A genuine photograph of the green anaconda Eunectes murinus
– the largest and most familiar of the four species of anaconda currently
recognised by science (© Wagnermeier/Wikipedia – CC BY-SA 3.0 licence)
NB – Before reading any further, please
note that ALL of the anaconda-encoiled animal photographs and anaconda-encoiled mechanical device photographs contained in this article are photo-manipulated
FAKES (with the sole exception of the anaconda-encoiled white cow photos), so none of
the apparent animal 'victims' in these photos were victims (except for the
white cow, but it did survive – see later).
The internet is increasingly a limitless source not
only of fake news but also of fake photographs, with animal subjects being
particularly popular.
I was recently sent for my opinion as to its
veracity what initially looked like an exceedingly unpleasant, tragic
photograph of a lion roaring wildly as it struggled impotently to escape the
crushing coils of what seemed to be a gigantic python coiled tightly around its
body. Here is the photo in question:
Fake, photo-manipulated photograph of
a lion supposedly being crushed by a giant constricting snake – in reality, no
lion was harmed whatsoever in the making of this picture! (source/creator presently
unknown to me, but this fake photo is contained in numerous websites online)
A closer look, however, soon revealed a very
different scenario. To begin with, I could readily see from its markings and
colouration that the 'python' in question was actually a green anaconda Eunectes
murinus, the largest and most familiar of the four anaconda species
currently recognised by science. Bearing in mind that lions occur naturally in
the wild state only in Africa and limited regions in Asia whereas all anacondas
are entirely restricted in the wild state to tropical America, it was obvious, therefore,
that if this photo were genuine, the grisly scene that it portrayed could only
have occurred somewhere in captivity. Moreover, examining the image itself in
enlarged form soon revealed that it was an inexpertly-produced example of
photo-manipulation, with the edges of the anaconda's coils in particular
appearing far too sharp and crisp in comparison to the remainder of the image.
Consequently, I decided to conduct a Google-image
search in an attempt to discover whatever original lion photo had been used in
the creation of this fake version – and in less than 5 minutes I found it,
contained in a fair few wildlife websites. Amusingly, it turned out that in the
original photo the lion had been snapped in flagrante delicto with a lioness
(which had been removed from the fake photo), thus explaining why it was
roaring so energetically! (Incidentally, the fake lion/anaconda photo investigated
here has been circulating online for a surprisingly long time – using TinEye's
Reverse Image Search, I was able to discover examples of it dating back as far
as 6 February 2008.)
(Top) The fake lion/anaconda
photograph; (Bottom) The original, unmodified photograph of a lion and lioness from
which the fake lion/anaconda photo has been created by person(s) unknown (source/creator
of fake lion/anaconda photo presently unknown to me, but it is contained in
numerous websites online) / © owner of lion/lioness photo currently
undiscovered by me, but I'll insert the relevant details here if/when I
discover them – reproduced here on a strictly educational, non-commercial Fair
Use basis for review purposes only)
So in answer to my correspondent who sent me this
lion/anaconda photograph for my opinion as to whether or not it was genuine:
it's not – the lion was lying, inasmuch as in the original, genuine photo its
roars were telling a very different story from the one depicted in this fake
version, in which the anaconda was most definitely a con.
While investigating this fake lion/anaconda photograph,
I also encountered a short YouTube mini-investigation video that had been
uploaded on 13 November 2015 by Cary Darling with the user name Hoax Factor
(click here
to view it). In it, he begins by showing this same fake photo, which had been
submitted to his Hoax Factor Facebook page by a reader called Chad, then after
a fairly lengthy if light-hearted exposition he concludes his mini-video
investigation of that photo by presenting the same original image of mating
lions (albeit heavily pixellated) that I had independently discovered.
During my own researches, however, I was able to
take this case further – much further, in fact – because it soon turned out
that this fake lion/anaconda photograph was far from being unique. On the
contrary, while pursuing it online in search of the original, genuine lion
photo that has been used to create it, I swiftly discovered that a startling
number and diversity of other fake anaconda-depicting photographs existed that featured a range of
different 'victim' animals.
