Kolkata zoo to have four anacondas next year

Kolkata: Visitors to the Alipore Zoological Gardens here would be able to see anacondas, one of the longest known snake species in the world, for the first time in the city, as the authorities are set to bring in four of these massive serpents to the zoo next year, an official said on Wednesday.

"We will bring in four young anacondas in the zoo in April next year. The snakes are being donated by Madras Crocodile Bank Trust in Tamil Nadu. This is the first time the Kolkata zoo will have these snakes," zoo director Ashish Kumar Samanta told IANS.

He said separate enclosures would be built for the snakes in the zoo.

"We requested the reptile zoo in Chennai for the snakes earlier. They are now willing to donate the snakes. However they would be brought here in April as the snakes are in hibernation during winter," Samanta added.

The green anaconda (Eunectes murinus), also known as water boa, are the most common and is a non-venomous boa species found in South America. It is the heaviest and one of the longest known extant snake species.