Anacondas: Not Like in the Movie

Are anacondas big? For sure. Are they able to crush and consume a human? Maybe, but thankfully they don't really do that. Don't believe everything you see in the movies. See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human.

• 0:04Josh Clark?

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• 1:00Speaker 00

  Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of iHeart Radio.

• 1:10Josh Clark?

  Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh, and there's Chuck, and Jerry's here for the moment, and this is Stuff You Should Know, the podcast.

• 1:18Speaker 03

  That's right. This was one of my ideas. I believe Olivia helped us with this because I am on a mission to get my daughter to watch the movie Anaconda.

• 1:30Josh Clark?

  The first one?

• 1:32Speaker 03

  Was there another one?

• 1:33Josh Clark?

  I think they remade it, yeah.

• 1:35Speaker 03

  Oh, I mean, if we're talking about the one with John Voight and Ice Cube and Owen Wilson, that's the one I'm talking about.

• 1:43Josh Clark?

  Don't forget J Lo, she's the star.

• 1:46Speaker 03

  That's, well, arguably the star, is that big, slithery snake.

• 1:50Josh Clark?

  I guess so. I watched it for the very first time last night.

• 1:53Speaker 03

  Oh, did you really?

• 1:55Josh Clark?

  It's not good.

• 1:56Speaker 03

  No, I know.

• 1:57Josh Clark?

  I mean, it's not one of those ones that's like so bad it's good. It's just kind of bad.

• 2:02Speaker 03

  Oh, I see. I think it's kind of a fun, bad movie. Uh, our friends of the podcast, The Flophouse.

• 2:09Josh Clark?

  Mm-hmm.

• 2:10Speaker 03

  The Bad Movie Podcast has been around for as long as we have. Those guys are great.

• 2:14Josh Clark?

  Yep.

• 2:14Speaker 03

  Their, their rating system is, uh, good, bad movie, bad, bad movie, or movie I kinda liked.

• 2:20Josh Clark?

  Mm-hmm.

• 2:21Speaker 03

  So it's kinda fun.

• 2:22Josh Clark?

  Did they rate Anaconda, do you know?

• 2:24Speaker 03

  I don't know that they've ever done this one. I'll have to ask, uh, Dan about that.

• 2:29Josh Clark?

  Well, I'm giving it a bad, bad movie.

• 2:32Speaker 03

  Okay. I, I remember it as being good, bad, and for a, you know, almost 10-year-old, like, she would like it.

• 2:38Josh Clark?

  Yeah, totally. There's a lot of Jaws homage to it, so I'm sure that's one reason you like it subconsciously.

• 2:44Speaker 03

  Yeah, I had a, just before we get going again while we're on movies, uh, a very humbling dad moment, which is a reminder that you can't necessarily make your favorite stuff, your kid's favorite stuff. Uh, we tried to watch Army of Darkness, uh, AKA Evil Dead 3.

• 3:01Josh Clark?

  Mm-hmm.

• 3:02Speaker 03

  And she made it through about 40 minutes, and I thought she was liking it, and then she went, "Nah, can we turn this off?" And I was so heartbroken. I was like, "Oh, really?" I was like, "You don't think it's kinda fun and funny and weird?" And she was like, "Yeah, but it's just not my thing." And I was like, "Okay."

• 3:16Josh Clark?

  Man. Did you write her out of the will?

• 3:20Speaker 03

  Yeah, that's it. Sorry. Bruce Campbell gets it all now.

• 3:24Josh Clark?

  Do you know what she didn't like about it?

• 3:26Speaker 03

  Uh, no. I mean, it wasn't too scary, cause she doesn't mind scary stuff. Um, it was funny. She was la- I don't know. I thought she was into it. It may have just been the mood, maybe a try again later, cause that's happened before.

• 3:40Josh Clark?

  Have you ever seen Bubba Hotep with Bruce Campbell?

• 3:43Speaker 03

  You bet your sweet bippy I have. It's a great movie.

• 3:45Josh Clark?

  I, I wonder if she would like that. Like, maybe she didn't like all the skeletons that he had to fight and stuff like that, but she would like Bruce Campbell doing his thing.

• 3:53Speaker 03

  Yeah, I mean, who doesn't? I think Bruce Campbell is, is, appeals to all ages.

• 3:57Josh Clark?

  He really does. And that's our Bruce Campbell story.

• 4:01Speaker 03

  All right. Should we do a good old-fashioned Stuff You Should Know Animal episode?

• 4:04Josh Clark?

  Yeah, this is definitely that. We're talking anacondas. For those of you who didn't bother to look at the title, uh, and anacondas are giant, massive snakes, the world's heaviest snake, like, by far. Um, not the world's longest, but they're not too, too much shorter than the world's longest. So they're just a massive giant snake. They're boas, which means they like to constrict you. They're big enough that if you're a human, they could- Constrict around you and kill you and eat you if they wanted to.

• 4:36Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 4:36Josh Clark?

  Luckily, they don't really have much to do with humans. Apparently, our buns are not substantial enough for their liking, and so they don't want none of us.

• 4:50Speaker 03

  And just remember, everyone, you can do side bends or sit-ups, but please don't lose that butt.

• 4:54Josh Clark?

  No, not if you want an anaconda to eat you.

• 4:57Speaker 03

  I just referenced that specific part of that song this past weekend, because that is my favorite part of that song, which is one of my favorite songs.

• 5:04Josh Clark?

  The side bends and sit-ups part?

• 5:06Speaker 03

  No, just that whole, that whole sort of section, starting with Workout Tapes by Fonda.

• 5:14Speaker 03

  It's just, I don't know, it's, again, Sir Mix-a-Lot, we've talked about him a lot lately, I feel like.

