Speaker A
This is the giant anaconda of the Amazon. Join us on this adventure as we have a look at some of the craziest wildlife that we can find here in the jungles of the Amazon.
Harris explores the remote Peruvian Amazon near the Brazilian border in search of the giant green anaconda, meeting monkey tree frogs, red-tailed boas, caymans, macaws and more.
Key Takeaways
- Green anacondas are apex predators that rely on lakes and slow rivers, and their presence is supported by abundant prey such as amphibians and mammals.
- Many Amazon species, including boas and anacondas, face serious threats from habitat loss and the illegal pet trade.
- Ethical wildlife observation and buying captive-bred animals are essential to protecting these ecosystems.
What the video covers
- Presenter Harris sets out on a 10-day expedition in a remote region of the Peruvian Amazon near the Brazilian border to find a giant green anaconda.
- The team camps beside a vast, ancient lake that hosts giant river otters, piranhas, electric eels, caymans, arapaima and many mammals that serve as anaconda prey.
- Harris explains predator-prey relationships, noting that abundant amphibians like monkey tree frogs signal that snakes should also be present.
- A red-tailed boa constrictor is found and discussed, including its size, constriction hunting, and primitive traits such as two functional lungs and pelvic spurs.
- The pet trade and habitat destruction are highlighted as threats to boas, with advice to buy only from captive breeders.
- A feisty stick insect is shown behaving defensively, illustrating camouflage and unexpected Amazon wildlife behavior.
- Caymans with unusually long tails are examined, and a legend of river spirits turning disrespectful people into caymans is recounted.
- Macaws gather at a clay lick where minerals are exposed along the riverbank, a key feeding site for parrots.
- The heat and humidity of the rainforest are described as physically straining, and a furry titi monkey and other primates are shown as essential to the ecosystem.
- Drone footage over the swamps reveals a very large anaconda, with discussion of its estimated weight, muscular build, and status as an apex predator.
Chapters
- 00:00Introduction to the Amazon Expedition
- 03:34Exploring the Lake Ecosystem and Monkey Tree Frog
- 16:46Red-Tailed Boa Constrictor Encounter
- 30:00Defensive Stick Insect and Amazon Insects
- 44:00Caymans and River Spirit Legend
- 57:00Macaws at the Clay Lick and Heat Challenges
- 77:30Drone Search and Giant Anaconda Discovery
- 93:20Anaconda Biology, Threats and Closing Message
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
Speaker A
For thousands of years, apex predators have played a powerful role in cultures and folklore across the world.
Speaker A
In the Amazon, mighty jaguars, formidable caymans, and green anacondas stand at the very top of the food chain.
Speaker A
My name is Harris. I have explored some of the wildest places on Earth in search of the most extraordinary reptiles, from Australia and Europe to Africa and Asia. Coming face to face with king brown snakes, black mambas, king cobras, and many more. But there's one place I've never explored: the Amazon rainforest. And there is one creature I've never encountered: a legendary green anaconda, the largest snake in the world.
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On this expedition, I've set out to do exactly that. I have 10 days to find one of these giants.
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We've chosen one of the most remote regions of the Peruvian Amazon near the border with Brazil.
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A vast wilderness largely untouched by humans. The perfect place to search for the world's largest snake and experience some of the most incredible wildlife on Earth up close and personal.
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Green anacondas are highly aquatic snakes. They can grow up to 8 meters in length and weigh more than 200 kilograms. To support their immense weight, they spend most of their time submerged in lakes and slow-moving rivers.
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That's why my team and I decided to explore a vast, ancient, and very remote lake surrounded by pristine rainforest.
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This lake is home to giant river otters, piranhas, electric eels, caymans, countless bird species, and the world's largest freshwater fish, the arapaima, which can grow over 3 meters long.
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Many mammals also visit this lake regularly. Monkeys, deer, wild pigs, capybaras, and jaguars.
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All potential prey for the anaconda. It's the perfect habitat to find one. We set up camp and are prepared for the night.
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Wherever I go, one of the first things I do is explore the area around me. Seeing firsthand what animals and plants share this place with us helps me get a great feel for how this whole ecosystem works.
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I'll check out what I have in my hands. This is the monkey tree frog. And look at the size of it. It's pretty huge.
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And it's very beautifully green colored on the belly. It's like white, a little bit yellow. And it's a really good sign when we see amphibians like these out, because that, of course, is a nice food source for many snakes. So when the amphibians are out, the snakes should be out too, because they're looking for this guy right here. So you've got to watch out, buddy. Snakes are coming after you, and we're coming after the snakes. Let's find some.
