In the wild heart of Venezuela, earth and water merge to create a landscape like no other one that has bred many a legendary appetite. But for the early explorers who ventured into this savage place, no creature loomed larger or more terrifying than South America's giant serpent. Trophy hunters spun tales of 100-foot monsters, intent on human flesh and for centuries this astonishing creature has been obscured by legends as tangled and dense as the swamps it inhabits. But now a barefoot biologist is taking on the anaconda.

His mission: to snatch its secrets from the murk of myth and terror, giving us our first glimpse into the hidden life of the largest snake on earth. Big snake. Big snake. In the first scarlet rays of morning a primeval world awakens. Birds by the tens of thousands respond to the siren call of the Ilanos flooded savannas that cover one-third of Venezuela. Months of drenching rains have waterlogged these plains, creating a soggy Serengeti as vast and pristine as its African counterpart. But the dry season has begun, and herds of capybaras now begin to follow the receding water.

These giant rodents the world's largest can weigh up to 140 pounds. Soon this lush place will be a parched plain... so the creatures of the Ilanos eat while the eating is good. But their idyll of peace and plenty is about to be interrupted. Curled in the water hyacinth is 13 feet of starving serpent: a giant female anaconda. She has not eaten for months... and has her lidless eyes on a suitably giant meal. Oblivious to her presence, the capybara family plays. Dull eyed but sharp tongued, the snake tastes the air for the scent of her rodent prey. The season lends urgency to her hunger It's time for her to mate and only well-fed snakes breed successfully. Once pregnant she won't eat again until after the babies are born seven months later So she'd better eat well now. At her strike, the Ilanos takes flight But for one capybara, it's too late. Anacondas kill with power, not poison. Locked in the snake's deadly coils, the capybara is being squeezed so tight it cannot breathe... so tight, in fact, that it's blood can't circulate. Her elastic jaws stretched impossibly wide, she now begins the ponderous business of swallowing her victim head first. She has paid a price for this meal She bears the bite marks of the capybara's final struggle.