• 5:20Josh Clark?

  Yeah, he's come up a couple of times, almost as much as Billy Joel.

• 5:24Speaker 03

  They should do a mashup.

• 5:27Josh Clark?

  So, yes, so anacondas are giant and scary, but strangely, they're not really anything to be scared of. According to science and people who don't live around them.

• 5:36Speaker 03

  Yeah, they are a member of the eunectis genus, which means good swimmer in Greek, and as we'll see, they're great swimmers. And they are part of the, I'll even look this up.

• 5:49Josh Clark?

  I think it's like it's spelled.

• 5:51Speaker 03

  All right, say it then.

• 5:52Josh Clark?

  Boide.

• 5:53Speaker 03

  Okay. I saw E, though. I think we've been pronouncing D-E-A-E wrong. I think it's a D.

• 5:59Josh Clark?

  Boidi? Hmm. You're back on that Baobab thing again, and I'm pretty sure it's Boide.

• 6:05Speaker 03

  Maybe.

• 6:06Josh Clark?

  How about Boide?

• 6:08Speaker 03

  But that is known as a true boa. They are non-venomous, so they're not gonna, they're not gonna kill you with venom. They're just gonna give you a big, warm hug, but they're not after you. Again, like you said, they, snakes generally don't want to be around people at all. So it's certainly not like the movie where they are on the attack.

• 6:26Josh Clark?

  No, and I mean, they say so many lies about anacondas in that movie.

• 6:30Speaker 03

  It's, yeah, bad, real bad.

• 6:32Josh Clark?

  Yeah, yeah. Luckily, most of the people who saw that movie probably don't live around anacondas and don't have a chance to kill them. But it was like that level of lies and smears against anacondas in that movie.

• 6:45Speaker 03

  Yeah. One thing that the movie did get right, and that I mentioned, is that they are great, great swimmers. They have those eyes and the nose on top of the head, so they can barely keep their little top of their head out of the water. And still be below water, which is a terrifying thought. Although mostly when I've seen them, they're kind of swimming on top of the water like you see a lot of snakes do. But they can't hold their breath for like 10 minutes, right? And just like fully dive.

• 7:09Josh Clark?

  Yeah, yeah, 10 minutes. Like the more you learn about anacondas, the more unsettling they are. Like it's good that they don't really want to have much to do with humans. But if they wanted to, like, we would be in trouble for sure.

• 7:24Speaker 03

  Yeah, absolutely. Because they love the water so much, they obviously live in the swamps of the world, slow flowing rivers. If there are places that are flooded annually or seasonally, they will be there during those times. And when it's not, they will probably travel to wetter climes or maybe just burrow down in the mud. But they'll also go into the jungle and forest here and there. Just they, they really like the water, though.

• 7:49Josh Clark?

  Yeah, all freshwater, though. They're not salt tolerant, which was not immediately apparent to me. I had to look it up.

• 7:55Speaker 03

  Oh, you thought there could be like an ocean anaconda?

• 7:57Josh Clark?

  Well, I'll, I'll explain why later on. How about that? I'm going to save that one for later, my thinking.

• 8:02Speaker 03

  Are you going to say the word Brackish at any point?

• 8:05Josh Clark?

  I may.

• 8:05Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 8:06Josh Clark?

  Um, so just because they're snakes, they have the Jacobson's organ in their mouth, the roof of their mouth. It's prominently featured in the movie Anaconda because that thing like bears its fangs at the camera like every 30, 40 seconds. And there's its Jacobson's organ, the big hole in the back of the roof of its mouth. And because whenever you see a snake flicker its tongue really quickly, what it's doing is it's sampling the air and transferring it to the Jacobson's organ, which analyzes it and says, there's a capybara right over there. Let's go eat it.

• 8:38Speaker 03

  Yes, uh, they can also, uh, the heat signatures can be recognized. So part of finding that, that animal is their warm blood, but they also use it to find. A nice, cool place to go rest after they've had a big meal, which we'll get to.

• 8:51Josh Clark?

  That's the, yeah, and that's a different one. That's the pit organ. This is just nuts.

• 8:55Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah, yeah.

• 8:56Josh Clark?

  So, so that's the one that, so one, um, the Jacobson's senses smells in the air. Pit organs, like you said, sense heat and the pit organs transfer these, this, um, these electrical impulses based on thermal, um, signatures to their optic center. And it gets integrated with their vision. So they can see

• 9:20Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 9:21Josh Clark?

  Uh, like a capybara, again, plain as day in complete darkness, just like predator.

• 9:27Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 9:28Josh Clark?

  It's nuts.

• 9:29Speaker 03

  We think, we've never, we've never asked them to draw a picture of what that looks like.

• 9:34Josh Clark?

  It's true.

• 9:35Speaker 03

  But this is the best we can figure.

• 9:38Josh Clark?

  But I mean, that kind of goes to show just how amazing science can be that, that we basically walk around thinking like we know what, uh, anaconda's vision looks like, even though, yeah, no anaconda's ever told us.

• 9:49Speaker 03

  Yeah. I mean, that's the same with, uh, whether an animal is colorblind. I'm always like, well, how do you know?

• 9:53Josh Clark?

  Sure.

• 9:54Speaker 03

  So if you want to talk, um, well, speaking of colors, uh, we'll get to the nitty gritty of sort of the, uh, different kinds of anacondas, but for now, we'll just say the green ones are the ones that are really, really big. Uh, they're bigger than the yellow ones. Um, they're the heaviest snake in the world. Like you said, um, basically, I think the, uh, you mentioned not the longest. That goes to the reticulated python. But the female anaconda, green anaconda is larger than the male, um, anywhere from 15 to 30 feet even sometimes. Uh, that's at the very high end. I think they're generally, you know, 15 to 20 feet and weigh about 150 to 200 pounds. Whereas the males are only about nine to 10 feet and 100 to 120 pounds. Still a very large snake.