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When trying to find reptiles in the Amazon, it's really helpful to understand the predator-prey relationship.
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When we can locate snake prey in an undisturbed habitat, we can be sure to find snakes around.
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The high humidity of the rainforest ecosystem enables amphibians to thrive. Over 1,000 species of frogs alone are known to live in the Amazon, making it one of the most diverse amphibian ecosystems on Earth.
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And many snakes love to eat these frogs. We just have to keep our eyes open.
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And the species we're about to find is one of the most exciting I've ever got to see in the wild.
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Oh, careful. That's an S-shaped position of the head. That means it's about to strike.
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It's a small snake, but I don't want to get bitten still. Wow. So, when I was about 10 years old, 12, 14, I always wanted to have a boa constrictor as a pet. My parents, they were smarter, and they said, "Well, it's going to get really big, though." Yeah, it's going to eat big prey items also.
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So, I never got one as a pet. But this is super popular in the pet trade. This right here is the boa constrictor. And you can tell, perhaps, why it's so popular, because it's just absolutely beautiful.
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And this one right here is a very special form of a boa constrictor. If you look at the tail, it's actually a little bit red. So, this is a red-tailed boa constrictor.
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And what you see here is not only a beautiful color, but also a beautiful shine on its scales. So, like all snakes, these boas are not wet, not even slimy. What you see is just a reflection of the sun on their scales. Now, these guys, they can grow pretty big. For boas, that can go up to about 4 meters in length, or about 40 to 50 kilograms in weight.
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It's a constrictor snake, right? So, they would just bite the prey item and then coil around it and squeeze it. And actually, there's a recent study which found out that they not only sometimes kill prey by suffocation, but also by just cutting off the blood circulation, which is a much faster way to kill their prey, because you can imagine it takes quite a while to kill the prey item through suffocation. So, by cutting off blood vessels, it's much quicker.
Speaker A
And now these boas here, they are what we call more primitive snakes. So most snakes, they have evolved quite well, but boas not so much. So they have a couple features that many snakes don't have anymore. For example, they still have two fully functional lungs, whereas most snakes evolved to only have one lung. And also at the cloaca here, these boas have what we call pelvic spurs. Now, these pelvic spurs are actually leftovers from hind legs, because like all snakes, they have evolved from four-legged ancestors. It's crazy to believe, but yeah, snakes actually had legs a long time ago. And these boas still have these little spurs here by the cloaca. So they connect to a pelvic bone, actually. Yeah. And now I can tell this right here is actually a female, because she has very, very small spurs. The males have much larger spurs than the females.
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And I would say this one is just about maybe a kilogram in weight and probably about 2 to 3 years old. So it's a pretty small snake still. It would feed off some larger mice, even smaller rats, other smaller mammals, even other reptiles, for example lizards, in the Amazon here. Now, one thing that's pretty hard, of course, on these boas is habitat destruction, but even more significant is the pet trade, because many people like to have them in their collections because they're just so gorgeous, right? And also, they usually have a very, very sweet temper, as you can tell.
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And what happens then is that people find these snakes, like we do right now, and they put them in bags and ship them overseas. So, I would always recommend people, when you buy one of those, make sure, please, that you get them from an actual breeder, not from the wild, because the wild needs them. The ecosystem needs these beautiful snakes.
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I love boas. Aren't they just stunning? This was such an awesome moment to see one of my favorite snakes in the wild.
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Now, animals in the Amazon come in many different shapes and forms. And check out this stick insect. If we were just walking by this path and this insect wouldn't have moved, I don't think we would have seen it at all. Even if you would tell someone, "Hey, there's an insect right there," you have to look pretty closely to identify that this is actually an animal right here. And I was just trying to pick it up, but check out what it's doing. I mean, I've never seen these to be defensive, but this one is about to kick my ass. I mean, check out how it's just holding up its legs like this. And it's going like that.
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It really means business. Check it out. Look how it's about to lash out at me. Do you see this? Look, I could come around this side.
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Check this out. You see how it's holding up its arm and it has all these little spikes along its arm. It's about to whack me with it. You see that? It really means business. Whoa. These, they don't... Check this out. I've never seen a stick insect being aggressive. And thi
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evolved from fourlegged ancestors. It's crazy to believe, but yeah, snakes actually had legs a long time ago. And these boas, they still have these little spurs here by the cloa. So, they connect to um a pelvic bone actually. Yeah. And
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now I can tell this right here is actually a female because she has very very small spurs. So the males have much larger spurs than the females.