These include two other lion photos, two different tigers,
two different jaguars, a black panther, cheetah, Alsatian dog, elephant, black-and-white
cow, rabbit, and (inevitably) various versions featuring humans, as well as
some mechanical items, such as a tractor and mechanical diggers or excavators,
but all of them united by the presence of precisely the same anaconda coils and
outstretched body.
These coils and/or body had been horizontally
flipped in certain examples to give the false impression that it was a
different specimen, and had occasionally been 'enhanced' by the crudely-achieved
digital addition of fake wounds or blood. Moreover, some such photographs
included more anaconda coils than others, but looking at these coils I
immediately recognised from their markings and colouration that they were
nothing more than identical, computer-generated replicates of the same single
coil, these extra coils evidently having been digitally created and added in
order to make the anaconda appear even longer than it already was. Here is a
selection of some of the less lurid animal-featuring examples of these fake
photos that I have discovered online (there are undoubtedly many other variations upon this clichéd visual
theme out there too):
Fake photographs featuring different
animals encoiled by an anaconda, but
all of them containing exactly the same original anaconda image, whose coils
have sometimes been replicated digitally to make the anaconda seem longer (source/creator(s)
presently unknown to me, but these fake photos are contained in numerous websites
online)
And here are some of the fake photographs featuring
encoiled mechanical devices:
Fake photographs featuring mechanical
devices bearing an anaconda, but all of them containing exactly the same
original anaconda image, whose coils have sometimes been replicated digitally
to make the anaconda seem longer (source/creator(s) presently unknown to me,
but these fake photos are contained in numerous websites online)
As the anaconda coils and body were identical in
all of the above fake photos, it seemed pointless wasting time seeking out the
original, genuine photo for each and every one of them (especially as the more
I looked online, the more fakes using this same anaconda image I found), but I did
devote a little time to tracing those that had been used to create some of the
more dramatic fakes. So, for instance, click here
to view the original, genuine cheetah photo, here
to view the original, genuine (flipped) black panther photo, and here
for the original, genuine rabbit photo.
But that was not all. A second uniting factor was
that all of these fake photographs were not only appearing in numerous websites
but also turning up as introductory thumbnail pictures to videos that had been
uploaded onto YouTube during the past couple of years or so, and by what appear
to be a very sizeable number of users, judging from the number of different
user names involved (but which, for all I know, may in reality all be one and
the same person, or may at least be only a small number of persons but using a
plethora of different user names).
And the third, key uniting factor was that not one
of these fake thumbnail pictures actually appeared in the video that it was
being used to introduce. In other words, based upon their graphic, sensationalised
appearance, they were being used deliberately but dishonestly as click-bait,
luring video viewers to watch the videos in order to see the action depicted in
the photos, only to discover that no such action was contained in the videos.
(Having said that, and basing the following comment
upon those specific examples viewed by me: what was contained in all
of those videos introduced by one of the fake thumbnail photos depicting the anaconda
coiled around an animal was genuine, graphic video footage of animals being
attacked and killed by constricting snakes, and sometimes by other animals too,
each such video often comprising a compilation of several different, shorter video
segments linked together, one after another, to yield a total video often
lasting 10 minutes or more. In my opinion, this is nothing but gratuitous,
sickening 'video nasty' sensationalism, and I therefore shall not be providing
links to any of those videos here.)
Genuine photograph showing the
removal of a large anaconda from private grounds in Yopal, Colombia (© Aliciamoralesjackson/Wikipedia – CC BY-SA 3.0 licence)
All that remained for me to do now in order to
bring this photo-detective investigation of mine to a successful close was to
uncover the original, source photograph containing the anaconda and its coils
that had been used to create all of the subsequent fake ones. So I conducted
yet another, much lengthier Google search, but this time focusing upon the
anaconda itself rather than upon the varied array of creatures or machinery that
it was wrapped around in the series of fake photos that I had uncovered so far.
To my great delight, I finally found it – and this is how.
First of all, I discovered a video that had been
uploaded onto YouTube by someone with the user name GuruQA on 28 August 2015 (click here to
view it). This video provided what turned out to be a major clue in relation to
tracing the elusive original anaconda photograph.
