During the filming of Will Smith's travel and adventure documentary, a giant anaconda, perhaps the largest in the world, was discovered in the Ecuadorian Amazon.
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The reptile was found through a joint effort by a team of scientists from the University of Queensland and the indigenous Huaorani people of Bameno in Baihuaeri Waorani territory.
According to the press release, the animal is nearly 10 million years old and was recently named the Northern Green Anaconda, or Eunectes akayima.
Photo credit JESUS RIVAS
The size of these creatures is impressive: a female anaconda seen during this filming by scientific researcher Bryan Fry reached 6.3 meters or 20.6 feet in length.
While filming the TV show “Pole to Pole with Will Smith,” scientists received a surprise invitation from the Waorani people to research anaconda snakes.
AFP
Indigenous hunters led the group of scientists on a 10-day expedition into the jungle to observe these snakes, which Fry says they consider sacred.
According to his interview with the New York Post, Fry explained that they traveled across the river in a canoe and luckily discovered several snakes hiding in the shallows, lurking for prey.
Photo credit JESUS RIVAS
According to the study published Feb. 16 in the journal MDPI Diversity, the species known as the green anaconda is actually divided into two types of genetically distinct species.
Even if the physical similarity between these two reptiles is misleading, the genetic differences would be significant, according to biologist and study co-author Bryan Fry.
“The genetic differences are on the order of 5.5%. To put things in context, we are about 2% different from chimpanzees,” he explains in National Geographic.
Fry and the other scientists collected blood and tissue samples from snakes in Ecuador, Venezuela and Brazil. The process was documented for Will Smith's show.
AFP
For Bryan Fry, this important discovery is the “highlight of his career,” according to Post.
Weighing over 220 kg or 485 pounds and measuring over 8.5 meters or 27.8 feet in length, the largest anaconda snakes would certainly be capable of killing and devouring a human.
The National Geographic documentary series hosted by Will Smith airs on Disney+.
Further details about the study and scientific research can be found at natgeo.com.