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And I would say this one is just about maybe a kilogram in weight and probably about 2 to 3 years old. So it's a pretty small pretty small snake still. It would feed off some larger mice, even smaller
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rats, other smaller mammals, even other reptiles, for example, lizards in the Amazon here. Now, one thing that's uh pretty hard, of course, on these boas is habitat destruction, but even more so significant is the pet trade because many people they like to
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have them in their collection because [music] they're just so gorgeous, right? And also, they usually have a very, very sweet temper [music] as you can tell.
Speaker A
And what happens then is that people find these snakes like we do right now and they put them in bags and ship them overseas. So, I would always recommend people when you buy one of those, make sure, [music] please, that you get them
Speaker A
from an actual breeder, not from the wild, because the wild needs them. The ecosystem [music] needs these beautiful snakes.
Speaker A
I love boas. Aren't they just stunning? This was such an awesome moment to see one of my favorite snakes in the wild.
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[music] [music] [music] Now, animals in the Amazon, they come in many different shapes forms. And check out this stick insect. If we were just walking by this path and this insect wouldn't have moved, I don't think we would have seen it at all. Even if you
Speaker A
would tell someone, "Hey, there's an insect right there." You have to look pretty closely to identify this is actually an animal right here. And uh I was just trying to pick it up, but check out what it's doing. I mean, I've never
Speaker A
seen these to be defensive, but this one is about to kick my ass. I mean, check out how it's just holding up its legs like this. And it's going like that.
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It really means business. Check it out. Like look how [laughter] it's about to lash out at me. Do you see this? Look at I could come around this side.
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Check this out. You see how it's holding up its arm and it has all these little spikes along its arm. It's about to whack me with it. You see that? It really means business. Whoa. These they don't check this out. I've never seen a
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stick insect being aggressive. And this one is super aggressive. Look what it's doing right now.
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Look at this posture. I cannot believe how aggressive it is. I've heard that compared to places such as Asia or Africa, South American snakes [music] apart from a few viper species, tend to be much more relaxed. [music] While that may be the case for snakes
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here, insects seem to be all the more feisty. [music] Ow. Ow. [music] It's all right. So, this insect right here really means business.
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It's like wrapping its legs around my arm. And if you look closely, it has all these little spikes on its legs.
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We then actually [music] both agreed that keeping a low profile and minding your own business is truly underrated.
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We were friends after that. See There are actually 3,000 different species of stick insect spread out over [music] all continents except Antarctica.
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There are even some species of stick insect that only consist of females. In these cases, the eggs simply hatch into perfect genetic copies of the mother.
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But peace in the Amazon doesn't last long. As we get to the [music] lake, a massive storm is approaching.
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In the Amazon, storms rise out of nowhere [music] and the region experiences some of the highest lightning activity on the planet with massive bolts striking the forest every few seconds.
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But it won't stop us from our mission. As we are canoeing over the lake, we look out for eyes shine.
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This may give away an anaconda sticking its head out of [music] the water, but there are many other animals lurking in this lake. While the [music] stick insect was all fun and jokes, the next animal that we encounter is in fact a
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potential [music] maneater. The red eyes shine gives [music] away that we are not alone.
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This is the black cayman. It is the largest predator [music] in South America with lengths over 6 m and weighing nearly half a ton. At that size, their bite force is incomprehensible.
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Capable of crushing thick turtle shells and bones without effort. In some stories of the locals, the black cayman was [music] once a man, a hunter of the forest who took too much or disrespected the spirits of the water.
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The angered river spirits then turned them into caymans, condemned to guard the waters they [music] disrespected for eternity.
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[music] Either way, these apex predators play a crucial role in maintaining the balance of the Amazon ecosystem.
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Once heavily hunted for their skin, populations [music] have slowly recovered thanks to great conservation efforts.
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This is a great symbol of nature's ability to heal when given the chance. So, caymans are perfectly adapted to their specific habitat and they've been around for millions of years.
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Crocodilians have been around since the age of dinosaurs. And if you look close, you can see that the eyes, the nose, and their ears are pretty much on one line. So they stand up in the water almost like this. Look around. What's
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going on? Look for prey at the water's edge while the entire body stays underwater. So they're ambush predators.
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Incredibly adapted to this ecosystem. And here in the Amazon, they're super abundant. Why? Because of their prey mainly. Yeah. So they feed on a lot [snorts] of fish, but also turtles, even snakes, even the anaconda.
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And then when they grow up to about maybe four or 5 mters in length, they have no more natural predators. However, before they reach the size, they can in turn be prey to anacondas and also jaguars. Isn't that crazy? Jaguars love
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to prey on those because they have a lot of muscle mass, a lot of protein. really nutrientdense for a jaguar to eat. But as you can imagine, it's quite the battle for jaguar to eat a cayman in the
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length of about two to three meters. Okay, so I'm going to try to switch hands here a little bit. There you go.
