You're swimming in the beautiful
waters of Peru
when something pulls you under.
You struggle to get above the water
as a reptilian face appears before you
and opens its huge mouth.
It's coming straight for you.
The green anaconda is a giant beast.
It can grow to 9m (30 ft) long
and weigh as much as
225 kg (550 lb).
Its average meal
weighs about 18 kg (40 lb),
but an anaconda will eat something
as large as a white-tailed deer,
which weighs about 54 kg (119 lb).
The snake's prey can range in size
from 10% of its body weight
to a whopping 116%.
The good news is
is that you are not on the anaconda's
list of favorite meals.
But, if provoked, it will attack.
According to the U.S. Peace Corps,
don't run.
This snake is faster than you are,
so that won't help.
The Corps suggests that you
lie down and play dead.
This assumes the snake will start
swallowing your feet.
When it gets up to your knees,
take your knife and slide it
inside the side of the snake's mouth.
Then quickly rip upwards
to sever its head.
But don't think you'll be able
to cut yourself out if an anaconda
does swallow you.
Once you're inside,
there won't be any room for you to move
and slash outwards.
I'm not interested in just
giving myself up to the snake,
especially since anacondas kill their prey
before eating it.
The most successful way to prevent
being swallowed by an anaconda
is to avoid anacondas.
So stay away from swamps and rivers
in tropical regions of South America.
If you can't do that,
avoid wandering during the night.
That's when anacondas are most active.
Anacondas are most dangerous
in the water.
They will wrap themselves around you
and pull you under and drown you.
Staying out of the water will at least
give you a fighting chance.
No, I don't mean you carry a blow torch
and light it on fire.
Although, that might work.
The first thing an anaconda will do
is wrap itself around you
and squeeze the life out of you.
You'll need it to release you,
or you're dead.
Splashing alcohol into its eyes
may irritate them enough
that the snake will let you go.
Of course, you could just walk around
in a constrictor-proof suit.
In 2014, filmmaker Paul Rosolie
donned such a suit
hoping an anaconda would eat him alive
for a TV special.
Minutes after the snake
wrapped around him,
Rosolie panicked and called for his team
to pull him out.
So maybe wearing
one of these suits isn't the best idea.
If you do get swallowed,
a carbon fiber or neoprene wetsuit
may help you survive the hydrochloric
acid in the snake's stomach.
But you'll have to work fast to get out.
The acid will start eating at you right away.
It only takes three days for a python
to digest an alligator's soft tissues,
and your bones are nowhere near that tough.
Don't go quietly.
If the snake swallows you whole,
the more stress you can cause it,
and the more likely it will regurgitate you.
An anaconda kills its prey
before swallowing to protect its insides.
If it thinks you are a danger,
the snake will vomit you up.
So wriggle around, kick
and pray it spits you out.
If, by some miracle,
you get swallowed by an anaconda
and survive,
you will be a mess.
It probably crushed your shoulders
and other bones to fit you inside its body.
You'll also have burns
from the snake's stomach acid.
You'll need to get to a hospital right away.
If you ever recover,
you'll know not to go swimming
in Peru again.
But don't think the ocean is any safer.
Whales have mouths big enough
to swallow you whole too.
Do you think you'd have a better chance
of surviving in their four stomachs?
Find out here.