Wildlife Expert Forrest Galante Discusses Alleged 50-Foot Snake Seen In The Congo

50 foot snake mystery

iStockphoto / Svetlana Dyachkova


Wildlife expert and adventurist Forrest Galante was recently a guest on The Joe Rogan Experience. During the episode, they discussed the urban legend of massive anacondas in the Amazon rainforest.

It was at this point that Forrest Galante dropped some knowledge on Joe Rogan. Forrest posed a simple question to Joe, asking him where on Planet Earth we never hear about XXL snakes despite the climate being perfect.

Galante mentions how Southeast Asia (home to the reticulated python), the Amazon river basin, and to some extent now, Florida all have similar climates. Forrest then tells Joe Rogan about the legend of a 50-foot snake spotted by Belgian Air Force colonel Remy Van Lierde in 1959.

He points out how we generally never hear news about abnormally large snakes found in Central Africa. This is despite the Congo having the perfect climate for these snakes.

Here’s the clip with some more information below:

Legend of the 50-foot snake in the Congo

As far as urban legends go, this one is different. Remy Van Lierde was a colonel with the Belgian Air Force. Not just some person spreading rumors to tourists to bring in exotic animal hunters.

And it wasn’t just Col. Remy Van Lierde who claims to have seen the snake. As Forrest Galante tells the story, Colonel Van Lierde had two passengers in the plane and they circled back three times to get a better look.

They even claim the snake attempted to strike the plane. A detail that seems doubtful, in my humble opinion, and seems to cast doubt on the existence of a 50-foot snake in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Here is an interview with Colonel Remy Van Lierde himself. He says they made several passes (between 4 and 6) in order to take a picture of the 50-foot snake. You can see the infamous picture of the 50-foot snake in this clip:

It is believed the 50-foot snake had a 3′ x 2′ triangular head. Absolutely massive.

Later in the interview with Joe Rogan, they discuss other massive snakes. And here is Forrest Galante swimming with a massive anaconda:

Forrest certainly has one of the most interesting jobs in television. You have to give him that.

Snake Catcher In South Africa Goes Viral Capturing Spitting Cobra

The Ring-Necked Spitting Cobra is a distant relative of the King Cobra which is arguably the most famous snake species on earth. The Rinkhals Cobra (Hemachatus haemachatus), or Ring-Necked Spitting Cobra, is found widely throughout South Africa’s Western and Eastern Cape provinces.

These spitting cobras typically aim for the face when spitting venom at humans. The speed with which this snake pops out of a drain pipe and goes after a clip is blowing people away. Here are the two viral clips:

@fransawievermaak

Venom Call : Rinkhals pikaboo 🤣😎🤙🏻

♬ original sound – fransawievermaak

@fransawievermaak

Venom Call : Now I have you. 1.1 m Rinkhals on a farm in the Standerton Area. For more 🐍action go to my Snake Site on Face Book : Standerton Venom 😎🤙🏻🤙🏻🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍

♬ original sound – fransawievermaak

That first video has amassed 10 million views in 3 days. The second clip has 17.6 million views in just 3 days. It is wild to see numbers like that outside of YouTube.

Based on his feed, it appears as if calls to capture and relocate Rinkhals Cobras are relatively common for this snake wrangler. He has three more recent videos of capturing Ring-Necked Spitting Cobras and relocating them.