Sure they can swallow a man, but these snakes don’t really attack humans.

Humans and anacondas rarely interact in the wild and these huge snakes prefer deer and elk to humans. It’s when humans enter their territory that makes the difference.

In December of 2014, Scientist Paul Rosolie wanted to film himself being eaten by an anaconda. The snake tried to flee and the scientist had to force the female snake to attack him.

Those wild swampy areas anacondas inhabit can scare even a grown man, but if the sun is out, there’s nothing to worry about.

These large snakes typically prefer to hunt and travel in the dark. They can stalk prey more easily while using camouflage to blend in with the darker surroundings.

The dry season also has these huge snakes burying in the mud to escape the heat.

Hollywood had audiences believing that these huge snakes attack, chase, and brutally finish off their victims. But that’s how they get people to buy tickets and see their work.

Paul Rosolie failed to get eaten so he set the record straight on how anacondas go about finishing their meals.

“You do have to go head first. If you think of a deer, anacondas eat deer all the time. A deer’s head and neck are very narrow and then [the body gets wider]. An anaconda slips over that very nicely.”

As horrifying as it sounds, it’s just one of the reasons not to venture into anaconda territory especially at night. Paul Rosolie realized this all too well. He tried to get eaten on film but then realized how disgusting it was.

He says that when the snake has its mouth over your head, you can hear it “gurgling and wheezing” in anticipation.

Don’t you just hate noisy eaters?

These snakes are only built to swallow. Puking actually does major damage to their bodies.

Swallowing takes them weeks, and should they need to regurgitate, it will take a long time and the snake will be exhausted.

Getting tired is risky for these snakes since they don’t have the muscle power to pass their prey out completely. The prey could get stuck and not come out completely.

It was in December 2014 when The Discovery Channel aired Eaten Alive. Paul Rosolie wore a set of “snake-proof” body armor so he could withstand the snake’s efforts of eating him. Now, the snake wasn’t interested at first, but then Rosolie found out the hard way that these anacondas are strong.

“I felt the blood draining out of my arm, and she started really flexing the bone and I felt it about to break, I had to call it off.”

Because anacondas don’t really chew, the easiest way for them to crunch you up into a dissolvable goo is by breaking your bones into mush.

Anacondas swallow their food whole. Large ligaments and mobile joints in their jaws mean they can open their mouths to fit a person, capybara, or a deer. They don’t chew or wait for decomposition.

These snakes have stretchy skin, and their lack of a sternum lets them change their body’s shape for their dinner.

Bill Heyborne has a lot of information on how anacondas eat people. He is a herpetologist and professor of biology at Southern Utah University.

When anacondas are squeezing their prey, the unfortunate creature’s heart and blood vessels take the brunt of it resulting in complete failure. “It turns out that the squeezing overwhelms the circulatory system,” explained Heyborne.

“Blood cannot get to the brain, and the animal dies within seconds due to ischemia.”

So it’s either you drown or get crushed to death.

Your body passes through the snake, where you are slowly broken down. The enzymes and gastric juices will slowly digest the prey before passing into the small intestine.

The liver and pancreas then excrete and secrete powerful enzymes into the small intestine to aid the digestive process where your body is now turning into energy for the snake.

The small intestine absorbs all the nutrients.

The anaconda’s “jaw walk” is a terrifying and fascinating sight to witness. Once a snake catches its prey, the jaw “walks” over its food working the animal down its esophagus.

The lower jaws are not fused together, allowing them to move and stretch out to work on the prey that’s bigger than the snake’s head.

The green anaconda’s jaws unhinge in order to capture larger prey. Anacondas use their jaws to hold on to their food, locking it in with their teeth.

These snakes don’t chew, so the purpose of those teeth is to hold their prey in their jaws.

They are not venomous but a snake that size can just crush its prey with deadly force.

These snakes are very patient, and you’d have to be too if you’re inside one.

The snake will take two weeks before it slims down. In the third week, it defecates a calcium ball since it has absorbed the fat and protein, but not the excess minerals.

These massive snakes can sense a heartbeat and they know when the prey’s heart stops and when it stops breathing. Anacondas will then conserve their energy for swallowing if they know the creature can’t fight anymore.

Once the snake wraps itself around you, it would be really difficult to maintain regular breathing. Struggling won’t help, and fighting to breathe will burn out your energy.

Anacondas have a clever way of squeezing the life out of you. It’s a slow, agonizing process.

The snake waits for its victim to exhale and then tightens its coil, slowly and gradually restricting the prey’s breath.

Anacondas won’t waste energy squeezing, instead waiting for you to just stop breathing, ending your nightmarish death.

They are patient and powerful.