Eunectes

Anacondas
File:Eunectes murinus2.jpg
Green anaconda, E. murinus
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Subphylum:	Vertebrata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Squamata
Suborder:	Serpentes
Family:	Boidae
Subfamily:	Boinae
Genus:	Eunectes Wagler, 1830
Type species
Eunectes murinus (Linnaeus, 1758)
Synonyms
Boa Linnaeus, 1758 Draco Oken, 1816

Common names: anacondas.

Eunectes is a genus of boas found in tropical South America. They are an aquatic group of snakes and include one of the largest snakes in the world, E. murinus, the green anaconda. The name Eunectes is derived from the Greek word Eυνήκτης, which means "good swimmer". Four species are currently recognized.

Geographic range

Found in tropical South America from Colombia and Venezuela south to Argentina.

Feeding

All four species are aquatic snakes that prey on other aquatic animals, including fish, river fowl, caiman, and capybaras. Some accounts exist of anacondas preying on domestic animals such as goats that venture too close to the water.

Relationship with humans

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 set in the Amazon jungle. Anacondas have also figured prominently in South American folklore, where they are sometimes depicted as shapeshifting mythical creatures called encantados. 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 is little known on the biology of wild anacondas. Most of our knowledge comes from the work of Dr. Jesus Rivas and his team working in the Venezuelan llanos.

Species

Species	Taxon author	Subspecies other than nominate	Common name	Geographic range
E. beniensis	Dirksen, 2002	0	Bolivian anaconda	South America in the Departments of Beni and Pando in Bolivia.
E. deschauenseei	Dunn and Conant, 1936	0	Dark-spotted anaconda	South America in northeastern Brazil and coastal French Guiana.
E. murinus	(Linnaeus, 1758)	1	Green anaconda	South America in countries east of the Andes, including Colombia, Venezuela, the Guianas, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil and on the island of Trinidad.
E. notaeus	Cope, 1862	0	Yellow anaconda	South America in eastern Bolivia, southern Brazil, Paraguay and northeastern Argentina.
E. stirtoni	Hoffstetter, 1977	0		This species is extinct; their fossils have been found in the La Venta fauna (Miocene) in Colombia.

See also

• List of boine species and subspecies
• Boinae by common name
• Boinae by taxonomic synonyms

Further reading

• Eunectes at the Reptarium.cz Reptile Database. Accessed 18 July 2008.

External links

• anacondas.org

• McDiarmid RW, Campbell JA, Touré T. 1999. Snake Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference, vol. 1. Herpetologists' League. 511 pp. ISBN 1-893777-00-6 (series). ISBN 1-893777-01-4 (volume).
• Eunectes beniensis at the Reptarium.cz Reptile Database. Accessed 12 December 2008.
• Hoffstetter, R., and J. C. Rage. 1977. Le gisement de vertebres miocenes de La Venta (Colombie) et sa faune de serpents. Annales de Paleontologie (Vertebres) 63:161–190.