By Melissa Charles
In what could well have been a fit of jealousy over all the attention being given to Pit bulls, a pet anaconda sank its teeth into the wrist of a West Bank Demerara woman yesterday morning as she passed close to its owner at the City Mall on Regent Street.
Carlotta Osborne of 26 Nismes, West Bank Demerara was taken for treatment at the Georgetown Public Hospital yesterday after she was bitten on her right wrist. The anaconda, which bit her, belongs to the well-known ‘Snake Man’, who can invariably be found with his snake coiled around his neck or arm, at the City Mall or in its vicinity most Saturdays.
Osborne was taken to the hospital by the snake’s owner, where she was treated and sent away.
When Stabroek News went to the scene of the incident yesterday, the injured woman and ‘Snake Man’ had already left for the hospital. However, there was a great deal on congealed blood at the site.
Speaking to this newspaper at the hospital, Osborne said she was walking into the main entrance of the City Mall, when she felt something pull at her hand. She turned to find the anaconda’s teeth in her wrist and quickly jerked her hand out of the snake’s mouth.
Osborne said she knew ‘Snake Man’ was usually at the entrance to the mall or sometimes in the mall itself but she did not expect the animal to bite her, since the man would usually have the seemingly docile snake wrapped around his hand or neck. However, she said, the man was speaking on his cellular phone at the time and apparently was not attentive as he should have been.
‘Snake Man’, who did not want to give his real name to Stabroek News, said it was an unfortunate accident.
“I been doing this thing for years and nobody ever get bite,” he said. ‘Snake Man’ would usually take pictures of persons for a fee, after giving them the snake to hold or wrap around them.
He said he had just recently acquired the snake he had yesterday, which was a female anaconda. The man said that as Osborne passed by, her hand must have brushed the snake’s mouth causing it to grab for her hand.
He was steadily heard reassuring Osborne that the snake was not poisonous and telling her that he had been bitten by such snakes some 37 times in the last ten years and nothing ever happened to him. However, he said that should Osborne need any further medical treatment he would foot the bill.
Observers have commented in the past on the possible danger posed to the public by ‘Snake Man’ walking around with a live anaconda, sometimes in crowded areas.
Meanwhile, Osborne received three injections and was given a prescription for some medication. She said she was experiencing cramps in her hand and that the doctor had told her to expect some swelling. She said she did not want any legal issues and hoped she would not have any “after effects.”
According to internet sources, the anaconda is a species of aquatic boa constrictor, which inhabits the swamps, rivers and dense forests of tropical South America. The anaconda feeds on large rodents, sheep, dogs and reptiles among other prey. The snake has been known to attack animals as large as the jaguar and humans, although this is quite rare.
Anacondas are among the largest and most powerful snakes in the world. Female anacondas grow bigger than males and can reach enormous size, ranking as the heaviest of all snakes.
While they are not poisonous, when anacondas bite their prey with their sharp teeth, their lower jaws can open almost 180 degrees and are not fused together in front, permitting a huge gape. Massive jaw muscles give anacondas a powerful bite. The jaws have more than 100 sharp, backward-curving teeth that prevent prey from pulling away. Anacondas, along with boas and pythons, have two extra rows of teeth on the roof of the mouth, called pterygoid teeth. These additional rows of teeth aid in holding and ingesting prey, and can be moved independently, helping the snake “walk” its jaws and head over prey to swallow the victim after it would have constricted it to death.
