Which Amazon Rainforest snake is the world’s heaviest snake species?

The green anaconda is the world’s heaviest snake species and a major aquatic predator in the Amazon Rainforest.

Green anacondas live in slow-moving rivers, swamps, marshes and seasonally flooded forests across northern South America. Females are much larger than males, and the species captures prey by ambush and constriction rather than venom.

The green anaconda is often called the largest snake overall, but “largest” depends on the measurement. It is the heaviest, while the reticulated python is generally recognized as the longest snake species. Anacondas spend much of their time in water, where their eyes and nostrils sit high on the head.

Their diet includes fish, birds, turtles, capybaras and caimans. Despite dramatic stories, claims of extraordinarily gigantic anacondas far beyond documented measurements remain unverified.