This is the first of a two piece article on the scientific accuracy concerning the subject of giant snakes in the wild. This section will establish some ground rules (how to define the term "largest" when measuring snakes), as well as look into the subject of what truly was or is the largest snake accurately recorded to date. Part two will focus on the subject of giant snakes in the wild and the reports and stories that support such ideas.
In 1910, the World Conservation Society (formerly the New York Zoological Society) posted a standing offer of $50,000 for what has become the true holy grail of herpetology: a snake specimen, alive or dead, measuring fifty or more feet in length. In 2002, the offer was discontinued, still unclaimed. The search for a truly giant snake has been underway for centuries and is based largely upon the reports of early explorers and the oral legends of the people native to habitat of large species of snakes. It's no secret that some snakes do grow to very impressive lengths by anyone's standards, but do they really reach the truly giant proportions that legends elude to?
There are close to 2,900 species of snake in the world and they are categorized into 18 families, including the three families of blind snake. Of those 18 families, only two grow to the proportions necessary to be regarded as a true giant among snakes: the boidae family and the pythonidae family. These are the boas (including anacondas) and the pythons. For the most part, pythons are distributed across Africa, South East Asia, and Australia whereas the large boas are generally restricted to Central and South America. The fact that both of these snakes prefer to reside in the tropics doesn't do much to help the success rates of anyone searching for them, especially considering the terrain that makes up the habitat of these snakes is so rough that the American military kindly nicknamed such territories in Panama as "The Green Hell". But we'll discuss the difficulties in finding the world's biggest snakes after we define what the word "big" actually means.
There is much debate over which type of snake should be considered the biggest. The claim to the crown falls between two species, the green anaconda and the reticulated python. The anaconda is definitely the heaviest, having a girth and weight much, much greater than it's Asian cousin. The reticulated python however generally reaches greater lengths, at least in reliably recorded specimens. It's a tough call because a fifteen foot anaconda will easily outweigh a twenty foot reticulated python. With other animals, such as mammals, the animal with the greater mass and weight is usually considered "larger", even if that animal yields a height or length advantage to another species (think elephants and giraffes). Going by these rules, the advantage would clearly go to the anaconda, but the unique shape and build of snakes seem to dictate that length must be an equal consideration when determining which species is truly the "biggest". Unless a truly giant specimen that shatters all current size records is recovered and well documented, this question will not be answered.
In 1991, The Guinness Book of World Records listed the longest snake ever found to be a reticulated python specimen killed in Celebes, Indonesia (now Sulawesi, Indonesia) in 1912. It measured 31 feet, 9 inches. The weight was either lost or not recorded, though if those measurements are accurate, I'm sure it weighed a lot. Unfortunately, this entire incident, let alone the snake itself, was poorly documented and is largely based on a single quote that can be found in "Tales of the Giant Snake" by Murphy and Henderson (1997). In fact, the naturalist responsible for the quote did not actually see the snake at all, but was merely shown a photograph and the estimated length paced out on the ground by the villagers who killed it. As much as it pains me to say it, the well accepted report of the world's longest snake is highly unreliable and most likely inaccurate. The longest reliably measured snake was a reticulated python caught in Borneo in 1993 and transferred to the Bronx Zoo. Samantha, as she was to be called, measured a staggering 26 feet and weighed in at 275 pounds, which is a massive weight for a python. Samantha passed away on November 21st, 2002. Considering that the Bronx Zoo was founded by the Word Conservation Society (who offered the $50,000 reward that expired along with Samantha's death) in addition to the Bronx Zoo being one of the top zoological facilities in the country, added to the fact that Samantha was certainly measured after death (for an autopsy) and wouldn't have offered any resistance, you can bet the alimony those measurements are accurate. Adding to the accuracy of Samantha's measurement is the fact that unlike many other snake specimen that are destroyed or lost after death (I never could figure out how one loses a twenty-plus foot python) Samantha's body is carefully preserved and stored in the American Museum of Natural History. However, there are other top contenders for "world's largest snake" which include Cassius, a python formerly held at the Knaresborough Zoo in Yorkshire England. Cassius was reported to have been 27 feet long but no accurate records for such information seem to be available, the zoo having closed down in 1985. There is also Fluffy, former resident of the Columbus Zoo in Ohio, who measured in at 24 feet and was, until her death in 2010, recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest snake currently living in captivity. As of November 2011, the tittle holder is reported by the World Records Academy to be Medusa, a (supposed) 25 foot reticulated python being held in Kansas City, MO at the "Edge of Hell" haunted house attraction. When one sees just how many organizations claim their snake to be the largest on record, combined with the fact that these snakes are continually growing in length and fluctuating in weight based upon when they eat, it's easy to see why it's so hard to determine which serpent is truly the largest.
(I do find it interesting as a note of observation that no zoological facility seems to claim any member of the boa family, including anacondas, as the largest snake on record)
Of course, there are captive snakes that were claimed to be larger than the ones mentioned above, such as Colossios, the supposed 28 foot python in the Pittsburg Zoo, or the supposed 49 foot giant that MSNBC News reported in 2003 was being held in the Curubsewu park on the island of Java. In both of these cases, measurements were merely estimated, often adding extra feet to "account for the wrinkles" and un straightened bodies of the snakes. Both snakes, when finally measured accurately, were in the neighborhood of 21-22 feet. Enormous snakes to be sure, but hardly the giants of myth and lore we were lead to believe they were. Interestingly, when the snake in Curubsewu Park was measured at 21 feet in length, the keepers and park curator shook their heads with what I'm sure was less than honest astonishment, stating that they were amazed at how the snake could just suddenly shrink like that. Sorry, Charlie, no dice.
But do such giants exist in the wild? The rainforest may be shrinking, but there's still plenty of room to hide some really big snakes, right? Catch my next post for part two, where we'll explore the idea of truly giant snakes living in the wild.
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