Filmed in the wild in the anaconda's native
homeland, Brazil, it consists of a segment of amateur video footage (which I'll
refer to hereafter as AVS1) that begins with a split-second shot showing a
woman with her back to the camera appearing at the right-hand edge of the
screen. The camera then pans to a live white cow on the left-hand side of the
woman, which is shown in its entirety, but once again only for just a
split-second, lying down on all fours on some muddy grass, with a large
anaconda coiled around its mid-body region. The camera then pans to the rear
end of the cow's body but still showing the anaconda's coils, which can now be
seen to be moving slightly. The anaconda then comes off the cow completely,
followed immediately by the cow's tail and hind feet kicking up dust at the
extreme left-hand edge of the screen as the cow evidently makes a very swift
exit; it does not appear anywhere in AVS1 again.
Meanwhile, AVS1 now reveals the presence of several
people (their excited voices, speaking and shouting in Portuguese, could be
heard from the very beginning of AVS1 but the people themselves had not been seen until now, with the
sole exception of the one afore-mentioned woman), who vainly attempt to move this very big snake by hauling upon its tail for a time before making a cautious but
ultimately successful attempt to pick it up (the actual picking-up procedure is not shown, presumably because it took a fair length of time to accomplish), after which they all walk
away, carrying the anaconda aloft with them, and are shown taking it to a stretch of
water into which they then release it and watch it swim away. So we know that both the white cow and
the anaconda ultimately survived.
Of especial note is that AVS1 includes a panning
shot that directly links the anaconda moving off the cow (and the cow promptly
fleeing) to the people beginning their attempt to pick it up, thereby
establishing that these two activities are indeed part of a single continuous piece of footage, and not two
separately-filmed pieces spliced together.
The key element present in AVS1, however, is the
brief appearance of the rear end of the cow with the anaconda still wrapped
around its mid-body and moving – because during my earlier searches I
had found online in a number of different websites a series of still photographs
depicting a live white cow lying down on all fours on grass with an anaconda
encoiled around its centre, and whose coils and body in one particular
photograph within that series were identical to those featured in all of the
fake photos. Moreover, these same white cow/anaconda photos appear at the very
beginning of AVS1, directly before the video footage
itself begins. Here is that one particular online white cow/anaconda photo
(which I'll refer to hereafter as the OWCA photo):
The OWCA photograph shown at the
beginning of AVS1, and also found in various websites, depicting a white cow lying
down on all fours with an anaconda wrapped around its mid-body (source/creator
presently unknown to me)
Using TinEye's Reverse Image Search, I was able to
trace examples of the OWCA photo online dating back as far as 17 November
2013 (this latter,
earliest online example of it can still be viewed, as the tenth of ten photos, here).
I then produced a screenshot of the brief footage in
AVS1 showing the rear end of the cow lying down on all fours on grass with the anaconda's
slightly-moving coils still wrapped around its centre – and if you compare the
cow's rear end, the orientation of its visible hind leg, and the anaconda's
coils as seen in this video screenshot with those equivalent anatomical
structures in the OWCA photograph found earlier by me online and also present
at the beginning of AVS1, you will see that they unquestionably depict the same
animals.
And now that this significant fact has been fully
established, if you then view a second screenshot taken by me, capturing the
split-second AVS1 footage of the encoiled cow as seen in its entirety this time
(and occurring immediately before the footage of the cow's rear end and the
anaconda's moving coils as captured in my first screenshot), even though the
anaconda's coils don't move in this split-second earlier footage its screenshot
provides further corroboration that the encoiled cow seen in AVS1 corresponds
precisely with the encoiled cow seen in the OWCA photograph.
