifefish Compsaraia and Orthosternarchus , some Cetopsis whale catfish (especially C. oliveirai ), some Xyliphius and Micromyzon banjo catfish, and the loricariid catfish Loricaria spinulifera , L. pumila , Peckoltia pankimpuju , Panaque bathyphilus and Panaqolus nix (these five also occur in "normal" forms of shallower waters). The perhaps most unusual habitat used by Amazonian fish
1104-460: The Amazon basin. The biodiversity of the Amazon and the sheer number of diverse bird species is given by the number of different bird families that reside in these humid forests. An example of such would be the cotinga family, to which the Guianan cock-of-the-rock belong. Birds such as toucans , and hummingbirds are also found here. Macaws are famous for duck gathering by the hundreds along
1152-697: The Guyana Plateau in the north to the Brazilian Plateau in the south. With a length of about 6,400 km (4,000 mi) before it drains into the Atlantic Ocean , it is one of the two longest rivers in the world . A team of scientists has claimed that the Amazon is longer than the Nile , but debate about its exact length continues. The Amazon system transports the largest volume of water of any river system, accounting for about 20% of
1200-709: The Huni Kuin. Boinae The Boinae are a purported subfamily of boas found in Central and South America , as well as the West Indies . In the Integrated Taxonomic Information System (ITIS), Boinae is considered an invalid synonym of Boidae . ) Type genus . The genera Acrantophis and Sanzinia were erroneously synonymized with the genus Boa by Kluge in 1991. These have now been transferred to
1248-471: The anaconda in Brazil is sucuri , sucuriju or sucuriuba . Found in tropical South America from Ecuador , Brazil , Colombia and Venezuela south to Argentina . All five species are aquatic snakes that prey on other aquatic animals, including fish , river fowl , and caiman . Videos exist of anacondas preying on domestic animals such as goats and sometimes even jaguars that venture too close to
1296-537: The clay cliffs of the Amazon River. In the western Amazon hundreds of macaws and other parrots descend to exposed river banks to consume clay on an almost daily basis, the exception being rainy days. The green anaconda inhabits the shallow waters of the Amazon and the emerald tree boa and boa constrictor live in the Amazonian tree tops. Many reptile species are illegally collected and exported for
1344-518: 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 . The recent fossil record of Eunectes is relatively sparse compared to other vertebrates and other genera of snakes. The fossil record of this group is effected by an artifact called the Pull of the Recent. Fossils of recent ancestors are not known, so
1392-517: The direct benefit of a post-copulatory high-protein meal when they consume their mates, along with the indirect benefit of additional resources to use for the formation of offspring; cannibalism in general (outside of the breeding season) has been confirmed in all but E. deschauenseei , although it is likely that it occurs in all Eunectes species. Although sexual reproduction is by far the most common in Eunectes , E. murinus has been observed to undergo facultative parthenogenesis . In both cases,
1440-432: The female at a time, the success of a male often depends on his persistence and endurance, because physical combat is not a part of the Eunectes mating ritual, apart from firmly pushing against other males in an attempt to secure the best position on the female. Cannibalism is quite easy in anacondas since females are so much larger than males, but sexual cannibalism has only been confirmed in E. murinus . Females gain
1488-478: The females had lived in isolation from other anacondas for over eight years, and DNA analysis showed that the few fully formed offspring were genetically identical to the mothers; although this is not commonly observed, it is likely possible in all species of Eunectes and several other species of Boidae . According to the founding myth of the Huni Kuin , a man named Yube fell in love with an anaconda woman and
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1536-443: The inhabitants harvest wild rubber latex , and Brazilian nuts . This is a form of extractive farms, where the trees are not cut down. These are relatively sustainable operations in contrast to lumbering or agriculture dependent on clearing the rainforest. The people live in thatched houses shaped liked beehives. They also build apartment-like houses called " Maloca ", with a steeply slanting roof. The most widely spoken languages in
1584-442: The international pet trade. Live animals are the fourth largest commodity in the smuggling industry after drugs, diamonds and weapons. More than 1,500 species of amphibians swim and are found in the Amazon. Unlike temperate frogs which are mostly limited to habitats near the water, tropical frogs are most abundant in the trees and relatively few are found near bodies of water on the forest floor . The reason for this occurrence
1632-568: The living species 'pull' the historical range of the genus to the present. The name Eunectes is derived from Ancient Greek : εὐνήκτης , romanized : eunēktēs , lit. 'good swimmer'. The South American names anacauchoa and anacaona were suggested in an account by Peter Martyr d'Anghiera . The idea of a South American origin was questioned by Henry Walter Bates who, in his travels in South America, failed to find any similar name in use. The word anaconda
1680-598: The major fish groups of the Amazon basin include: More than 90% of the animal species in the Amazon are insects , of which about 40% are beetles (Coleoptera constituting almost 25% of all known types of animal life-forms.) Whereas all of Europe has some 321 butterfly species, the Manú National Park in Peru (4000 hectare-survey) has 2300 species, while Tambopata National Reserve (5500 hectare-survey) has at least 1231 species. The Amazon River basin has
