Green anacondas the world's largest snakes, and their close relatives, the smaller yellow anacondas, live solitary lives. Green anacondas inhabit tropical lowlands throughout South America and yellow anacondas the swamps and marshes in southern parts of the continent. From March to May, these giant boa constrictors abandon their hermit ways and spend weeks, months even, in courtship and mating.

It's the males, of both anaconda species, who leave their home ranges and go in search of females that are ready to mate. Female anacondas may leave a trail of pheromones for the males to follow.

Green anacondas are polyandrous - where a female mates with multiple males - and two to twelve males may gather round a single female anaconda. They form a mass of writhing bodies called a breeding ball, and the male snakes push against each other as they compete to get to the female. Breeding balls can stay together for up to four weeks, and the female may breed with several of the males during that time. Yellow anacondas sometimes form breeding balls, but are generally sequentially monogamous, mating with a number of anacondas, but one at a time.

Records of cannibalism among green anacondas are usually of large females ingesting smaller males. After mating, females sometimes eat one or more of the males from the breeding ball. This extra food may help the female green anacondas survive their long gestation when their ability to move about and forage is limited.

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