
National Geographic: Land of the Anaconda
- Year:
- 1999
- 58 Views
In the wild heart of Venezuela,
earth and water merge to create
a landscape like no other
one that has bred many
a legendary appetite.
But for the early explorers
who ventured into this savage place,
or more terrifying
than South America's giant serpent.
Trophy hunters spun tales of 100-foot
monsters, intent on human flesh
and for centuries this astonishing
creature has been obscured by legends
as tangled and dense
as the swamps it inhabits.
But now a barefoot biologist is
taking on the anaconda.
His mission:
to snatch its secretsfrom the murk of myth and terror,
giving us our first glimpse
into the hidden life
of the largest snake on earth.
Big snake. Big snake.
In the first scarlet rays of morning
Birds by the tens of thousands respond
to the siren call of the Ilanos
flooded savannas that cover
one-third of Venezuela.
Months of drenching rains have
waterlogged these plains,
creating a soggy Serengeti as vast and
pristine as its African counterpart.
But the dry season has begun,
and herds of capybaras
now begin to follow the receding water.
These giant rodents the world's
largest can weigh up to 140 pounds.
Soon this lush place will be
a parched plain...
so the creatures of the Ilanos
But their idyll of peace and plenty
is about to be interrupted.
Curled in the water hyacinth
is 13 feet of starving serpent:
She has not eaten for months...
and has her lidless eyes
Oblivious to her presence,
Dull eyed but sharp tongued,
The season lends urgency to her hunger
It's time for her to mate
and only well-fed snakes
breed successfully.
Once pregnant
she won't eat again until after
the babies are born seven months later
So she'd better eat well now.
At her strike, the Ilanos takes flight
But for one capybara, it's too late.
Anacondas kill with power, not poison.
Locked in the snake's deadly coils,
the capybara is being squeezed
so tight, in fact,
that it's blood can't circulate.
Her elastic jaws stretched
impossibly wide,
she now begins the ponderous business
of swallowing her victim head first.
She has paid a price for this meal
the capybara's final struggle.
There may be other snakes in the world
that are as long as the anaconda,
but none can match it for sheer bulk.
Her body was a foot thick before
she ate the capybara.
Six hours later, the last of the
rodent has disappeared into the snake.
Her post-meal proportions are
chilling to the human eye.
She's actually quite vulnerable now.
But fortunately for her,
the only creature audacious
enough to tangle
with a full-grown female anaconda
is on the trail of another snake.
Slogging through the hyacinth is
biologist Jesus Rivas.
Since 1992,
he's headed up the very first attempt
to study anacondas in the wild
by National Geographic.
Before the study began,
scientists knew virtually nothing
about the biology
of this shy and dangerous creature.
Okay, you want me to hold...
Wildlife biologist Renee Owens joined
Jesus in his slippery pursuit in 1996.
The husband and wife team have caught
Many are given names:
This one they call Godzilla.
Are you losing your grip?
In a second I will.
Oh, you won't. Hold it tight.
This is an animal that is the absolute
Translation
Translate and read this script in other languages:
Select another language:
- - Select -
- 简体中文 (Chinese - Simplified)
- 繁體中文 (Chinese - Traditional)
- Español (Spanish)
- Esperanto (Esperanto)
- 日本語 (Japanese)
- Português (Portuguese)
- Deutsch (German)
- العربية (Arabic)
- Français (French)
- Русский (Russian)
- ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)
- 한국어 (Korean)
- עברית (Hebrew)
- Gaeilge (Irish)
- Українська (Ukrainian)
- اردو (Urdu)
- Magyar (Hungarian)
- मानक हिन्दी (Hindi)
- Indonesia (Indonesian)
- Italiano (Italian)
- தமிழ் (Tamil)
- Türkçe (Turkish)
- తెలుగు (Telugu)
- ภาษาไทย (Thai)
- Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
- Čeština (Czech)
- Polski (Polish)
- Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
- Românește (Romanian)
- Nederlands (Dutch)
- Ελληνικά (Greek)
- Latinum (Latin)
- Svenska (Swedish)
- Dansk (Danish)
- Suomi (Finnish)
- فارسی (Persian)
- ייִדיש (Yiddish)
- հայերեն (Armenian)
- Norsk (Norwegian)
- English (English)
Citation
Use the citation below to add this screenplay to your bibliography:
"National Geographic: Land of the Anaconda" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2021. Web. 16 Jan. 2021. <https://www.scripts.com/script/national_geographic:_land_of_the_anaconda_14546>.