1728-482: The most diverse orders in the Amazon are Characiformes (43% of total fish species in the Amazon) and Siluriformes (39%), but other groups with many species include Cichlidae (6%) and Gymnotiformes (3%). In addition to major differences in behavior and ecology, Amazonian fish vary extensively in form and size. The largest, the arapaima and piraiba can reach 3 m (9.8 ft) or more in length and up to 200 kg (440 lb) in weight, making them some of
1776-410: The opposite of most other vertebrates. Females are larger than males in most snakes, and green anacondas ( E. murinus ) have one of the most extreme size differences, where females average roughly 32 kg (70 lb) and males average only around 7 kg (15 lb). This size difference has several benefits for both sexes. Large size in females leads to higher fecundity and larger offspring; as
1824-592: The region are generally shallow and cannot be used for more than a few seasons without the addition of imported fertilizers and chemicals. "Over past 20 years (2021), the Brazilian Amazon emitted 13% more CO 2 than it absorbed". "Amazon biodiversity also plays a critical role as part of global systems, influencing the global carbon cycle and thus climate change , as well as hemispheric hydrological systems, serving as an important anchor for South American climate and rainfall. It also produces 20% oxygen of
1872-615: The regions, with transport ranging from balsa rafts and dugout canoes to hand built wooden river craft and modern steel hulled craft. Seasonal floods excavate and redistribute nutrient-rich silt onto beaches and islands, enabling dry-season riverside agriculture of rice, beans, and corn on the river's shoreline without the addition of fertilizer, with additional slash and burn agriculture on higher floodplains. Fishing provides additional food year-round, and free-range chickens need little or no food beyond what they can forage locally. Charcoal made largely from forest and shoreline deadfall
1920-597: The resurrected subfamily Sanziniinae . The genus Candoia has similarly been transferred to its own subfamily, Candoiinae. Amazon basin The Amazon basin is the part of South America drained by the Amazon River and its tributaries . The Amazon drainage basin covers an area of about 7,000,000 km (2,700,000 sq mi), or about 35.5 percent of the South American continent. It
1968-436: The snake was a python and suggested a Tamil origin anai-kondra meaning elephant killer. A Sinhalese origin was also suggested by Donald Ferguson who pointed out that the word Henakandaya ( hena lightning/large and kanda 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
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2016-483: The sunlight. They grow hanging onto the branches or tree trunks with aerial roots , not as parasites but as epiphytes . Species of tropical trees native to the Amazon include Brazil nut , rubber tree and Assai palm . More than 1,400 species of mammals are found in the Amazon, the majority of which are species of bats and rodents . Its larger mammals include the jaguar , ocelot , capybara , puma and South American tapir . About 1,500 bird species inhabit
2064-666: The total water carried to the oceans by rivers. Some of the Amazon rainforests are deforested because of an increase in cattle ranches and soybean fields. The Amazon basin formerly flowed west to the Pacific Ocean until the Andes formed, causing the basin to flow eastward towards the Atlantic Ocean. Politically the basin is divided into Peruvian Amazonia , Amazônia Legal of Brazil, the Amazon natural region of Colombia , Amazonas (Venezuelan state) , and parts of Bolivia and Ecuador . (km ) (km ) Plant growth
2112-401: The trend appears to be the dry season. The green anaconda ( E. murinus ) is the most well-studied species of Eunectes in terms of their mating system, followed by the yellow anaconda ( E. notaeus ) ; unfortunately E. deschauenseei and E. beniensis are much less common, making the specific details of their mating systems less well understood. Sexual size dimorphism in Eunectes is
2160-454: The true danger they represent often is greatly exaggerated, the Amazon basin is home to several feared fish species such as piranhas (including the famous red-bellied ), electric eel , river stingrays and candiru . Several cavefish species in the genus Phreatobius are found in the Amazon, as is the cave-dwelling Astroblepus pholeter in the far western part of the basin (Andean region). The Tocantins basin, arguably not part of
2208-442: The various parts of the Amazon basin, resulting in many fish species that are endemic to small regions. For example, fauna in clearwater rivers differs from fauna in white and blackwater rivers , fauna in slow moving sections show distinct differences compared to that in rapids , fauna in small streams differ from that in major rivers, and fauna in shallow sections show distinct differences compared to that in deep parts. By far
2256-500: The water. While encounters between people and anacondas may be dangerous, they do not regularly hunt humans . Nevertheless, threat from anacondas is a familiar trope in comics , movies , and adventure stories (often published in pulp magazines or adventure magazines ) set in the Amazon jungle . Local communities and some European explorers have given accounts of giant anacondas, legendary snakes of much greater proportion than any confirmed specimen. Although charismatic , there
2304-416: Was turned into an anaconda as well. He began to live with her in the deep world of waters. In this world, Yube discovered a hallucinogenic drink with healing powers and access to knowledge. One day, without telling his anaconda wife, Yube decided to return to the land of men and resume his old human form. The myth also explains the origin of cipó or ayahuasca — a hallucinogenic drink taken ritualistically by
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