Speaker A
Don't bite me. No, no, no, no. You're right. It's a bit more comfortable for this little cayman. As you can see, I'm holding it just firmly enough not to receive a bite because you don't want to get bitten by one of those cocadillians.
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They have the strongest bite force of any animal in the world. Yeah. So, even at this size, it will bite me, be super bloody, can get a pretty bad infection.
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So, I really don't want to get bitten even by a cayman this size. And look how long its tail is. Compared to all the other cayman species, they have the longest tail. And it's longer than the entire upper body. Isn't it
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crazy? Beautiful little cayman. And they're nocturnal, so we can see them now. And it's easy to find them because when they stand out the water like this, their eyes are shining bright red when you put a torch at them. So you
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just have to look out for eye shine. When you see red eye shine, you go there and then they will stare at the light.
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They can't really detect what's coming. And then you just grab them quickly. And just to show you how abundant these caymans are. So I'm just sitting here. I have one cayman in my hand. And now check this out. I just have to wait a
Speaker A
little bit. And now I got two caymans. [laughter] So it's crazy. And um it astonishes me just how many caymans you can find in such a short little creek that we are in right now. And I mean there are a whole bunch
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more. If I would have five more hands within the next minute I could catch five more of these caymans. Isn't that wild? Look there's a third one. Whoops.
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Awesome. [music] Look at this little one go. [music] That's just so cute. Besides anacondas, caymans also prey on any other snake [music] they come across.
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That's why this one is better off living high up in trees. The Amazon treeboa. Check it out. Was just biting me right there on the finger. But it's all right. This right here is a nonvenenomous constrictor.
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Now, this is the Amazon treeboa. They can grow up to about 3 m, right? Like most boora species, they get quite large. But this one right now, look how small it is. And especially how slender this one of the most slender boora
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species that they probably are in the world. Look at the tiny head. And they got those cat eyes. Of course, perfect for nocturnal vision. And this one was just chilling in this tree right now. We have this big leg on this side and a
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tree here. So was probably looking for some lizards because that is what uh the snake would mainly eat. I would suggest at that size especially. And they're a little constrictor. So they will just wrap around the lizard, squeeze it, and
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then eat it. And this one has a long way to grow. I reckon this one is not even more than half a year old. And interesting is the color here. It has this beautiful brown, gray, black coloration, but they happen
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to come in many different colorations. So some of them they are green, some of them are red or even yellow in coloration.
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Absolutely beautiful. The Amazon treeboa. And at that size, you can even wear it as a necklace. Check this out.
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How does that look? Okay, I'm going to put you back in your tree and hopefully you're going to catch some lizards tonight.
Speaker A
My name is Lois and I have a very important [music] message for my dear viewers. I'm professionally trained with dangerous reptiles and work with a team of [music] experts. Still, nothing out there is ever safe. The animals you see
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in this film are wild and unpredictable. The risks are real. I urge you to never try to approach or handle any potentially [music] dangerous wildlife.
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Please don't copy or reenact anything you see here on Alb Wildlife. The following days we continue searching but are not lucky with anacondas.
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We see no signs at all. This lake is huge and at this time around activity seems to be low.
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Therefore, it is time for plan B. All right. So, this right here doesn't seem to be the location to find an aonas this time of the year. It's really, really hard.
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So, we have a plan B. There's always a plan B. So, right now, we're going to go back to P Minado by boat. So, we're just waiting for it to pull up here in the jungle. And then we're going to go back
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to town. And then from there, we're going to take another car ride and then another boat ride to get to a really, really remote little swampy area. It's like a floating forest. And just yesterday, my guides told me there was a
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sighting of a six meter and a condom. So, we're trying to get there right now.
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And hopefully, we'll be more lucky over there. [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] And what a surprise this is. Literally hundreds of birds pitched by the doorstep of our next location.
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Three different macau species travel from miles away to flock at this site. This is a clay lick. The river has cut into the bank and exposed layers of clay that are packed with minerals.
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The macaus come here to eat it. It sounds strange, but the clay actually helps to neutralize the toxins from some of the fruits and seeds they regularly eat.
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It also gives them nutrients they can't easily find elsewhere in the forest. Macaus are extremely social birds. Once they find a partner, they usually stay together for life.
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You can see the devotion in the way they sit close, the way they touch beaks, and in the way they check in with each other before feeding.
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Meanwhile, the younger ones are trying to impress each other, testing their luck, perhaps looking for a mate. It's loud, it's chaotic, and it's incredible to watch.
