14 Anaconda
Rick Bein
Anaconda from the Municipio do Pedro Gomes. Mato Grosso, Brazil
As an agricultural extentionist in my Peace Corps assignment I spent much time visiting farmers around the local county. This visit was one of the more interesting.
Photo by Rick Bein (Third from the left) 1965.
This anaconda (Eunectes murinus) (local name: Sucuri) skin is what remained of the great snake harvested by these Brazilian pioneer farmers who had settled in Mato Grosso (now Mato Grosso do Sul) in the late 1950s. This family migrated from the Brazilian State of Rio Grande do Sul, to create a new life for themselves in the vast “unclaimed” wilderness of the headwaters of the Taquari River, 40 kilometers upstream from the renowned Pantanal swamp. All eight of their children had been born in Rio Grande do Sul and now the grandchildren were native to Mato Grosso.
There was a clearing on the south bank of the Taquari River where they decided to build their homestead, not knowing how the clearing came to be in the first place. They began clearing forest land to grow upland rice to provide sustenance for the family. After successive crops, the land became infested with weeds. New land was cleared and they introduced some exotic African grasses on the old weedy land. The Jaragua and Colonial grasses took over to form excellent pastures for the zebu cattle. On the following map the farm is located just west of the town of Pedro Gomes in the top center.
Pedro Gomes town sits in the north central part of the State of Mato Grosso do Sul. Free map from Maphill. 2011 Creative Commons Attribution Non-Derivative License (CC BY-ND). 0—————60 miles.
The family was terrified one morning when they came upon this 20 foot monster that had swallowed one of their pigs! It was total chaos as they battled the green anaconda (Eunectes murinus). The snake was unable to escape the pig pen because it now had a bulging belly with a pig inside, too large to pass through the fence rails. Of course it could have passed over the top of the fence, but that had not occurred to the snake.
Fearfully the family ganged up on the anaconda with spears and clubs as he was now fighting for his life. It was too dangerous to get close. After an hour of shooting at it with pistols and rifles the snake was finally killed. The family was quite proud of themselves and were eager to tell their story.
The anaconda had been living in the river next to the original clearing by their home for many years before this fateful day. No one dreamed that the snake was living under the water. They tied their canoes and the children collected water there. What they did not know, was that the anaconda was harvesting the collard peccaries (Pecari tajacu) (wild pigs, locally called javelina) that came in large bands initially over one hundred, for their nightly drink at the river. The original clearing along the river had been beaten open by the peccary’s nightly pilgrimage. Once a week the snake would reach out of th