Could an Anaconda eat a human?

Question

My daughter has had snakes for a really long time now, she's had ball pythons and corn snakes and boa constrictors but now she says she wants to get an anaconda. I did some research and they're not venomous but they are the biggest snake in the world and they're pretty aggressive. I know she will be responsible and careful but I'm afraid it's going to attack her. She's only 5 feet tall and she's pretty skinny so I know it could eat her and constrict her or k'now crush her from picking it up because she's so small. I want to know the likeliness of it attacking her and how we can take the best precautions. We're buying a baby so it knows her and she can work with it. Also she's fifteen I'm not getting a child an anaconda.

Answer 1

Yes an Anaconda, or any large snake for that matter, COULD potentially eat a human. Do you realise your gonna pretty much need a whole room for it to live in as an adult?

Answer 2

Can they yes, will they, most likely not. The thing with the large snakes like this is that they will need the space and food to be healthy, can you supply? Also, these snakes once large will need two, sometimes more, people just to handle it. The greens are the heaviest snakes on the planet, 200 lbs plus, over 500 lbs in some cases. So you, or another, will need to help her regardless, this makes the chances of a bad attack less likely. I would defiantly get a male green, maybe even a dwarf male green. This will be a green, but much smaller and more manageable than a 18' long 400 lb female.

Answer 3

I have seen and heard of large female green anacondas sizing up people before, indicating they were interested in possibly going for it. However this is very rare and I'm only aware of a couple of these instances and these were exceptionally large annies. Note that they never did actually attack anyone.



Male green anacondas - absolutely not. They do not get nearly as large as females, usually averaging 10 feet while females can push 20 on occasion.



Male and female yellow anacondas - absolutely not. This is the smaller second species of anaconda which average around 10 feet for females and 8 for males.



I have not heard of any responsible owner EVER being eaten by a female green anaconda, and there are documentations for all captive snake owner deaths available online.



Now keep in mind your question was *eating* a person. Killing a person is another story. While still very rare, since green anacondas are generally docile snakes and not aggressive in captivity, there have been deaths from all species and genders of anacondas in captivity. Deaths from yellow anacondas are more common because they have generally bad temperaments as opposed to their gentle larger cousins.



Consider this: deaths from large pet dogs are literally hundreds of times more common than deaths from large snakes.



On a final note, when I say people, I am talking about older teens and adults. Young kids and babies should obviously be kept away from large constrictors no matter the species.

Answer 4

Anacondas really aren't all that aggressive. They just have to be tamed at a young age, like any snake. There's not a big chance that she'll be eaten if she keeps it healthy and well fed. An anaconda(or other large snakes) can eat people depending on the size and the person's condition. As in like, don't sleep with it or anything. They may have a burst of hunger and with you being all still and vulnerable, their instincts take over. Anyways, not the point. Though if I may ask, why an anaconda? Not going against, I love them, too, but there are other huge breeds that are generally sweet-tempered. Burmese pythons for example, which are my favorite species. If she just really likes the species, then of course I say go for it. There are dwarf ones if you're really worried. ^-^' I held a 6-foot long male once. Itty-bitty in comparison, yet it was full-grown. He wasn't a dwarf though, he was simply an abused rescue that had 'stunted growth' to keep him small. Which is not good for them. But he was really beautiful, calm, and easy to handle even after being abused. Good luck~!