Mating occurs during the dry season, between March and May, with males searching for females to mate with. Green anacondas reach sexual maturity at approximately 3–4 years of age. Large males typically mate with the most fertile and largest females. If one male is exceptionally large, it can be mistaken for a female by other males and may be courted. In conditions of high density or when females are easy to track, males can encounter each other, which may lead to combat. ( Grzimek, 2003 Rivas and Burghardt, 2001 Rivas and Owens, 2000 Rivas, 2000 Shine, 1992)įemales are selective in mating aggregations. Visual or chemical cues do not seem to be involved. Males compete to gain access to the female by coiling around her, searching for her cloaca with their tails. Males surround the female to make a breeding ball, in which the snakes form a mass of writhing bodies. During this time, a female can mate several times with the courting males. Studies have reported that green anacondas breed in multiple-male aggregations of up to 13 males. Strong seasonality of prey availability may be present in savanna environments, with the result that river-dwelling individuals often are larger and heavier than savanna-dwelling snakes. There are differences in rates of development between savanna and river-dwelling snakes. Anacondas start to show evidence of sexual dimorphism after the first year of life. They then undergo a 500 fold increase in biomass from birth to adulthood.
At a mean of 200 grams and 68 centimeters, they are on average 1% of the mass of the female that gave birth to them. Green anaconda neonates are larger than most snakes at birth.
GIANT ANACONDA SKIN
Their skin is soft, loose, and can endure extended periods of water absorption. The scale plates at the anterior portion of their body are much larger than those at the posterior end. Like other Eunectes species, they have narrow ventral scales and small, smooth dorsal scales. They have round dorsal blotches that are brown with diffused black borders, and are dispersed over the mid to posterior length of their body. Green anaconda coloration is characteristically dark olive-green dorsally, gradually changing to yellow ventrally. ( Duellman, 2005 Dunn and Conant, 1936 Grzimek, 2003 O'Shea, 2007 Schmidt and Inger, 1957) Like all snakes, anacondas have a forked tongue thay helps them locate prey and mates and to navigate their environment, in conjunction with the tubular Jacobson’s organ in the roof of the snake’s mouth. Boas have an external horny claw, a hind limb remnant that is more evident in males than in females. These boas can be distinguished from other constricting snakes by the absence of the supraorbital bone in the roof of the skull. deschauenseei (dark-spotted anaconda), and E. Green anacondas are one of four closely related species of constrictors, the other species being Eunectes notaeus (yellow anaconda), E. Green anacondas are semi-aquatic snakes that inhabit shallow, slow-moving freshwater habitats, as well as tropical savannas, grasslands, and rainforests. Small populations of green anacondas have also been introduced into Florida. Additional countries where they may be found include Ecuador, Paraguay, Bolivia, the Bolivarian Republic of Argentina, the Guianas, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Trinidad. This species is particularly common in the Orinoco basin of eastern Columbia, Amazon River basin of Brazil, and the seasonally flooded Llanos grasslands of Venezuela. Green anacondas are found throughout the tropical lowlands of South America.
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