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And this is perfect anaconda prey. It's the capibara. This is a really good sign.
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Capibaras are massive [music] rodents, but ecologically they fill a role similar to medium-sized [music] grazing mammals. They are usually found right along river banks. Jumping in the water is their primary escape mechanism.
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One capabara is always on lookout and the moment it senses danger, it gives off a sharp arc [music] and the whole group dives head first into the water.
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They're fantastic swimmers, able to stay submerged for long periods, and the [music] river is their only way out when predators such as jaguars or pumas attack.
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Yeah. So, what's happening? The one thing you always hope will not happen is that you get sick when you travel. And Yeah. So, I got pretty sick right now. I got a pretty decent fever and I uh yeah, I had it this morning and
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I thought we going to leave PTO Maronado and come out here to catch Cayman tonight because I will feel better.
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But, uh yeah, actually I think it was a mistake. I should have stayed in Pto Maronado. There's no air conditioning.
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There's no ventilator. is brutally hot and extremely humid out here. And if you have a pretty big fever and it's like 35° in the shades, it's uh putting a lot of strain on your cardiovascular system for sure. And
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right now, um yeah, just hoping that I'll feel better soon. But what can you do? That's crazy.
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That's just a monkey jumping over my head. The monkey is sweet, eh? It's coming.
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Oh, thank you for that. Um, the monkeyy's like, "Well, you know, probably feeling bad for me. The fact that I can't go out explore today." The monkey comes to me to say hi.
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But he comes to say hi. Yeah, this journey is crazy, man. One crazy monkey.
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Yes, it's all right. One crazy journey. And it's all right with me. Yeah, it's all right with me.
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It has to be. [laughter] The next morning, we're back at it. We have an anaconda to catch.
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And the jungle is alive. This is the unedited audio. Just listen to this. It's crazy. We're just among probably about 50 squirrel monkeys and they're everywhere. See them? They're jumping around all over those trees right now.
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Stuff is falling down. It's crazy. Squirrel monkeys are very tiny, fast, and incredibly social.
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They move in groups that can number well over a 100 individuals. They are spending most of their day hunting insects, searching for fruits, or anything else small enough to catch.
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You may hear the soft chirps and whistles by these squirrel monkeys that keep the group coordinated as they travel.
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With them often move brown capaci monkeys, one of the most intelligent primates in the rainforest, known for their problem-solving skills and tool use.
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And further off, we spot another species. This is a furry TT monkey. Monkey species like these three are essential to the rainforest.
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As they travel through the trees, they spread seeds from the fruits they eat, helping new plants establish across the forest.
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Their diet of insects also helps regulate insect populations, preventing outbreaks that could damage vegetation.
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So they are in many ways engineers of the forest contributing significantly to the balance and structure of this highly complex ecosystem.
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The swamp we tried to get to is so remote it can only be accessed by a 2hour walk and that is only if you don't get lost on the way.
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This is a very different ecosystem compared to our previous location. The swamp was formally connected to a river but was cut off through natural processes over hundreds of years ago.
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Therefore, it's slowly shrinking ever since and the surrounding forest is taking over bit by bit.
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You cannot tell where the lake stops and the forest starts due to the floating vegetation.
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This is why it's also called the floating forest. The thick vegetation in the water is ideal for anacondas to hide within. However, this makes it extremely difficult for us to find one. There could be a massive one right next to our
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boat without us being able to detect it in any way. But then we find a huge track that leaves no doubt about the animal that made it.
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This nice butterfly right here. I don't know what it likes about my shirt, but this right here is a track made by the green anaconda.
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There's no other animal out here that would move through this floating forest like the anaconda. And if you look at the size of this track, it's absolutely massive. So, of course, like all reptiles, they have to thermode regulate, which means they have to shift
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between different environments to keep their body temperature optimal. And in the water right now, it's quite cool.
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But when they want to heat themselves up a little bit, especially now in the morning hours, then they tend to come out here into these grassy areas to sunbath.
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And when they do so, of course, they're going to push all these grasses down and move towards this area. And look at the size of this track. It is like wider than my forearm is long. It's absolutely massive. But we cannot see any snake
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back there. And you would also assume that we could just walk over there and check it out, but we can't. So all this stuff right here is basically floating on water and it's quite deep. So don't be uh fooled by these trees right here.
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This is not a uh a walkable ground. So all we can do is just look out for what we see in the distance. And uh for now we see nothing. So we have to keep on going. But this is pretty promising. And
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especially to see a track of this size for this entire ecosystem is pretty cool. Uh because when they're big anacronis ecosystem is thriving. We're really far away from people because people tend to kill bigaconas. They're really afraid here. So, this is a good
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spot. Promising for us to see something. But yeah, we have to we have to try try try. Let's keep going, guys.
