ok this is an article taken from HerpDigest. Sounds like a myth to me but they usually back up all their stories. Sorry for the length of the post.
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It sounds like an Indiana Jones adventure. After 23 years of research
including the detailed study of ancient art, cultures spanning 3000 years
and three continents to the latest in satellite imaging technology, a father
and son make an extraordinary trip deep into the heart of the Peruvian
Amazon to confirm their theories that this is where a giant anaconda with a
difference lives.
But that's precisely what Lisburn man Mike Warner (73) and his son Greg (44)
have done, seeking evidence that this was the home of the Yacumama and
actually capturing a picture of the creature. A leviathan of the jungle,
which reports say reaches 40
metres in length and two metres in diameter, it dwarfs any snake known to
science.
This anaconda is not green but dark brown and is known by the locals as the
'black boa' or 'Yacumama'.
"Yacumama is translated as Mother of the Water and reports of this giant
snake abound throughout the Amazon basin and history."
Mike, who is partially sighted, has spent 23 years researching the beast but
it was only six months ago when his son discovered his research documents
and they decided to take part in the incredble journey.
Cryptozooologist Mike of Hillhall spent his life savings setting up the
expedition with Greg to find out more about the snake, which reports say can
engorge water then shoot a monkey out of a tree like a water canon.
The team spent 12 days in March using the latest satellite equipment to take
images of the huge reptile and were able to officially announce the
discovery on May 2.
The explorers were dogged by hazardous weather conditions in the middle of
the rainy season but eventually managed to take off by hydroplane from the
Amazon River on day five of the expedition.
"Despite being buffeted by a freak storm we managed several flyovers at an
average altitude of 400 feet recording video footage from two cameras at
either side to the rear of the aircraft and Greg, located in the front with
the pilot, taking around 300 still photographs" said Mike who had his 73rd
birthday while in Peru.
After an exhausting 12 days in the jungle and a 30 hour trip back home the
father and son team were finally able to examine their photo evidence in
more detail, over 700 photos and five hours of video
"The data is immense and will take months to fully appreciate but already it
supports our theories of 'channels' created by these giants as they make
their way through the dense jungle knocking down trees 90 feet tall, but
more importantly we managed to catch one of these reclusive giants on camera
as it made its way through one of its watery channels."
It was Colonel Percy Fawcett, who was commissioned by the Royal Geographical
Society of London in 1906 to map an area of the Peruvian Amazon in a dispute
over rubber production who, after an encounter with a giant anaconda, first
documented large 'trails 6 feet wide' or what are now called 'channels'.
And according to Greg it was the link made between his account and the
evidence of large irregular 'channels' at the site they visited that led to
the discovery.
They have now shared their findings with the Peruvian government, the
National Geographic Society in Washington and Queens University in Belfast.
The team will now spend months analysing the footage and plan to return to
same location in October to get thermal imagery which will help find the
numbers of anacondas. This time they hope to bring with them a television
crew.
Greg concluded: "The real hero is my father. It must be incredible to have
spent 23 years researching this and then to succeed in an expedition where
others had failed."
There was an amazing postscript to their trip when an anaconda, believed to
be the one they located in March, is thought to have been responsbile for
smashing the house of an elderly couple in a small village in Peru earlier
this week.
