anaconda

The anaconda is a climber as well as a swimmer, and may be found in trees along river banks. Males attract mates by making booming noises. The young develop in thin-shelled eggs inside the mother, hatching as she lays them and emerging as live young.

South American snake Eunectes murinus, a member of the python and boa family, the Boidae. One of the largest snakes, growing to 9 m/30 ft or more, it is found in and near water, where it lies in wait for the birds and animals on which it feeds. The anaconda is not venomous, but kills its prey by coiling round it and squeezing until the creature suffocates.

Females are up to 5 times larger than males. They have litters of up to 80 young, born live, and each weighing only 250-300 g. The gestation period last six to eight months, during which time the female will not eat at all.

Anaconda

Town and administrative headquarters of Deer Lodge County, southwest Montana, USA; population (2000) 9,400. It lies 42 km/26 mi northwest of Butte, on Warm Springs Creek, in a mineral-rich mountainous region, and stands 1,615 m/5,300 ft above sea level. The city was founded as Copperopolis in 1883 by the Anaconda Copper Mining Company and was incorporated as Anaconda in 1888. At one time it had the world's largest copper smelter; smelting and phosphate production were the town's economic mainstays until Atlantic Richfield closed the smelter in 1980, causing severe economic hardship.