National Geographic: Land of the Anaconda Page #6

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the reptilian residents of the Ilanos

bask along disappearing streams.

Capybaras hunker down

in what water remains.

For the yellow-headed caracara

the capybaras are an obliging,

moveable feast of ticks.

The floodplain that lured many

piranhas away from their home rivers

is now evaporating rapidly

trapping many.

Stranded and suffocating

the once fear some killer is helpless.

No one knows exactly why caimans gape

but they might as well be grinning

in anticipation.

The crocodilians move in and put

an end to the piranha's suffering.

But when the rains come again,

the carnivorous fish

will have their day.

It's now late May

six months since the Venezuelan savanna

has seen a drop of rain.

But a season of calamity for fish

is a season of plenty for birds.

Dozens deep at the water's edge

birds wait their turn at the buffet.

Each species has perfected

its own feeding technique.

Little distracts the voracious

birds from the feast,

but an uninvited guest is about

to get their attention.

It's Diega, in search of a

nice quiet shallow for mating.

Her arrival seems to elicit more

curiosity than fear,

despite the fact that

anacondas regularly eat birds.

It's almost as if they know that

the snake is an ambush hunter...

and won't waste her energy striking

at prey that can see her coming.

Indignant Orinoco geese announce

that this is no place

for an amorous anaconda.

And the stilts escort her

off the property.

Diega retreats, but with an anaconda's

characteristic lack of haste...

leaving this place to the birds.

Eventually, Diega finds a suitable

place to await her gentlemen callers.

It's likely that

the female anaconda sends out

come hither chemicals, or pheromones,

so that the males can locate her

using their tongues

as sexual divining rods.

Male anacondas are much smaller

than the females.

But with these giant snakes

small is a relative term.

He arrives to find the mating party in

full swing, but he's undeterred.

Several males have already wrapped

themselves around Diega.

It may look like her dance

card is full,

but sometimes a female will accommodate

up to a dozen males in a breeding ball

a phenomenon Jesus is now trying

to understand.

Breeding balls are made of one female

and several males

and the question is whether one male

gets to mate or several of them do it.

Is it the largest male?

Is it the smallest?

Is it the one that gets their first?

Is it the one that tickles her better?

The "tickling" is done

with the male's mating spur,

the last vestige of his

lizard ancestor's hind leg.

After mating, the male leaves a sperm

plug in the female,

but Jesus believes rival males

may be able to squeeze it out of her.

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