• 10:39Josh Clark?

  That's a giant snake still. And yeah, that 30 foot one, that's supposedly the record. Um, although it's not obvious where that came from, but supposedly the record anaconda was 30 feet long and 550 pounds, right? Again, that's not, I, we don't know who said that originally, but. There was, we know for a fact, a snake and a green anaconda female that was about 440 pounds and 20 feet long. So they do get gi- I mean, they are so big and you look up, like, go look up pictures and videos of of green anacondas. And you'll be like, wow, it's a big snake. And then see if you can find one next to like a human or something for scale and you will just be blown away by how giant these things are.

• 11:24Speaker 03

  Yeah, like a banana. Uh, also be wary because there are a lot of fake pictures and videos of giant anacondas.

• 11:33Josh Clark?

  Yes.

• 11:33Speaker 03

  And it's just harder to tell these days. I saw some video from like helicopters above a river. Where it's like, there's no way this thing is that big because they were 60 feet long and as big around as a basketball. And they look really good.

• 11:47Josh Clark?

  Yeah, then, but yeah, it's in there hard to, hard to tell. Um, like you said, I saw one and it was curling around this lion. And I was like, wait a minute, these things are only in South America and lions are not in South America. That was the only way I, I like, I had to stop and think about it because it looks so realistic.

• 12:05Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah.

• 12:06Josh Clark?

  It's like, can you just be amazed by the natural world as it is? Like, does it ever, does everything have to be pushed to the extreme for you to get your jollies?

• 12:15Speaker 03

  I'm with you, buddy. I thought I had the same thought. So I mentioned the yellows are smaller. They're nine to 10 pounds for the females, which are larger than the males because they're only about six feet long, uh, which is again, still a very big snake. Uh, and they can, they can top 100 pounds, a yellow one can. Um, like all snakes, they have intermediate growth, which means they're always growing. It slows down in adulthood, but the snakes keep growing forever.

• 12:43Josh Clark?

  Yeah. And there was one other dimension that we left out and that is those green anacondas can get to about 12 inches or a third of a meter in diameter. That is a, that's an old thickie is what they call that.

• 12:58Speaker 03

  And how long do they live, Josh?

• 13:00Josh Clark?

  For a while, actually, in the wild, up to 20 years on average. And then because the wild is so much more dangerous than a cushy zoo, in captivity, they can live up to 30 years. They're just not as happy as the ones in the wild. The ones in the wild are like, live fast, die young, leave a beautiful corpse. The ones in captivity are like, I'm gonna get soft, but I'll live to an old age.

• 13:23Speaker 03

  That's right. Just throw me a cappy byer in here so I can have some lunch.

• 13:26Josh Clark?

  Right, they're like, cappy byer again. Can I get a tap here?

• 13:31Speaker 03

  They are apex predators, so nothing is gonna come after the anaconda. They're just, it's not gonna happen. They feed on fish, they feed on reptiles. We mentioned mammals. They'll eat a deer, they'll eat a caiman. Although I did see a caiman standoff an anaconda, because I think it was one of the smaller anacondas, so I got out of there.

• 13:53Josh Clark?

  The caimans are like the mini crocodiles, right?

• 13:56Speaker 03

  Yeah, but they're still, you know, got some size to them.

• 13:59Josh Clark?

  Sure, sure, but I'm, that's, I just wanted to make sure I was thinking of the right animal.

• 14:03Speaker 03

  Totally. And they kill things like you would think. They're constrictors. So they grab it, they grab it around the neck, they coil that body, and they squeeze it. And I always heard that like, oh, they'll crush your internal organs and you'll break your rib cage. They're really not doing that. And this is kind of a cool little fact. What they're doing is they're stopping the blood flow, and you end up having heart failure because, or stroke, because you have no blood reaching your brain or your heart, and you lose consciousness. They can bite if you're smaller, but they're generally gonna constrict you to death.

• 14:37Josh Clark?

  Yeah, and the reason that they don't break your bones is because they don't want bones sticking out of your body on the way down their gullet as they're digesting you. So they use a little bit of finesse, I think.

• 14:49Speaker 03

  Yeah, because they swallow you whole, you know, that's the idea. That's why when you see constrictors with those big bulges, that is like a pig or something.

• 14:57Josh Clark?

  It's probably John Voight.

• 15:00Speaker 03

  I wish it was.

• 15:02Speaker 03

  But we should say that they don't, you know, because they're eating such big things, they don't have to eat very much. They can go months between eating meals and it can take weeks and weeks for them to digest. So they'll just sneak away to a nice, cool place and digest and on the down low for a little while. And there was one report of a captive anaconda that lived for two years without eating.

• 15:22Josh Clark?

  Right. And they normally keep to themselves. They have their own hunting territories, but most of the time they're like, I just leave me alone. I'm just over here doing my thing. Except they come together from April to May during breeding season and they're polyandrous, which means that a single female will mate with multiple males as opposed to polygamous, which means a single male will mate with multiple females. And they will mate in what's called a breeding ball. And if you want to be unsettled to your core, look up green anaconda breeding ball.

• 15:58Speaker 03

  Yeah. Breeding ball is the stuff of nightmares for sure. That's like as many as 13 snakes sometime, just having a big old snake party with each other. That's not how it always goes down though. A lot of times the females will spend an entire mating season with just one dude. But that dude may be lunch after they're impregnated because the female may just eat that male because they've just gotten pregnant and they need to bed down for seven months without eating again. So TS for you, pal.

