Newly discovered anaconda found dead, says biologist Freek Vonk

Dutch television presenter and biologist Freek Vonk, who was part part of an international team of scientists who discovered a new sort of anaconda living in the northern part of the Amazon rain forest, has said the animal has been found dead.

Vonk said on Instagram that he had been told by various sources that the animal had been shot although an official cause of death has yet to be established. “I’m so sad and so angry at the same time,” he told his followers.

The aquatic snake, which had been named the Northern Green Anaconda and whose discovery in February was published in the scientific journal Diversity, was the second type of anaconda found in the entire Amazon area. 

The new snake lives in Venezuela, Suriname, and Guyana and there is a 5.5% difference between its DNA and those of the better-known green anaconda. “To put this in perspective, humans and chimpanzees differ in DNA by just 2%,” Vonk said.

It turned out later that Naturalis in Leiden had had a preserved example of the species for 50 years without realising its importance.

The snake was strong and healthy, Vonk said, “and could have procreated”. “It’s a blow for biodiversity that that is now no longer possible,” he said.

The biologist said he hoped the perpetrators would be found and that they would prosecuted. “This sort of behaviour needs a severe punishment,” he said.