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And as we keep going, we see more and more tracks. tracks so huge it's hard to comprehend just how massive green anacondas really get.
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To read on paper that they grow over 6 m or 20 ft in length and weigh up to 220 kilos or near 500 lb is one thing, but seeing these tracks in person shows me what that really means. And I start
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to question how in the world are we supposed to catch one to show it properly to the camera. I have handled all kinds of snakes all over the world.
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But never have I faced a situation where I was doubting that three grown men would be enough to capture a single snake.
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All right, so we've been pedaling all day. It's 35° in the shades. It's incredibly warm. And we're out there on the sun canoeing like three idiots trying to get a heat stroke.
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My god, what am I doing? You know, uh sometimes, you know, imagine people asking like, "What do you do? You're paddling at 35° in the shades in the sun on a lake in the Amazon trying to find the 5 m anaconda."
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Yep. But uh we got to keep on looking. I haven't found anything yet, but it's time for a break because otherwise we will get a heat stroke. And what are we eating in the Amazon if you're wondering?
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Ritz crackers. Yeah, that's right. That's fooling us. So, we won't give up. We'll keep on trying. And uh eventually we'll get it hopefully.
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After a break to cool down at least a bit, we are back and this time in the floating forest.
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If an anaconda is out sunning itself, it will most likely be laying on top of the floating vegetation.
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That means we must get in there, but it's not an easy feat for two-legged creatures to maneuver through. The floor may look solid, but it's just leaves and underwater roots from the nearby plants.
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We are actually still on water. The plants have spikes. The climate is unbearable. And insects bite and sting on the regular. It's a hostile environment. But it's the environment we need to be in if we want to show you the
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special snake. And one wrong step and you sink hip deep into the mud. Just like that.
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And there goes my guide. And to make things worse, a storm seems to close in.
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After a full day out here, we are exhausted and decide to head back to camp. But we'll be back.
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My name is Lois and I have a very important message [music] for my dear viewers.
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I'm professionally trained with dangerous reptiles and work with a team of experts. Still, nothing out there is ever safe. The animals you see in this film are wild and [music] unpredictable.
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The risks are real. I urge you to never try to approach or handle any potentially dangerous wildlife. Please don't copy or reenact anything you see here on LB Wildlife.
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[music] [music] While we typically look out for larger animals, some of the Amazon's most amazing creatures often go unnoticed.
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Small invertebrates like insects, spiders, [music] or scorpions are the backbone of the rainforest. Over 95% [music] of animal species here are invertebrates.
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That includes over 4,000 species of spiders, such as this Brazilian wandering spider, which is considered the second most venomous spider on our planet.
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Much bigger, but not nearly as dangerous [music] as this chicken tarantula. To gently lure it out of its burrow, I use the special technique. The tarantula mistakes this little tweak as an insect and tries to [music] capture it. And
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then I capture the tarantula. And now it's very interesting about tarantas is that they don't really hear anything. [music] Okay? And they also don't smell or hear. how they navigate the environment is simply with the hairs well that are attached all over their
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body. So sometimes French really give this hairy look and that is just because they use those hairs to maneuver to their habitat. So check this out. This hand is here. Whoa, it's moving so fast.
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Look at my left hand. I'm moving it. And the tarantula doesn't see it, but it knows exactly how big my hand is and how fast I'm moving it because the vibrations in the air, which it picks up through those beautiful red hairs all
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over its body. And as you can see closely, that's two parts of its body. Mainly the front part where the big fangs are and the back.
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Now the back is where the tarantulas have all of their vital organs such as lungs, heart or liver. And this is also where they store their energy. So right now the back part or abdomen is pretty small compared to the front part. So
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that can have multiple reasons, but usually it indicates that their energy reserves are quite low. Maybe because tarantula just molted because they also have to shed their skin in order to grow just like snakes.
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And then they have to eat again a lot in order to fill up that energy. And when they eat a big meal, their abdomen can grow really huge and it can go about four times the size of their front body,
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which is crazy, right? And also another thing about tarantulas is that they generally very docile.
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Check out this beauty right here. It's super docile. It doesn't try to bite. And of course some tarantulas they do bite but generally they're very harmless beautiful creatures.
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So you can imagine it's quite unnecessary that people kill these beautiful tarantulas because they don't really mean any harm.
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And now if you imagine that this tarantula would bite me, it wouldn't have any effect on me because essentially it's uh venom is really really weak. So, it's mainly designed to kill little cockroaches and crickets, maybe even a
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mouse, but that would be a big challenge, but it's certainly not meant to kill a human.
