RICHARD FREEMAN: Giant anaconda stories

Whilst pootling about on the internet I came across the following anaconda-related stories.

The first involves a 30-foot or nine-metre specimen found floating dead in a lagoon eight kilometres from the town of Matupá in the state of Mato Grosso in Central Brazil. It had apparently swallowed a capybara before dying.

http://www.peixotoonline.com.br/index.asp?Pagina=Noticias&NomeTipoMateria=Matup%C3%A1&CodigoMateria=75533&CodigoTipoMateria=15


The second story I stumbled on concerns a spectacular statue I had never before seen. The statue shows a giant anaconda fighting a bull. Giant anacondas were sometimes called Manatoro or bull-killers as they were thought to over-power, constrict and swallow whole bulls. The sculpture represents man’s attempts to interfere with the course of the São Francisco River in Brazil. The anaconda represents the river and the bull, modern man’s interference. It´s a work of art by Diocleciano Martíns and it was inspired by a poem by Castro Alves. In the poem The Waterfall, the bull represents the rock, the force; the anaconda, the waters in coil, breaking the rock, from there appearing the great waterfall. The Paulo Afonso Dam was built in 1955. The hydroelectric plant now provides electric power for the whole of north-eastern Brazil. Four other large hydroelectric plants were later built. : Três Marias built in 1961, Sobradinho Dam in built in 1977, Luiz Gonzaga (Itaparica) and the and the Xingó Dam built in 1994. The Sobradinho reservoir is one of the largest artificial lakes in the world, with an area of 4,214 square kilometers and almost certainly harbors large anacondas.

The carranca is a type of carved gargoyle that was once put on the prows of boats traveling along the São Francisco to scare away evil spirits. Legends of water monsters persist to this day and may be based on giant anacondas.

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