Movies

Snakes alive!

Anacondas out for blood in latest horror flick

Photographs courtesy of Columbia TriStar

Did You Know : The 1997 flick Anaconda starred a new actress by the name of Jennifer Lopez.

What would you do to stay forever young � or more importantly, how much would you pay? The answer is obviously a lot, so when a pharmaceutical company finds out that the thick and misty jungles of Borneo may be home to the proverbial fountain of the youth, they quickly send a team of scientists to do some research.

It seems that an extremely rare red orchid, known as a �blood orchid,� may hold the key to producing a youth-preserving serum. The orchid is so rare that it blooms only two weeks every seven years.

It is the scientists duty to embark on a treacherous journey into the jungle to find the orchid before time runs out � a discovery that will make their careers and make their corporate bosses a lot of money.

SERPENT SECRETS

But jungles are home to more than critters and crawlers, and the scientists soon find that bad weather and heavy undergrowth are the least of their worries.

Within the mysteries of the jungle lies a deadly predator that keeps the secret of the orchids safe and stops anyone who dares to enter its territory from leaving.

Soon enough the scientist come face to face with the serpentine beasts who will stop at nothing to defend their terrain.

Catch all the action when Anacondas: The Hunt for the Blood Orchid hits theatres on October 21.

DINNER DATE?

If you�re not too swift at putting two and two together, you might not have guessed that the deadly predators mentioned in the movie preview are anacondas. But other than the fact that they are the stars of two Hollywood flicks (the first was 1997�s Anaconda), what else do we know about these snakes?

Well, for starters, we know that anacondas live in South America and are considered the biggest snakes in the world, sometimes reaching more than 8.8 metres in length. While not always the longest (that would be probably the reticulated python), anacondas are definitely the heaviest � a 6-metre-long anaconda weighs more than a 10-metre-long python.

Another thing we know is that anacondas are members of the boa constrictor family of snakes. This means that they kill their prey by coiling their bodies around their victims and squeezing until their prey suffocates. Anacondas then unhinge their jaws and swallow their victims whole. And to answer your burning question, yes anacondas are big enough to eat people and have been known to do so, but it rarely happens.

So when they can�t get their jaws on unsuspecting scientists, what do anacondas eat? A fine meal might include any of the following: caimans, large rodents, tapirs, deer, peccaries, fish, turtles, birds, sheep, dogs and reptiles. They sometimes eat jaguars, but are more likely to be found dining on mice, frogs and fish.

Thanks to our good buddies over at Columbia TriStar, Student Weekly has a bunch of Anacondas T-shirts, key chains and coasters to give away. All you have to do is answer the following question:  What family of snakes do anacondas belong to? Our contact details are on page 6 of the printed student paper and  below this page.

Vocabulary

pharmaceutical (adj): connected with making and selling drugs and medicines
proverbial (adj): used to show that you are referring to a particular proverb or well-known phrase
serum (n): any liquid like water in body tissue
critters (n): a living creature
undergrowth (n): a mass of bushes and plants that grow close together under trees in woods and forests
serpentine (adj): bending and twisting like a snake
coil (v): to wind into a series of circles
suffocate (v): to die because there is no air to breathe
unhinge (v): to open something wide by removing whatever holds it in place