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And that's why if this trench would bite me, it would be not worse than the effect of venom that we know from a from a beasting, for [music] instance.
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Tarantulas are hated and feared because of the way they look. To most of [music] us, a tarantula is a nightmare.
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But when you slow down and really [music] watch them, you see something else entirely.
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A quiet [music] ancient animal, perfectly adapted to its little world, asking only to be left in peace.
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The [music] reason spiders and many other small predators thrive here is because insects form the foundation of the Amazon's food chain.
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Insects convert plant matter into energy [music] that supports almost every other animal in the rainforest.
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One of the most [music] notorious insects is the bullet ant, also known as the 24-hour ant.
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It's famous for having one of the most painful stings of [music] any insect on Earth.
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The paint can last up to a day, hence [music] its nickname. Bullet ants are among the largest ants in the world, [music] growing up to 3 cm or an inch in length.
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[music] But one of the most fascinating species has to be the nocturnal leaf cutter [music] ant.
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Leaf cutter ants carefully select which plants they harvest. Using [music] strong curved jaws, they cut clean sections from the leaf and carry the fragments overhead, often weighing many times their own body weight.
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They can carry these fragments hundreds of meters back to the nest. But these [music] ants will in fact never even eat these leaves.
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They carry them into their underground nests to grow a fungus. And that fungus feeds the [music] entire colony.
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It's one of the most advanced farming systems [music] in the natural world, developed millions of years before we ever learned to grow crops.
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Some ants even appear to be walking the wrong way with their leaves, but they're not lost.
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These colonies use multiple trails and entrances, and ants reroute constantly depending on traffic conditions and terrain. Isn't that fascinating?
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Life [music] in the Amazon at night is so different from the day, and it's incredible [music] to see so many different species packed inside this ecosystem.
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But we haven't found the Anaconda yet. We have already spent eight days and we only have two left. So, let's get back into the swarms and complete this mission.
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[music] [music] the hills and cross the valley. We [music] go [music] over the hills and cross the [music] valley.
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Back in the swamps, we spot some fresh tracks, [music] but still no snake. So, it's time for plan B. We brought an advanced drone to scan the area from above. And we can't believe our eyes.
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We see a massive anaconda lying within the floating vegetation using the sun to heat up.
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It's so huge, we easily picked it up with the drone [music] flying 40 m or 130 ft above the water.
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But there's a catch. We have to get to the snake quickly before it submerges and disappears.
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And unfortunately, it's lying so deep within the floating plants that it's incredibly hard to reach.
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[music] [music] The crew and I have to push the canoe really, really hard to make any progress at all. And the snake could disappear from the disturbance at any moment.
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[music] We got it. The giant anaconda of the Amazon. This one is just absolutely huge. And look at the the thickness of it. Is incomprehensible how thick it is.
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Me and both of my crew members then had to put all of the cameras down and we jumped in and tried to lift the snake into [music] our canoe so that we can get it to the nearest shore to show you
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the snake properly. It took us over 10 minutes, but we eventually did it. And one thing to note, the camera does not do justice to how heavy and massive this snake is in real life.
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It's madness. [snorts] All right, guys. We got it. This right here is the green anaconda.
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It was a struggle to catch that one. We just put it here onto the next shore that we found. Uh just to show you the snake a little bit. And now this snake right here is about we reckon five and a
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half meters. Something like this. [clears throat] Something like this. It's absolutely huge. Weighing up to probably about 80 kilos. It's really hard to guess, but it took three grown men, the entire crew to wrestle the snake right here, and we are exhausted.
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Yeah. So, if you can imagine the snake weighing 80 kilos, and it's all muscle.
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So, what you see here, this is just all muscle. It's one huge constrictor animal. And of course, it just pulls like a lot, right? So, in the water, it was wrapping around the grass inside the water and it was pushing, right, to get
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away from us. Obviously, the snakes, they're not coming to eat people. So, we were jumping on the snake, three of us, right? that the snake was probably scared for life trying to move away from us. Yeah. And at that size, this snake
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right here would not eat prey that most snakes would eat. So, you can forget about rats or mice or birds or lizards.
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So, this snake here still eats [laughter] rodents, but they come in the size of capabra, which can go up to like 80 kilos.
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Of course, capas are huge. Imagine like a rodent, 80 kilos. That's the type of rodent you get in the Amazon, and that's what the snake would eat. So, this head of the snake is absolutely massive. It's like twice the
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size of my of my fist. I I can't comprehend how big it is. And it can stretch its jaws to eat prey. That's about 7 to 10 times the size of its own head. And that would include monkeys,
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huge fish, and of course the kapabara as well as uh jaguar. So there's no proven record ever of a human being eaten by one of those green anacondas. But however, because of their huge size, people have of course a lot of fear for
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these animals. And in many movies, they were depicted as human eating machines because it's great for drama and it's great for the movie. But in reality, these guys pretty much mind their own business. Yeah.
