A Brazilian fishing guide narrowly avoided losing his life when he was attacked by an anaconda snake. The footage captured by 38-year-old Joao Severino is going massively viral on social media. It shows the anaconda leaping out of the water and biting him.
Mr Severino was leading a group of tourists on a boat along the Araguaia River in the central Brazilian state of Goias on June 30 when the incident took place.
The 20-second video shows an anaconda coiled below the water, between two logs of wood. As Mr Severino (not seen in the clip) focus the camera on the anaconda, it made a sudden lunge, scaring everyone on the boat.
Mr Severino is heard laughing nervously after the attack in the video.
"I saw the snake on a stump and I said, 'Look, guys, an anaconda is over there, I'm going to film it for you to see,'" Severino is quoted as saying by the New York Post.
The serpent quickly disappeared, leaving the people on the boat in shock.
The Post said in its report that the snake bit did not penetrate Mr Severino's skin. It identified the serpent as green anaconda, which is capable of growing up to 30 feet long and 550 pounds. A member of the Boa family, South America's green anaconda is the largest snake in the world.
According to National Geographic, females are significantly larger than the males.
Anacondas generally live in swamps, marshes and slow-moving streams, mainly in the tropical rain forests of the Amazon basin. They are cumbersome on land, but stealthy and sleek in water.
Anacondas hunt wild pigs, deer, birds, turtles and even jaguars. The non-venomous constrictors coil their muscular bodies around prey and squeeze their bodies until the animal asphyxiates.
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