Massive anaconda11/7/2023 ![]() "You will probably only be able to find them when it warms up on the banks or on a log," reptile expert Sebastian Schreiner told the Rheinische Post news site. Sunny weather could prove useful in the search for the snake because the reptile likes to sunbathe. Lake Latum, near Meerbusch, is not a swimming lake but is popular with hikers Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M. If the snake is spotted again at the lake, local authorities want to call reptile specialists from Düsseldorf's fire department to the scene. The snake is non-venomous but it uses strangulation to kill its prey, meaning it could pose a risk to small animals such as cats and rabbits. ![]() Read more: The Burmese python and the fight for the Florida Everglades Experts then identified the snake as a yellow anaconda. The reptile was first spotted in Lake Latum by surprised anglers who alerted the local authorities. The Westbrook Police Department can be reached at 854-0644.Authorities have closed a recreation area in the northwestern German city of Meerbusch after a 2.5-meter snake was spotted taking a dip in a popular lake. ![]() If there is an anaconda in Maine, the scientist counseled people to be vigilant but also said that it will almost certainly not survive the winter. He said that is is unlikely one would attack a child and that an anaconda’s first response to humans is to flee. Placyk stressed that the depictions of them in movies are wildly unrealistic. ![]() “If it’s hanging out by that river, anyone who has houses in that area that has small pets wants to make sure they keep an eye on their small pets, and if they have children probably under the age of 2, I wouldn’t leave them unattended.”Īnacondas are the largest species of snake in the world by weight, although pythons can grow to be longer. “Based on the skin, it’s not large enough to kill a human,” said Placyk. Anacondas kill by wrapping themselves around their prey and squeezing. He added that although anacondas are not venomous, one between 10 and 12 feet might also pose a risk to small dogs, cats and even very young children. But the herpetologist said this would be entirely possible for an anaconda. Placyk was initially skeptical of reports of a snake in Maine eating an animal as large as a beaver. It is not illegal to purchase an anaconda snakeskin. It is illegal to own an anaconda in Maine and no permits for them have been issued to zoos in the state, according to an Inland Fisheries and Wildlife spokesperson. “The fact that the animal has been sighted near the water sort of bolsters the theory that it’s an anaconda, but who knows.”īased on earlier descriptions of the snake before the skin was found, Derek Yorks, a wildlife biologist with the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, had speculated it could be a Burmese python or a boa constrictor. “We’re as surprised as anybody but again we don’t know if that was planted there or if there’s actually a snake,” said Westbrook police Cpt. There is no way to say definitively that the anaconda skin - which is 12 feet, 1 inch long and 4 inches in diameter at its widest point, according to police - belongs to the snake spotted earlier in the summer. And a few days later two police officers said they saw a giant snake, at least 10 feet long, eating what appeared to be a beaver along the riverbank. In late June, city police received a report of a snake “as long as a truck a head the size of a small ball” slithering near a playground in Riverbank Park. The skin was found on the bank of the Presumpscot River after a summer of snake sightings in Westbrook. “If it’s a green anaconda, you’ve got a snake that could potentially get to 20 feet long.” “It’s a 100 percent match for an anaconda,” said John Placyk, a University of Texas, Tyler herpetologist who ran genetic testing on the snakeskin for the Westbrook Police Department. PORTLAND (BDN) - The massive snakeskin found in Westbrook earlier this month has been identified as belonging to the world’s largest species of snake, a predator native to South America and made infamous by Hollywood thrillers.
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