• 16:29Josh Clark?

  Yeah, that's something in the animal kingdom called sexual cannibalism.

• 16:32Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 16:33Josh Clark?

  Sexual cannibals is maybe the greatest band name we've run across so far.

• 16:39Speaker 03

  Yeah, they open for the fine young cannibals.

• 16:41Josh Clark?

  Yeah, exactly. And I just one other thing about that. I read some species of males will sacrifice themselves to be cannibalized after mating. And there was a study of fisher spiders or dark fisher spiders, something like that, where they found that after the female eats the male, she has more success, like healthier offspring and more offspring when she eats the male than if she immediately ate an alternative prey, like a cricket or something like that. So there's something involved in that exchange that helps reproduction and natural selection go. Full steam ahead, I guess, in whatever species does that.

• 17:20Speaker 03

  Wow, that's super interesting.

• 17:22Josh Clark?

  I thought so, too.

• 17:24Speaker 03

  They mate, the green ones, that is, mate every other year because it's a lot, I think we could admit, that that big sex ball that they form sometimes.

• 17:33Josh Clark?

  For weeks.

• 17:35Speaker 03

  Yeah, and just, you know, the seven month pregnancy and they're not eating is just a lot. So they do this every other year. Greens have about 30 babies at a time. Yellow ones have about 40, but there is at least one verified case of a green anaconda having 82 baby anaconda snakes.

• 17:52Josh Clark?

  Yeah, that's, I mean, that poor snake. She's like, my aching back. They have live births, too. They're viviparis rather than oviparis. They don't lay eggs like some kinds of snakes. And regardless, however, the baby comes out, they don't do any parenting. They're just done. They have their babies and they just slither off and the babies are on their own immediately. And they just start swimming around and eating whatever's in the area. And then after three or four years, they get into their own breeding ball situations. And the circle of life just keeps continuing on.

• 18:27Speaker 03

  Yeah, and those babies are a couple of feet long. And that feels like a pretty good place to break, yeah?

• 18:35Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 18:36Speaker 03

  I don't know why I said yay. As opposed to nay. We'll be right back.

• 18:53Speaker 03

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• 19:12Josh Clark?

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• 19:56Speaker 03

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• 20:07Josh Clark?

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• 20:59Josh Clark?

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• 21:31Josh Clark?

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• 22:18Josh Clark?

  So Chuck, there are different species of anacondas. And one of the things that's extremely interesting about this, I guess, the taxonomy of anacondas, is that very recently, they've shaken things up. I mean, if you're a herpetologist, this is one of the most exciting things in your field to come along in a really long time, I'm guessing.

• 22:37Speaker 03

  Yeah, I bet you're right.

• 22:38Josh Clark?

  So originally, up until very recently, scientists divided anacondas into four species. There was the green anaconda, Eunectes marinus, which we talked about basically this whole time. Yellow anaconda, Eunectes notaeus, the Benny, doesn't even, it's not even called an anaconda, that's how odd it is. That's Eunectes benniensis. And then the dark-spotted anaconda, which is Eunectes deschauenseel.

• 23:13Josh Clark?

  Did I say that right, Mr. German Pronunciation Guy?

• 23:16Speaker 03

  I think that is an I at the end and not an L.

• 23:18Josh Clark?

  Oh, deschauensee.

• 23:22Speaker 03

  I think that is exactly right. That's definitely a German word.

• 23:26Josh Clark?

  So those four species are the ones that they've considered anacondas since time immemorial. But within the last year or so, they're like, this is all wrong. We need to reconfigure stuff into like a new breeding ball of species of anaconda.

• 23:41Speaker 03

  Yeah, there was a paper, as Emily likes to say, probably a white paper. From last year, where an international team of scientists got together, they had probably the the leading anaconda expert in the world, Jesus Rivas of New Mexico Highlands University. And they got together and said, guys, I think we gotta, we gotta dig in a little deeper. We're being a little lazy. And we gotta rename these, reclassify these, these snakes. We're gonna split these green anacondas into two species, and we're gonna combine the other three into one. And Will Smith somehow has something to do with this.

• 24:19Josh Clark?

  Yeah, interestingly, so they've studied anacondas for decades and decades to try to figure out the taxonomies correct. Because, I mean, when Linnaeus started taxonomy, it was all based on like, this thing looks like this thing. And as we've gotten better at genetic analysis, we've been like, well, just because it looks like it actually, they're not very related at all. That's been the case with anacondas. But a big chunk of the, the work that's been done, the research that's been done that led to this, was done through a National Geographic show, Poll the Poll with Will Smith.

• 24:50Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 24:51Josh Clark?

  There was apparently at least one episode where one of the leaders of the Huayroni people, his name was Pinti Bahua, he said, hey, Will Smith, why don't you guys come to Ecuador, and we'll hang out in the Amazon, and we'll, we'll lead you around, and show you anacondas, and you guys can capture them and test them and release them back. And that's exactly what happened. And from that, they took all sorts of blood samples and tissue samples and did genetic analysis. And they're like, we got this way wrong.

• 25:22Speaker 03

  Yeah. And Will Smith said, what did the five fingers say to the face?

• 25:26Josh Clark?

  I know, man. That's, that is gonna be tough for him to ever live down.

• 25:31Speaker 03

  It's because it's one of the weirdest public things that's ever happened, televised things that's ever happened.

• 25:36Josh Clark?

  It is weird, yeah.

• 25:37Speaker 03

  It's still mind boggling to think about. And I remember seeing it live, just being like, what did I just see?

• 25:42Josh Clark?

  Yeah, no, same here. I'm pretty sure I saw it live and not a replay, but it was, but also the violence of it, I think, is what, what's gonna make it so hard to live down. It was just a ugly, ugly thing.

