Viral Giant Anaconda Video Debunked as AI-Generated Hoax

By Staff, Agencies

A viral video claiming to show a massive anaconda swimming in the Amazon River has been exposed as AI-generated, despite amassing millions of views across various languages and platforms.

The footage, widely shared on social media in Thai, English, Spanish, Hindi, Korean and others, was flagged for containing visual flaws typical of artificial intelligence-generated content.

Originally posted on Facebook on May 9, 2025, the clip shows what appears to be aerial footage of an enormous snake gliding along the river's surface. However, a closer look reveals several inconsistencies: one segment shows the creature with two heads—one of which disappears—and the camera's display does not match the scene being recorded.

A reverse image search traced the video to an Instagram post from May 8, tagged with "AI" and linked to two AI-generation programs, Pollo and Kling. The same user has shared multiple AI-generated snake videos, confirming the content was fabricated.

Experts quickly pointed out biological inaccuracies. Ecologist Fernando Ignacio Ortiz from the University of the Amazon in Colombia explained that real anacondas, due to their massive weight, cannot swim atop the water but instead stay submerged.

Reptile expert Diego Huseth Ruiz added that the snake’s exaggerated length and unrealistic movement speed make the video scientifically implausible. He noted that anacondas are known more for their thickness than length and said a snake of the depicted size—estimated at 20 meters—would not be able to move as quickly as shown.

Green anacondas, the largest snake species, can grow up to nine meters long, with a diameter of 50 to 60 centimeters, and weigh up to 250 kilograms—far smaller and slower than the snake depicted in the viral clip.

AFP has previously debunked similar AI-generated animal hoaxes, including fictional creatures like a "lotus mantis," a giant lobster, and a bizarre version of an axolotl.