Video made animal world famous
Largest snake in the world is dead
March 28, 2024, 3:52 a.m
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At the end of February, a Dutch biologist gets up close and personal with the world’s largest snake. A video of the special encounter makes the anaconda world famous. Now the animal is dead.
A few weeks ago, Dutch wildlife researcher Freek Vonk encountered the world’s largest snake in the Brazilian Amazon. A video of it went around the world. Now the almost seven meter long and 200 kilogram heavy animal, which is one of the new species of northern green anaconda, is dead. Vonk confirmed this on his Instagram page.
“It is with immeasurable pain in my heart that I want to inform you that the mighty large green anaconda I swam with was found dead in the river this weekend,” Vonk wrote alongside two photos of the dead animal. The female, who was spontaneously named Ana Julia, was found in the Bonita region. The biologist later added: “The investigation into the cause of death is ongoing, with all possibilities being considered.”
At the end of February, Vonk published a video showing him and Ana Julia diving in a river. In the clip, the anaconda’s head is almost as big as the researcher’s. Documentary filmmaker Cristian Dimitrius, who took the footage, also commented on the snake’s death on Instagram. He wrote that he recognized the animal by the pattern on its face. He wished that the animal had died a natural death, but pointed out that anacondas are regularly killed.
Vonk and Dimitrius initially expressed suspicion that the animal could have been shot. According to his own information, Dimitrius had been accompanying the snake for over ten years. It was even measured once and, with a length of 6.45 meters, it is the largest anaconda ever measured in the world. An investigation should now clarify the cause of Ana Julia’s death.