• 25:54Speaker 03

  It really was.

• 25:54Josh Clark?

  It's crazy.

• 25:56Speaker 03

  Oh, man. So strange. So they did some research. And again, you said that, you know, once we sort of get into the genetics, just because something looks like something doesn't mean much. So they did that. They got into the genetics of these snakes and they found that two, the two green anaconda types, because, you know, they reclassified, were split up. They were, they diverged because of probably plate tectonic activity about 10 million years ago, when plates smashed together and created a big, like ridge or a mountain range. And all of a sudden, it's like the Berlin Wall. And they were split up. And they look a lot alike, if you look like them, like you were saying, but their genomes differ by about five and a half percent, which is a lot genetically.

• 26:39Josh Clark?

  Yeah, humans and chimps are separated by about 2%. And these are identical looking snakes. So they are definitely different species. And it just goes to show you like how species put into very similar habitats a long time ago, that those small changes that, that spread out and out and out over millions of years can have huge sweeping effects that their, their genomes could be divergent by 5% just over that time, which is the basis of chaos theory.

• 27:08Speaker 03

  Oh, really?

• 27:08Josh Clark?

  Yeah, the little tiny changes to inputs early on over a long enough span of time, create completely different things over long spans of time.

• 27:18Speaker 03

  You should say that all as Jeff Goldblum.

• 27:22Josh Clark?

  I can't, I wish I could do a Jeff Goldblum.

• 27:25Speaker 03

  Yeah, me too.

• 27:25Josh Clark?

  That would be amazing. I saw him once in person outside of the, what's the place we always stayed for Sketch Fest?

• 27:33Speaker 03

  I saw him outside the hotel, too. He was there at the same time. And I was at one point, even in a little circular group with friends I knew that knew him. And I just stayed quiet and tried to just be among Jeff Goldblum.

• 27:44Josh Clark?

  I feel like we talked about this at the San Francisco show.

• 27:48Speaker 03

  I think so. And my takeaway, just from being near him, is that, boy, he was a charming, lovely guy that it seemed like he wanted every interaction with the person to leave, thinking like, what a great dude that guy is.

• 27:59Josh Clark?

  And he smells like a million dollars.

• 28:02Speaker 03

  A million bucks.

• 28:04Josh Clark?

  So yeah, I wish I could do a Jeff Goldblum, too. I guess is what I'm trying to say.

• 28:08Speaker 03

  So we should mention the range quickly before we probably break again. The greens, obviously, almost all of Brazil and other parts of South America. East of the Andes, up the northern Venezuela coast. You can find them as far south as Paraguay and interestingly, also, maybe unlucky for them, on the Caribbean island of Trinidad.

• 28:32Josh Clark?

  Yes, okay. Now, here's where the salt tolerance thing comes up.

• 28:36Speaker 03

  Aha.

• 28:36Josh Clark?

  I could not figure out, if you look at a map, Trinidad is, there's a part of Venezuela that's no more than 10 miles away from Trinidad and Tobago, the islands, right off of Venezuela. So, these things can swim and hold their breath for 10 minutes. I was like, how did they get to Trinidad? Did they swim? I still have no idea how they got to Trinidad. It had to have been, you know, at a point in time when Trinidad was still fused to...

• 29:04Speaker 03

  Oh, maybe.

• 29:05Josh Clark?

  To South America, or like, maybe the sea levels were lower, so there was a land bridge. I don't know. But that's how I found out that they're not salt tolerant. They're only freshwater snakes because, no, they couldn't have swam to Trinidad. That's the answer to that.

• 29:20Speaker 03

  Even if they vaseline'd up and wore the goggles and the skull cap?

• 29:25Josh Clark?

  Mm-hmm. And the bike shorts?

• 29:28Speaker 03

  Yeah. Oh, yeah, they wear bike shorts these days.

• 29:30Josh Clark?

  What was it, that Pee-wee Herman thing in Pee-wee's Big Adventure? He said, oh, yeah, he's talking about blowing your mind. He's like, have you ever seen a snake wear a vest? You remember that part? That's Yumi's favorite part in that entire movie.

• 29:43Speaker 03

  I don't remember that part. That's funny. I thought I knew that movie, Inside and Out. That's very funny. I've not seen that documentary yet on Pee-wee Herman. I heard it's really, really good, though.

• 29:51Josh Clark?

  Yeah, we just watched it. It is very good.

• 29:53Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 29:53Josh Clark?

  There's also one we're watching called Chimp Crazy by the guy who did Tiger King.

• 29:58Speaker 03

  Oh, no, thanks.

• 29:59Josh Clark?

  It's, um, it's not, it's not as hard to watch as you would think. It's more human interest stuff, but, um, yeah, I mean, there's still, it's weird because you, it's, you empathize with both sides. It's one of those documentaries.

• 30:12Speaker 03

  I'm one of the few people that didn't have any interest or watch Tiger. Was it Tiger what?

• 30:17Josh Clark?

  Tiger King. You kind of missed out, man. That was something.

• 30:21Speaker 03

  Yeah, I don't feel like I did.

• 30:23Josh Clark?

  Okay. Well, then, yeah, you might not like chimp crazy then if you didn't want to watch Tiger King.

• 30:28Speaker 03

  All right. Shall we take that break?

• 30:30Josh Clark?

  Yes.

• 30:31Speaker 03

  All right, we'll be back and talk about human interactions with anacondas right after this.

• 30:48Speaker 03

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• 31:07Josh Clark?

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• 31:51Josh Clark?

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• 32:24Josh Clark?

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• 32:36Speaker 03

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• 33:00Josh Clark?

  World Mental Health Day takes place in October, and it's really meant to be more than just awareness. It's about actually taking the next step and getting support if you need it.

