iStockphoto / 4uves
Everyone has their limits. In general, I’m completely unphased by the presence of snakes. My parents let me have pet snakes when I was a little kid. My cousins I would catch them in the wild when we were growing up. In the Boy Scouts, we learned to identify which ones are venomous and which ones we should be wary of.
I’m not claiming I’m as fearless as the fucking Crocodile Hunter was but they just don’t creep me out in any way. But I have my limits, and my limit of comfort would’ve been surpassed several times over if I find myself in the situation of this diver below.
Underwater videographer Bartolomeo Bove was filming in Brazil’s Formoso River when he happened upon a TWENTY THREE FOOT anaconda snake, one of the largest species in the world. Instead of pissing his pants and hauling ass out of there like any normal person would’ve done, this dude stuck around long enough to allow the snake to swim right up and lick his camera.
According to The Inertia, this clip was filmed back in July of last Summer and the location is special because Brazil’s Formoso River is one of the only places in the world where the water is clear enough to film anacondas. Typically, they inhabit much murkier and muddier water but in this clip, we get a very clear view of the snake.
Bartolomeo Bove spoke with The Dodo about how this clip should debunk the notion that anacondas are violent creatures as they were depicted in the film Anaconda with Ice Cube and Jennifer Lopez.
“The anaconda swims calm and peaceful, completely indifferent to our presence,” Bove told The Dodo. “Sometimes she comes closer, curious about my camera, licking the lens… The behavior of the anaconda debunks the myth that it is an aggressive and violent creature that can endanger people’s lives.”
They estimate this female anaconda weighed around 200-pounds and was 23-feet-long which is PLENTY large enough to take down an adult human being or any large jungle creature.
Not creepy at all.
For more on this story, you can click here to head on over to The Inertia.