(Top) The OWCA photograph found by me
online, depicting a white cow lying down on all fours on grass with an anaconda
wrapped around its mid-body, and also shown at the beginning of AVS1; (Middle)
My first video screenshot, of AVS1 footage showing the rear end of the white
cow down on all fours on grass with the anaconda still wrapped around its
centre and moving; (Bottom) My second screenshot, of AVS1 footage showing the
encoiled white cow in its entirety down on all fours on grass just a
split-second before the footage captured in my first screenshot
(source(s)/creator(s) of AVS1 and the
OWCA photograph presently unknown to me, but the OWCA photograph is contained
in numerous websites online)
Clearly, therefore, alongside whoever filmed AVS1 was someone else who
snapped some still photographs of the anaconda and its encoiled bovine victim –
indeed, AVS1 actually shows a woman with a camera snapping photos of the anaconda – and it is one of these genuine photos, specifically the OWCA one reproduced by
me above, that has subsequently been used by person(s) unknown to manufacture
the startling array and diversity of fake photos revealed and exposed by me
here in this ShukerNature blog article.
Summarising all of this: the above three images
collectively confirm that the OWCA still photograph whose anaconda coils and
body are identical to those in all of the fake photos presented here is itself
genuine, not fake, because the animals in it correspond precisely in form and
pose with those actually seen moving in video footage contained within AVS1.
Since discovering AVS1 as posted on YouTube by
GuruQA in August 2015, plus the OWCA photo and others in that same online series,
my path has once again crossed with that of Cary Darling, because I
subsequently found out that another short Hoax Factor mini-investigation video
uploaded by him on YouTube, this time on 15 December 2015 (click here
to view it), has also focused upon this same subject, and has actually included
a clip from AVS1 (but he did not cite GuruQA or anyone else as his source for
it) as well as the key OWCA photograph.
Crucially, however, although it has provided a most
welcome service in drawing attention to the whole fake anaconda photos
situation (and continues to do so), in my opinion the Hoax Factor mini-video
does not provide an absolute guarantee from its clips alone that the specific
cow/anaconda footage is a video, rather than merely a photograph. This is because AVS1's
brief but key footage showing the anaconda's coils actually moving while
wrapped around the cow is not included in the Hoax Factor mini-video. Equally,
I personally feel that the latter mini-video does not provide unequivocal
verification that the cow/anaconda footage and the anaconda/people footage are
from the same video segment, because it does not include the specific footage
from AVS1 that contains the all-important panning shot directly linking the
cow/anaconda footage to the anaconda/people footage.
Conversely, by:
(a) my finding AVS1 as uploaded onto YouTube by
GuruQA, and then specifically drawing attention here to both of those brief but
all-important above-noted clips of footage contained in it that were not
referenced in the Hoax factor mini-video; as well as:
(b) my highlighting the split-second footage in AVS1
that shows the encoiled cow in its entirety down on its knees on grass, then:
(c) my producing a screenshot of AVS1's footage of
the cow's rear end that shows the moving anaconda coiled around the cow,
and also my producing a screenshot of the split-second AVS1 footage that shows the
encoiled cow in its entirety down on all fours on grass, and finally:
(d) my comparing those two separate AVS1-derived screenshots
directly with the OWCA photograph containing the anaconda image that appears in
all of the fake photos, I have been able to:
(e) confirm unequivocally that the OWCA photograph
does indeed depict the same cow and anaconda that feature in AVS1's cow/anaconda
incident, and that:
(f) it is indeed, therefore, both genuine and the
source of the anaconda image that appears in all of the fake photos.
(g) QED.
And so: although the perpetrator(s) of the fake
photographs investigated by me exclusively in this ShukerNature blog article
presently remain(s) unidentified, it is definitely safe to say that no lions,
tigers, panthers, elephants, cows. rabbits, etc etc were harmed in the making
of any of these images.
(Above) If this fake rabbit/anaconda
photograph were real, the rabbit would be an inordinately large one!
(Below) The original, genuine photograph used by person(s) unknown to create the fake one (source/creator presently unknown to me, but this fake photo is contained in
numerous websites online / © Diliff/Wikipedia - CC BY-SA 3.0 licence)
Thanks to some laborious but ultimately worthwhile
and successful photo-detective work, another ostensibly complicated case,
initially seemingly to be as encoiled as the anaconda featured within it, is
duly unravelled and closed.
NB – Despite appreciable efforts made by
me, so far I have been unable to identify the © owner/source of any of the
photos included above, but all of them are reproduced here on a strictly
educational, non-commercial Fair Use basis for reference purposes only.
