All snakes, big or tiny, maybe frightening if you don’t know how to manage them, but footage released online of an exceptionally huge serpent takes things to a whole new level. Remember the massive Basilisk from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, which had teeth the size of a human hand? Bring that huge snake into the real world, and you have what appeared to be captured on camera by an eyewitness shooting in a forested location.
The video was first published online last year, but it recently found traction on TikTok, where viewers couldn’t believe their eyes. Of course, part of the reason for this is that the video was a joke. The guy behind the camera appears to be pointing in panic and astonishment towards a white vehicle that has been completely taken over by a massive snake in the video.
The audio on the recordings appears to show a group of people in the background speaking in loud and presumably concerned tones as the filmmaker travels the camera around the side of the van, revealing the huge scales of the snake coiled repeatedly around the vehicle with its tail dragging on the floor. The video appears to have been released with little context to explain what’s going on, but I’m sure you’ll be relieved to hear that the snake in the video wasn’t genuine — if it was, I doubt anybody would have risked lingering around to record it.
According to the Instagram account NatureLife Ok, the sight was really an art project at a zoo, with gigantic eggs put beside the snake to create an even larger picture. This wasn’t evident to some TikTok users, so commentators expressed their dismay at the prospect of snakes the size of vans crawling through the forests. ‘Omg that’s why I live in Canada,’ one user said. ‘Where is that?’ said another. I’ll make it a point never to return.’
Though this snake was not genuine, there are some massive animals out there, as National Geographic says that the reticulated python is the world’s biggest snake, frequently reaching more than 6.25 meters in length. The longest reticulated python ever documented was unearthed in 1912 and measured a terrifying 10 meters – greater than a giraffe’s height. The massive snakes dwell in Southeast Asia and are generally found in jungles, woodlands, and grasslands — so if this video has instilled a new level of ʜᴏʀʀᴏʀ in you, you should probably avoid those locations.
