The Giants of the Palm House

Anacondas, which are native to South America, are a well-known species around the world. There are numerous misconceptions about these famous and infamous giant snakes, mostly due to movies that depict them as bloodthirsty beasts hunting humans. The size of anacondas is often surrounded by legends, with tales of snakes reaching lengths of ten meters or more. In fact, the green anaconda, the largest species of anaconda and one that can be seen in our zoo, typically does not exceed 4 to 5 meters. On average, males measure around 3 meters, while females reach about 4 meters. While it’s said that the longest anaconda ever recorded reached 9.3 meters, other sources question this claim, suggesting that the real record is likely closer to 5.9 meters. It is important to note, however, that such extreme sizes are far from the average, much like the height of the tallest person ever, who was 272 centimetres tall — far above the average human height.

The anacondas at our zoo are displayed in the Palm House. Our Palm House features two female green anacondas, affectionately nicknamed “the two graces” by their keepers. While the Graces in mythology are typically three, our anacondas received this name because of their beauty — a trait we certainly find striking, even if not everyone might agree. But the Zoo is also a place where we can appreciate the beauty in every animal and understand that each species plays an important role in the larger system of life on Earth.

Our smaller anaconda is roughly 3.5 meters, the larger is around 4.5 meters long. These are rough estimates, as accurately measuring such large and mobile animals is challenging. In any case, the larger of our anacondas is so long that it could only be rivalled in length by a single other snake in our collection, a large reticulated python. The body structure of reticulated pythons, however, differs greatly from that of the much bulkier anacondas, so when comparing an anaconda to a reticulated python of similar length, the anaconda will undoubtedly weigh more.