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Anaconda inhabits the entire tropical part of South America east of the Andes: Venezuela, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, eastern Paraguay, northern Bolivia, northeastern Peru, Guyana, French Guiana, and the island of Trinidad.

Due to the inaccessibility of the habitat of the anaconda, it is difficult for scientists to estimate its number and follow the dynamics of the population. At least in the International Red Book, the anaconda's conservation status is listed in the Not Evaluated (NE) category due to lack of data. But in general, apparently, the anaconda can still be considered outside the threat. There are many anacondas in the zoos of the world, but it is rather difficult for them to take root in captivity. The maximum lifespan of an anaconda in a terrarium is 28 years, but usually these snakes live in captivity for 5-6 years.

Adult anacondas usually do not exceed 5 m in length. Females are much larger and heavier than males - their length usually approaches 4.6 m, while males reach a length of about 3 m on average.Although the anaconda is somewhat shorter than some pythons, especially the reticulated python, it is much more massive: most adult female anacondas 4.5 m long will be comparable in weight to extremely large reticulated pythons about 7 m long [17]. Adult weights are reported to typically range from 30 to 70 kg [18] [19]. Thus, the anaconda is the heaviest snake of the world fauna and the second largest scaly snake, somewhat inferior in weight only to the Komodo dragon.

According to official data, the largest female anacondas caught in Venezuela reached 5.21 m in length with a mass of 97.5 kg, while at least 780 captured samples passed through the hands of scientists. Moreover, the smallest individual capable of reproduction was only 2.1 m excluding the tail [13]. The size of the anacondas became the subject of a detailed study, as a result of which it was concluded that the maximum size that the largest anacondas can reach would be approximately 6.7 m - this is slightly higher than the size of the largest specimens that have fallen into the hands of scientists, but incomparable with unreliable and certainly highly exaggerated data from the pas

There is a lot of information about anacondas longer than 6 m, but none of this kind of observation is reliable. For example, the famous Swedish naturalist Georg Dahl, in his book Wild Roads (1969; Russian translation, 1972), tells about his capture of an anaconda 8.43 m long on the Guayabero River in the Colombian jungle [10]. Another Swedish naturalist Rolf Blomberg in his book "Giant Snakes and Terrible Lizards", referring to the data of Clifford Pope, mentions an anaconda specimen 28 feet long, that is, 8.54 m [11]. There is even a case of the capture in 1944 in Colombia of an anaconda 11 m 43 cm long [12]. The length of the largest anacondas ever described in the literature (P. Fawcett) is indicated at 62 feet (18.59 m) and even 80 feet (24.38 m), but these data have not been officially confirmed.

Anaconda is the most massive snake of the modern world fauna. The main body color of the anaconda is grayish-green with two rows of large brown spots of a round or oblong shape, alternating in a checkerboard pattern. On the sides of the body there is a row of smaller yellow spots surrounded by black rings. This coloration effectively hides the snake when it is hiding in calm water, covered with brown leaves and tufts of algae. Anaconda is not poisonous - its saliva is completely harmless to humans, although tooth wounds can be very painful.

Most representatives have colored eyesight. Only snakes that live in trees and hunt birds and insects, catching them on the fly, have good binocular vision. The eyes of snakes that lead an underground life are covered with skin, they do not see.
Snake hearing is almost undeveloped. They lack the outer ear and eardrum. Animals can perceive only some low-frequency sound vibrations of the air and vibrations of the soil, which with the help of jaw bones can be transmitted to the square bone, and from it to the auditory bone of the middle ear [2].
The function of the organ of touch is performed by the tongue.

Some snakes (Viperidae, Boidae, Colubridae) have developed specific organs of thermal sensation - remote thermolocators, which can perceive infrared rays coming from warm-blooded animals. These structures are located on some or all of the upper labial, lower labial and rostral shields in boas (Boidae) and on the sides of the head between the nostrils and the eye in crotalidae and Ahaetula snakes. They are pits or slit-like depressions, with a thin epithelium innervated by branches of the trigeminal nerve. Some snakes are able to perceive a change in air temperature of 0.7 ° C [2].
Vision in most snakes is quite weak. The eyes of snakes are covered with a transparent film, which is formed by the upper and lower eyelids and leaves with the skin during molting.

The most developed sense organ is the sense of smell. Smell recognition in snakes differs from this process in other animals. With the help of a long tongue, molecules of odorous substances are captured from the air and transmitted to the Jacobson organ. This organ is unique to snakes, it is a paired cavity covered with odor-sensitive epithelium. The bifurcated tongue of the snake, after examining air and various objects through two holes in the upper palate, transmits odorous molecules to the sensitive epithelium of the Jacobson organ, where they are recognized. This is how animals look for food, water, a sexual partner, and so on.

The venom is released during the bite due to the contraction of the temporal muscles that compress the gland. The right and left parts of the jaws are connected by a flexible ligament. The trunk and tail sections of the spine do not differ, the remains of the pelvis and hind limbs remained only in boas. Internal organs are asymmetric, one of the lungs is less developed or absent. The posterior edge of the developed lung has become a reservoir for air supply. Liver, kidneys, go**ds are very elongated. The bladder is missing.

Fossil snakes have been known since the beginning of the Cretaceous. Apparently, they come from lizard-like reptiles. The loss of limbs may be due to adaptation to life among dense bushes and stones. They move due to lateral bends and changes in the slope of very mobile ribs. Ancient snakes were large (up to 15 m long), now the largest snake is the reticulated python or anaconda, whose record specimens reach about 12 m, while many species are only 8-10 cm long and several millimeters thick. The number of vertebrae, usually more than 200, in some fossil snakes reached 435. In venomous snakes in the upper jaw are venomous teeth that have a channel for the flow of venom produced by modified salivary glands