• 33:09Speaker 03

  But a lot of people still talk themselves out of therapy. They think it's too expensive, they're not sure if it'll actually work, they don't know how to find the right therapist, or they just get overwhelmed trying to navigate the whole system.

• 33:19Josh Clark?

  And that's exactly what Rula is built to fix. Rula makes therapy feel a lot more approachable, a lot more human. You can find a therapist who actually fits your needs, not just whoever's available. And with insurance, sessions average around $15 copay.

• 33:33Speaker 03

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• 33:39Josh Clark?

  And it's not just about starting. Rula helps you stay consistent and actually make progress because taking care of your mental health isn't a one-time thing. So if you've been thinking about therapy, don't talk yourself out of it. This is a really easy way to take that first step.

• 33:51Speaker 03

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• 34:16Speaker 03

  So we mentioned that you're probably not in danger around an anaconda. I don't know if I'd go like partying with one, but you know, we said they may eat like every couple of months, so if you know for a fact that anaconda has eaten something, those are probably the videos you're seeing on the internet when there's people like, you know, doing like documentary work on anacondas. They probably know that that thing is eaten.

• 34:38Josh Clark?

  Yeah, interestingly, there was a study that found that humans who live around anacondas see a full anaconda as far less threatening than one that doesn't have a big pot belly.

• 34:49Speaker 03

  Yeah, I would say so.

• 34:50Josh Clark?

  It makes sense.

• 34:52Speaker 03

  Uh, there was a book that I don't even know if we should mention, but a book from the 50s called Giant Snake Hunt by a guy named Ralph Blomberg, who claimed two definite cases of people being killed by snakes, but I think that book is probably not accurate, is my guess. Uh, there is a video, uh, that I watched, um, from Terra Santa, Brazil, that has a guy, I'm sure you watched this too, an anaconda standing, or the guy was standing rather in like chest deep water in a river in Brazil, and the anaconda was wrapped around him and that his buddies up on the boat were trying to get it off. And he bit this snake, um, near its head and the snake released it and they got, they got this guy out of there.

• 35:31Josh Clark?

  It was weird. If you listen closely, his bite made the same sound that Fred Flintstone makes when he bites into something, that tromp sound. I was really surprised.

• 35:42Speaker 03

  It was very surprising.

• 35:43Josh Clark?

  Um, so yeah, this is the, that's really, really rare that that happens. And the guy was able to escape unharmed. The point is, is if, if an anaconda wanted to, to take you on, like you would be in big trouble.

• 35:57Speaker 03

  Yeah, sure.

• 35:58Josh Clark?

  Um, it turns out that there are some people who want an anaconda to take them on. There's a guy named Paul Rizzoli, who for all intents and purposes is chainsaw from summer school. Did you look this up and see him?

• 36:11Speaker 03

  Uh, I did, and I remember when this happened.

• 36:14Josh Clark?

  Okay, so Discovery Channel had a two hour special called Eaten Alive, wherein Paul Rizzoli was out looking for a giant anaconda to eat him. And, uh, it was just pulse pounding from the beginning to the last moment, from what I understand.

• 36:29Speaker 03

  Yeah, you don't remember this?

• 36:31Josh Clark?

  No.

• 36:31Speaker 03

  Oh, boy, I do. It was a media disaster and, uh, I would like to think a low point for, uh, Discovery Channel, but, uh, they made a, a carbon fiber suit that he wore and he drenched himself in pig's blood.

• 36:44Josh Clark?

  As you do.

• 36:45Speaker 03

  And what he claimed was like, oh, I want to bring awareness to the loss of habitats, um, you know, for these snakes. But, uh, close to 40,000 people signed a petition beforehand, calling it animal abuse, saying you can't do a show like this. Uh, the show itself was a disaster, sort of a, a Geraldo, um, digging for, uh, who was it? Jimmy Hawthorne, or was it?

• 37:08Josh Clark?

  I don't know about Hoffa. I know that he found Al Capone's vault.

• 37:12Speaker 03

  Al Capone, that was it. That had nothing, basically, in it. And that was kind of the deal here, where almost all of the show was just prep. In the last 15 minutes, this snake, this poor snake, being exploited, tries to bite him on the head and starts constricting him. And he's like, "Oh, oh, my arm!" And he taps out, and that was it.

• 37:30Josh Clark?

  Right. So I think the rule of thumb here, Chuck, is if you are in another animal's habitat, messing with it, and there's a TV camera on you, you are in the wrong. There is no exception to that.

• 37:42Speaker 03

  Agreed.

• 37:43Josh Clark?

  Because you are going into their house and messing with them for your own benefit. And that's just wrong. It's wrong, and don't do it.

• 37:51Speaker 03

  Agreed.

• 37:52Josh Clark?

  That's all I have to say about that.

• 37:54Speaker 03

  I think we should mention a couple of these tweets, though, because they're pretty funny.

• 37:57Josh Clark?

  Totally. There was one person who said that they called it "eaten alive" because getting squeezed really hard didn't sound as enticing. That was a good one.

• 38:07Speaker 03

  Another one, someone said, "Calling it #eatenalive is like having a show on the Food Network about cooking a turkey, and all they do after two hours is preheat the oven."

• 38:17Josh Clark?

  Good stuff.

• 38:18Speaker 03

  Roasted!

• 38:18Josh Clark?

  I don't remember it at all, and I don't remember it being a disaster, but I could see that.

• 38:24Speaker 03

  Yeah. As far as human interaction, you know, humans are probably a bigger threat. Not probably, humans are a bigger threat to anacondas than they are to them.

• 38:33Josh Clark?

  Definitely.

