TORONTO STAR (Ontario) 22 August 06 He really takes snakes on planes (Jeanne Carstensen (Salon.com)
Jesus Rivas loves the green anaconda. The object of his affection is the biggest snake on Earth, which regularly dines on three-metre caimans (Spanish alligators). Rivas loves them so much that he walks barefoot through the swamps of his native Venezuela until his toes touch one of the serpents lounging in the mud, at which point he wrestles them into submission.
Perhaps for obvious reasons, field studies of the anaconda were virtually nonexistent before Rivas began pursuing his herpetological passion in the late 1980s.
Since then, he has captured more than 900 anacondas in the wild and carefully studied their life cycle - including the previously undocumented "breeding aggregations," the balls of small male snakes that struggle to impregnate a giant female.
Rivas has made several TV documentaries about his charismatic study animal, including The Land of the Anacondas with National Geographic.
He's now an assistant professor at Somerset Community College in Kentucky.
Rivas was interviewed by phone about how his experiences with anacondas.
What does it feel like to be close to anacondas. Are they cuddly?
They're not cuddly. (Laughs.) But they're not slimy, either. They're very muscular. When you grab them, you feel you're grabbing something hugely muscular underneath. The skin is smooth. It's nice to the touch. When you squeeze it, you know you're touching an extremely strong animal. When I catch them in the wild they are upset, of course, and we have to wrestle.
You have to wrestle?
Yes, she grabs at you and you wrestle her back - normally with several people. After about 15 minutes, I will be panting and tired, but the snake will be just as tired because her metabolism is slower and she doesn't recover as quickly. So after 15 minutes of struggle, the snake will just give up.
So is the snake trying to wrap herself around you and squish you in the "evil loop" the anaconda is famous for?
(Laughs.) I don't let her do that, but that's what she tries to do. It's about knowing how the animal is going to turn to avoid being caught by the loop.
How do you find these large snakes in the swamps of Venezuela?
I know the kind of places where they live - usually in shallow waters with a lot of vegetation. I go shuffling through the water, feeling with my feet for them and poking with poles in the mud. Normally I find them by stepping on them.
You're kidding. You step on it and then you reach into the water to grab it?
Yes, that's when the fun begins. You know, when you step on something it could be anything. Could be a turtle, in which case there's nothing to do - you're going to feel the shell. You feel something hard, but you need to reach with your hand to really define what it is.
Why don't you wear boots?
The boots really slow me down and I get stuck in the mud. Plus I have less capacity for feeling. You see, nothing will stop the jaws of a caiman (a cousin of the alligator). They will go right through the boot anyway. But being barefoot I can feel thoroughly and detect what it might be and pull out my foot sooner, which is better than putting on a clumsy boot and eventually getting hurt.
Could a mature anaconda eat somebody the size of Samuel L. Jackson?
How big is he?
He's a big man. I'm guessing he's over 6 feet tall.
How many pounds?
I'm not sure, but let's say 200.
Absolutely. Snakes are known to eat things that size or even bigger. There are records of snakes eating prey that weigh 160 per cent of their body weight. So a 200-pound anaconda could eat something that weighs 300 pounds - no problem.
You travel the world studying anacondas. Have you ever travelled with snakes on a plane?
You know, I always try to avoid travelling with animals. But there was a zoo in Barquisimeto, a small city west of Caracas, which had a big female who had given birth to a lot of babies - 29 baby anacondas. It was perfect. They agreed to give me the babies for my research, so I flew from Caracas to go pick them up. After spending a day there, I went to the airport with the babies in a pillowcase to take them back home.
A pillowcase?
The best cage, as any snake biologist knows, is a pillowcase - there's nothing else.
Is that legal?
Well, I had permits, but I still had trouble.
What happened when you got on the plane?
But by the time I boarded the rumour had spread. I had to go to the last seat and as I walked down the aisle everyone knew I was carrying snakes. Since the movie Anaconda, everyone is absolutely terrified of these animals, but the person who had the most extreme phobia was the security guy.
When you sat down, where did you put the two bags of snakes?
One in the overhead compartment and one underneath my seat.
What if those snakes had escaped?
The first thing that could have happened is some of the passengers would have stepped on them. But they wouldn't have attacked anybody. They were too cold. Anacondas like it from 85 to 90 degrees and above. The plane is set to 70 or 72 degrees. Snakes depend on temperature in order to be happy.
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