The legendary Yacumama: The largest snake eats human still alive

Native speakers near the Amazon filled with fear and astonishment of the real monsters - incredible leviathans so huge that the legendary anaconda is small in comparison.

The native snakes commit quietly around the village fires and the safety of their homes, is 40 - sometimes 50 - feet long. The heads of these giant creatures are said to reach 2 meters wide. They can bring down prey by spitting explosive jets, down trees in its path and change the course of the tributaries of small rivers when crossed. Natives call these monstrous serpents Yacumama

A monster that creeps

The world is full of secrets. Many do not give up easily. Empires have arisen and fallen amid the mysteries left unresolved enigmas through the centuries. As far back as the Aztec legends have spoken about the monstrous snakes. The Aztecs of Mexico made ​​him one of the most powerful gods Quetzalcoatl . 

Ancestral painting portraying Quetzalcoatl tasting of a human.

In the centuries that followed the indigenous peoples of the Amazon often spoke of Yacumama, water snake. Herpetologists Europeans and Americans ignored the gossip taking it as myths or as references to large aquatic boa, the anaconda. According to Indigenous other giant snakes also inhabit the shadowy realm of the Amazon: the Sachamama and Minhocão, snakes some Amazonian natives say they can alter the earth as they pass through it.

Amazon River: Native carries a 'small' anaconda.

Despite the belief herpetologists, not indigenous were talking of the great anaconda by different names. they talked about real monsters, leviathans so great that the anaconda is small in comparison. The natives sometimes speak of the great serpent with fear and trembling, saying that measures approximately 40 meters sometimes reaching 50 meters long. The heads of these giant creatures are said to reach 2 meters wide. They can bring down their prey with explosive jets, knocking down trees in its path and changing the course of smaller tributaries.

Seeking the colossus

During the year 1906 the famous commander explorer Percy H. Fawcett claimed to have found a giant anaconda while traveling through the Amazon River. He shot the creature and watch as agonized. He recalled: .. "walked ashore and approached the reptile with caution I was immobile, but shivers kept running up and down the body like puffs of wind on a hill mountain As was be measured, length 14 meters out of the water and lay 5m at her, making a total length of 19 meters ... so large specimens as this may not be common, but the trails in the swamps reach a width of 2 meters and support the statements of Indians and rubber pickers that the anaconda sometimes reaches an incredible size, completely eclipsing the shot for me. Brazilian borders Commission told me of one killed in the Paraguay river more than 24 meters long "

Fawcett was entertained with tales of giant anacondas that said average 20 meters or more. (Picture based in part on a photograph published in the newspaper of Pernambuco, January 24, 1948.)

However, they were far from convinced academic professionals and herpetologists. The monstrous snakes just seemed to be something obviously crazy. As the dispute continued for another century until two brothers, Mike and Greg Warner, mounted an expedition in the jungles of the Amazon looking for evidence of monstrous snakes. The expedition was inconclusive, although recorded trails giant snake and took testimonies of natives who claimed to have seen the Yacumama.

Mike Warner, Hunter Yacumama.

Mike Warner spoke to hundreds of indigenous and workers who had encounters with Yacumama. He investigated thousands more. Notes that certain native tribes of both African and Native near the Amazon River in South America describes an enormous snake "takes water with it." Although the first expedition could not find the elusive Yacumama, the brothers were undeterred. After two new fundraising they mounted another expedition to the Amazon.

Snake capturing antelope near the Amazon River. The Yacumama is much larger in size.

During the second expedition, Warner succeeded in finding and photographing areas where Yacumama lives, gaps are formed near rivers, their trenches (some almost 2 meters wide) and photographing some of the giant snakes , not Yacumama but just as impressive. These photographs are excited that the researchers of the National Geographic Society.

In this video made ​​by Warner shows a path of downed trees of great height, image Yacumama possibly along a tributary of the Amazon River . [ Watch Video Here ]

What they found is added to the reports of previous witnesses. Through the years, many sightings have included descriptions Yacumama snake with horns sprouting from his head. This peculiar feature, mentioned in many reports of independent observers along the Amazon, Warner has led to the hypothesis that Yacumama could be a prehistoric version of caecilians today. Most of the roughly 50 species of caecilians that have been rated have a groove along both sides of the head containing retractable tentacles. To the untrained observer, they may appear as horns. According to Mike Warner, "The exact species of this creature is unknown but we believe that the physical characteristics and behavior are a snake - or amphibians - similarly to a caecilian behavior. " - An amphibious snake-like creature.

A snake photographed in Brazil with a length of 35 meters, 75 cm wide and 4 tons.

Most of the witnesses who have sighted one Yacumama have not spent much time studying the creature -. Been generally passed over it by accident and then gave swing and ran for his life Warner's research led him to discover that seeks Yacumama prey near the regions where two rivers merge into one, called "confluence". Determined that the areas will provide the colossal predators a steady supply of food. He hypothesizes that this capacity may have one or more of the following purposes:



1. The stunning prey or tear down trees in its path. The Yacumama allegedly swallows water and throws his prey like a water cannon. 
2. while "takes water with it" you may use this water pressure to sustain its skeletal structure, while moving through the jungle . . 
3 You can also use water as an instrument of burrow - like a worm does on the ground, therefore, has some similarity to a Gymnophiona features. The Indians of the Peruvian Amazon witness a loud noise that can be heard when the Yacumama this game during the rainy season.


All sightings of these giant snakes have similar descriptions. Warner believes that the snakes that the natives call the Sachamama - mother earth - are the same as the Yacumama snakes. Have grown so large that they have become virtually immobile and therefore no longer feed on prey caught in the water. He extrapolates this hypothesis: "At this point we can release pheromones to attract snakes of the same species and so eat them This process can even restrict the population of this species in a given area.."

Is real Yacumama?

Yes, they are real. They can even be a previously unknown species. They are undoubtedly one of the most dangerous and frightening predators in the animal kingdom.