• 38:34Speaker 03

  A lot of times, they will be preemptively killed in a small community because of fear of, like, small kids, maybe a little bit more of a threat, or a small elderly person, perhaps, or your livestock. A lot of times, they'll describe this as retaliatory killing because they ate my prized deer, so I'm gonna kill it. But they did an actual study in Brazil in 2015, and they found it's probably more of a preemptive fear to keep them from doing something like that.

• 39:02Josh Clark?

  Right. And based on your Human Development Index score, which is a rating of education level and standard of living and income for an area, the lower that score, the more likely you are to kill an anaconda. I feel like that's a little bit slanted, because I feel like people with high Human Development Index scores probably don't live with anacondas in their yard. So I think that's a little bit skewed, but I get, I get the gist that, you know, the more you're educated about, say, animals, the more, the less likely you are to, to hurt them.

• 39:38Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 39:38Josh Clark?

  At the same time, the more educated you are, probably the more removed you are from animals. So it's hard to fault people who literally live among anacondas or other things that they perceive as a threat, killing them, even though to us in the, the developed world or the global north, it seems just abhorrent. We don't have to deal with that. So it's, there's a certain amount of judgment that you have to take perspective on. Either way, I wish that no one would kill an anaconda, especially if they leave humans alone, but I don't, I can't also put myself in the shoes of the people who live among them, I guess is what I'm saying.

• 40:15Speaker 03

  Yeah, well said.

• 40:17Josh Clark?

  I'm glad you said that because I'm out of breath.

• 40:19Speaker 03

  No, that's great.

• 40:22Speaker 03

  Yeah, obviously a loss of habitat is a problem for everything in South America, draining of wetlands for agricultural use and just, you know, clear cutting of rainforest and things like that. Despite all this, they're in pretty good shape. The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources classified, or they're currently classified as of least concern.

• 40:47Josh Clark?

  That was surprising.

• 40:48Speaker 03

  Yeah, I mean, they're, they're doing pretty good. You, you might wonder about like, well, what about these things? Like if people bring them over and all of a sudden they're in the swamps of Florida? There are some anacondas in Florida, but it's generally not a problem. The Burmese python is, you know, very much on record as being a much, much bigger problem. But regardless, Florida has a complete ban on anacondas and they are prohibited as pets.

• 41:15Josh Clark?

  They said, don't even, don't even think about it. We're Florida. We'll, we'll find you. We'll hunt you down and find you if you release an anaconda here. One of the reasons why they're, they're not a big problem as an invasive species is because they're really hard to keep as pets. Like you essentially need like a, a zoo exhibit sized place. There's a word in there somewhere that I'm missing. To, to keep an anaconda like at your home, most people can't do that. So there's not a lot of pet anacondas anywhere that could be released in the first place.

• 41:49Speaker 03

  Yeah. So we're going to finish up with a little bit on some of the more famous anacondas.

• 41:54Speaker 03

  First of which has got to be Anna Julia. This is a 20 footer, 440 pound female, obviously, green. And probably the most famous anaconda that lived in the Formosa River near Benito, Brazil, because there was a lot of ecotourism there. And Anna Julia was just present a lot. And the water there in the river around Benito is pretty clear as far as that kind of water goes. And Anna Julia was not aggressive. So she was like, hey, if you want to make a documentary about me, I'm right here. Let's do it.

• 42:25Josh Clark?

  Come on in, the water's fine.

• 42:27Speaker 03

  Yeah. Or maybe you don't come out in the water.

• 42:30Josh Clark?

  So there's a, yeah, well, there's actually from that study, that pole to pole, National Geographic thing that contributed to that huge study that changed the species arrangement, the taxonomy. One of the biologists involved in that, there's a video of him swimming alongside Anna Julia. And she's totally underwater, just swimming along and does not seem at all bothered by his presence. I mean, he's not like trying to ride her or anything like that. He's not putting a vest on her.

• 42:56Speaker 03

  Was he the one wearing the frickin' dress shirt?

• 43:00Josh Clark?

  I think so, yeah. He was not dressed for snorkeling or swimming.

• 43:04Speaker 03

  It was very weird. And I immediately went to the comments. I'm like, surely I'm not the only one that is noticing this. And of course, everyone is like, well, I see the guy dressed, you know, formal for the occasion. Everyone's talking about this guy wearing, I mean, it may be one of those weird sort of moisture wicking, all-weather outdoor shirts that just is a button up. But why are you swimming in a button up?

• 43:27Josh Clark?

  I get the impression that he's Dutch.

• 43:30Speaker 03

  Oh, that explains.

• 43:32Josh Clark?

  So what's sad about it, though, is that Anna Julia was found dead just a few weeks after this, the research that she was a huge part of. Like, because she was so docile, they were able to closely study and observe her. And she contributed greatly to our understanding of anacondas. And she died like five weeks after that research was published, that big 2024 paper. And of course, everybody's like, somebody, like, who shot Anna Julia? It was like a murder mystery that Netflix quickly made a 10-part series about. And it turns out that she died of natural causes.

• 44:07Speaker 03

  Yeah, which is sad, but good to know that she was not killed.

• 44:10Josh Clark?

  Yeah, definitely.

• 44:11Speaker 03

  Uh, if you live in St. Louis, you're probably screaming at us right now. You gotta mention J-Lo, guys. You gotta mention J-Lo. Uh, J-Lo was the 18-foot, 210-pound anaconda, uh, that lived for about a dozen years at the St. Louis Zoo. And, um, you know, uh, feel what you want about zoos, but this anaconda was, um, saved, actually. Um, escaped, being sold for meat and skin at a Guyana market. And an animal exporter stepped in, uh, bought the snake and brought J-Lo to the zoo in 2010 and was, uh, apparently the star of the show at their developing, uh, herpetarium.

