Giant anaconda
The giant anaconda has been rumored since reports from early European explorers of the South American jungles, who claimed to see giant anacondas up to sixty feet long. Some of the native peoples have reported similar findings, but all these reports remain unverified.
Another claim of an anaconda of extraordinary size was made by adventurer Percy Fawcett. During his 1906 expedition, Fawcett wrote that he had shot an anaconda that measured some sixty-two feet from nose to tail.
The Wildlife Conservation Society has, since the early 20th century, offered a large cash reward for live delivery of any snake of thirty feet or more in length. The prize has never been claimed. In a study of a thousand wild anacondas in Brazil, the largest captured was 17 feet long.