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What's really interesting about the anaconda is if you look at the head shape compared to many other snakes, it looks quite funny, right? So the eyes, they're on top of the head just as the nostrils, very close to each other and
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very weird shaped head. And this is because it's a very aquatic snake species. So what they will do, they are just going to be in the water and just like a crocodile, the head will stick out a little bit and then the eyes
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because they're situated so far up top of the head will just look out. It will look out for prey that way. Um, and it can still breathe. So it doesn't have to fully come up with its head. Perfect for
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an ambush predator lifestyle that it has. Jaguars would prey on anacas when they're smaller. At that size, this anaconda would virtually have no natural predators [laughter] whatsoever. They are an absolute apex predator of this ecosystem right here. So, you cannot
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imagine just how important an anaconda this size is to this ecosystem. It's incredibly important.
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Yeah. So, this snake would eat so many big animals and it will help keep this ecosystem alive.
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an ecosystem that's already struggling, of course, here in the Amazon. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. You were right. It's pulling now. And you can meet and you can see when it's pulling, it's using all of its force. I'm using both hands,
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and it's hard to keep the head in place, but I cannot let the head go. No matter what you do, you don't let go of the head because if I let go of the head right now, it will bite. And you don't
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want to get bitten by a snake this size. It will I will need 10, 20 stitches probably. The teeth will slice me open.
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And look at the coloration. Not only is it very beautiful, but incredibly well camouflaged. So like most animals here in the Amazon, even when they come at the size that the anaconda comes in, I mean, they are still hiding incredibly well.
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So you may imagine a 5 m anaconda. You will see it easily when you can on that river. Well, it took us all day and advanced technology in form of a drone to uh yeah find this anaconda laying
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among grasses. And this is because even though this anaconda is absolutely massive, the coloration is just perfectly made for this type of environment. So you see all these leaves everything and you can imagine if the anaconda is just slightly
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below the water surface it would be almost impossible to detect it even though it's about 6 mters almost in size you know. Now what's interesting about the anaconda as a species is when they breed the female can attract up to 10
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different mates when she's ready and those males will then combat for the female. And it's not even rare that the female will sometimes eat the smallest male out there and then breed with someone else, which is crazy, right? Um, and then she will
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give birth to live young. So like uh all boas, they give birth to live young, usually around 20 to 40. And when they're born, they are already about 2 feet in length. Crazy, right? So when this snake gets born, it's already 2
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feet from the very first day. And they're ready to hunt on their own. And unfortunately, not a lot of them make it to adulthood and certainly not a lot of them actually ever will make it to to a size like this because out here,
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believe it or not, they have many different predators. So, for instance, of course, many birds will eat snakes, but of course also other snakes are out here and mainly also of course um cayman are eating snakes too, which we have
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plenty of here as well. So yeah, it's a quite a rare occurrence to see a snake this size. But like I said, mainly also because of habitat destruction is a number one problem for this animal um across the Amazon. And then also of
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course human activity. People catching these snakes for the pet trade and also of course for making uh yeah fashion items out of its skin, which is uh a huge shame. Um yeah, so we're going to let it go now on its way.
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The green anaconda, the biggest snake in the world. This is one [music] accomplished mission.
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And as soon as we let it go, it gently maneuvers back into the swamp. After just a minute, it disappears completely, gone in thin air, as if it was never there.
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The Amazon is such a stunningly beautiful place, but it's not a luxury, it's a necessity.
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Ecosystems like the Amazon produce the [music] oxygen we breathe, safeguard the water we drink, and maintain [music] the delicate balance our planet depends on.
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What happens here connects to us all, no matter [music] where in the world we live.
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And time is precious. If we are to have a healthy future filled with wonder, we must act now to protect the Amazon and all of nature that sustains us.
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So, let's be more gentle with these ecosystems. Let's be more loving to our wildlife.
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Let's be more thoughtful about the products we buy, the waste we create, and the voices we raise to protect our planet.
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And let's be more kind and understanding to each other. If we remind ourselves that love is important, love for each other and our planet, each of us can make a meaningful difference.
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[music] [music] [music] and cross the valley. [music] We go [music] over the hills and cross the valley.
Topics:green anacondaAmazon rainforestPerured-tailed boawildlife documentaryreptilescaymansmacawsclay lickpet trade