A genuine photograph of a coiled-up green anaconda (© Dave
Lonsdale-Wikipedia - CC BY 2.0 licence)
POSTSCRIPT
While conducting my researches relating to AVS1 as uploaded
onto YouTube by GuruQA in August 2015 and showing the white cow/anaconda
incident, I also discovered a second version of this segment (referred to
hereafter by me as AVS2), which offered what may – or may not – be a very
interesting additional insight into the videoed white cow/anaconda incident.
Uploaded onto YouTube by a user named Snake Channel
on 9 January 2017 (viewable here),
AVS2 cuts off abruptly at the end without showing the people actually releasing
the anaconda into the stretch of water to which they had carried it after
picking it up (as seen in AVS1). However, it includes some extra, earlier footage
not seen in AVS1 and which is most intriguing.
AVS2 begins by showing some of the same photographs
(including the OWCA photo) of the anaconda-encoiled white cow seen its entirety
down on all fours on grass that were also shown at the very beginning of AVS1,
after which it presents a short, narrated, professionally-made video section
concerning anacondas in general that had seemingly been excerpted from a
National Geographic documentary regarding this snake species (because the Nat.
Geog's famous yellow rectangle logo is superimposed upon the opening footage of
this section).
This opening section then morphs into the first of
two amateur video sections (referred to by me hereafter as S1 and S2 respectively).
S1 shows an anaconda emerging from some reeds at the edge of an expanse of
freshwater (river or lake) and coiling swiftly around an unsuspecting white cow
standing in the water nearby. In just a very short time, the anaconda's
constricting actions appear to have rendered the cow at least unconscious, if
not dead, because it soon lies motionless in the water. While this tragic scene
plays out, the voices of S1's film-maker and some other people present in this
scene and speaking Portuguese (but not actually seen in it) call out loudly,
seemingly attempting to frighten off the anaconda (but apparently forgetting or
not realising that snakes are deaf to most airborne sounds).
S1's footage then stops but new footage begins
immediately, constituting S2, with the overlying title 'An Hour Later'
appearing for a few moments. S2 turns out to be one and the same as AVS1, as
uploaded by GuruQA, except that AVS1's split-second clip panning from the woman
on the right-hand-side of the screen to the anaconda-encoiled white cow seen in
its entirety down on all fours on grass is not included in S2. Instead, S2 begins
with the shot of the rear end of the anaconda-encoiled white cow, after which
its footage is identical to that in AVS1 (except that, as noted earlier, it
cuts off before the anaconda is released by the people into the stretch of
water).
Screenshot from the beginning of S2
in AVS2 (creator of this video presently unknown to me – screenshot reproduced
here on a strictly educational, non-commercial Fair Use basis for review
purposes only)
The overlying title 'An Hour Later' appearing for
a few moments at the beginning of S2 is clearly meant to demonstrate that S1
and S2 are merely two scenes from the same incident, shot an hour apart but featuring
the same white cow and anaconda. If this is correct, it also means, therefore, that
the cow was indeed merely unconscious, not dead, in the water during S1, and that
during the intervening hour between the end of the events seen in S1 and those beginning
in S2, the cow had been rescued and hauled out of the water onto the grass by
the people heard in S1 and both heard and seen in S2.
However, I must confess that I am by no means convinced
that S1 and S2 do indeed depict two different scenes from the same incident,
wondering instead whether they actually depict two entirely unrelated
incidents, featuring two different cows and two different anacondas. The reason
for my personal misgivings is that in S1, within moments of being captured and
encoiled by the anaconda the cow is lying face down, partly submerged, and
entirely motionless in the water, looking very much as if it has drowned. Yet
in S2 (uploaded in slightly longer form as AVS1 by GuruQA), the cow looks very
much alive, and indeed, beats a hasty retreat as soon as the anaconda comes off
it.
Fortunately, the question of whether or not S1 in AVS2
does indeed depict an earlier part of the incident depicted in S2 has no
bearing upon my findings concerning the direct relevance of S2 (in its longer
form as AVS1) to the subsequent creation by person(s) unknown of the various
fake photographs exposed by me in this present ShukerNature article.
Engraving of a green anaconda from
1878 (public domain)
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