• 44:49Josh Clark?

  Yeah, and the, the, um, animal exporter who brought her very famously put her in, um, what looked like a present box with like a bow on it and everything. It was like, here you go, guys, and let them open it. And all of a sudden, J-Lo sprung out and coiled herself, um, in a very like happy playful way around the zookeeper.

• 45:08Speaker 03

  Yeah, kinda like a genuine hug.

• 45:09Josh Clark?

  Yeah, exactly. And slithered off. And, um, because anacondas sound just like this anaconda in the movie Anaconda, she went, "Eeeehhhhh," as she slithered off, because that's the sound that, that snakes make. "Eeeehhhhh."

• 45:26Speaker 03

  Uh, that sounds sort of like the sound that the, uh, the mummy makes. Did you ever see that special?

• 45:31Josh Clark?

  No.

• 45:31Speaker 03

  They, they built a, uh, they were just talking about this on the Freedom Podcast with Scott Aukerman, Lauren Lapkus and Paula Tompkins, where there was a, another one of the specials, like, let's recreate this thing that we have no idea what it sounded like. And they tried to recreate what a mummy sounded like by building this, uh, I think a 3D, um, mummy voice box and passing air through it. And it was just sort of like, "Heeeehhh."

• 45:56Josh Clark?

  A mummy, a dead human being that's been embalmed?

• 46:00Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 46:01Josh Clark?

  That's bizarre. I mean, I'm sure they sounded like a human pre-mummy and then they didn't sound like anything because they were dead post-mummification. That's just odd.

• 46:11Speaker 03

  I know.

• 46:12Josh Clark?

  My, my mind just got blown.

• 46:16Speaker 03

  I'm with you. It was a very strange thing.

• 46:19Josh Clark?

  Okay.

• 46:20Speaker 03

  I don't know why they did it. I don't know much about it, other than hearing it on Freedom and looking it up because I had to hear the sound.

• 46:25Josh Clark?

  Like, we may edit that gap out, but there is a substantial pause where we were both just stunned, thinking about this for a second.

• 46:32Speaker 03

  No, I think we should leave it in there because that was, that was real life.

• 46:36Josh Clark?

  Who else? Chuck, we got to mention Oliver from the San Francisco Zoo.

• 46:40Speaker 03

  You know, it's funny, is I didn't, I was so caught up in the sound that that mummy made, I didn't even think about, like, what does that even mean?

• 46:48Josh Clark?

  Yeah. What are you doing? Like, who thought of that idea?

• 46:51Speaker 03

  Oh, I don't know. It's probably Discovery Channel.

• 46:53Josh Clark?

  So, yeah, I mean, that's just bizarre. There's Oliver from the San Francisco Zoo. He may have been the oldest anaconda to live in captivity. He was 40, they think. And then the oldest living snake in captivity is Annie, who is in the Monte Casino Bird Gardens in Johannesburg, South Africa. And in 2021, May 14th, 2021, Guinness said that she was 37 years and 317 days old. And since Livia said that she couldn't find any mention of her death and that she, she thinks that she's still there, that she's coming up on her 42nd birthday.

• 47:36Speaker 03

  Wow.

• 47:37Josh Clark?

  So, yeah, on May 62nd, she'll be 42 years old.

• 47:41Speaker 03

  You know what they don't have in that bird garden?

• 47:44Josh Clark?

  Birds?

• 47:45Speaker 03

  Yep.

• 47:47Josh Clark?

  That was great. And Chuck, we can't go any further.

• 47:50Speaker 03

  All right, I'm done.

• 47:51Josh Clark?

  Okay. Well, Chuck's done because he just dropped the mic. And since he did that, it's time for Listener Mail.

• 47:59Speaker 03

  I'm gonna call this. Oh, this is a fun follow-up. I always love it when we do something on someone and, like, a family member writes in.

• 48:09Josh Clark?

  Oh, yeah.

• 48:10Speaker 03

  And that's what happened here with Garrett.

• 48:12Josh Clark?

  I know this one.

• 48:13Speaker 03

  Udel. Hey, guys, listened to the popcorn episode. I was delighted you mentioned Charles Creeters, my great, great, great grandfather.

• 48:22Speaker 03

  Here's some more information about him and how he came to invent the popcorn machine. He founded C. Creators and Company in Chicago in 1885, initially building peanut roasters, patented the process of popping popcorn in oil, or seasoning, as he called it, to prevent popcorn from burning. In 1893, he patented the first popcorn popper, which used a steam engine to power it, and he debuted it at the 1893 Colombian Exposition.

• 48:45Speaker 03

  At first, his invention wasn't getting much attention, until he started handing out free bags of popcorn. Brilliant. I love it. During the 20th century, early 20th century, his invention became a staple for street vendors, helping them to support themselves and their families. And today, C. Creators and Company is a fifth-generation family business. My grandfather, Charles D. Creators, owns the company, and both my uncles and my moms still work there to this day.

• 49:10Josh Clark?

  Oh, that's so cool.

• 49:12Speaker 03

  I love that. That is from Garrett, I guess, Udell.

• 49:15Josh Clark?

  Thanks a lot, Garrett. This is a fantastic email. We do love it when we talk about somebody and a family member writes in, especially when they're not upset about us.

• 49:24Speaker 03

  Yeah, and especially when they did something great, like inventing the popcorn machine.

• 49:26Josh Clark?

  That's right. If you want to be like Garrett, you can get in touch with us via email. You can send it off to [email protected].

• 49:38Speaker 00

  Stuff You Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts, iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

• 49:54Josh Clark?

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• 50:49Speaker 00

  This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human.