The Host Of River Monsters Came Face To Face With A 20-Foot Anaconda In An Unscripted Encounter

Deep beneath the murky waters of the Amazon rainforest, the world’s favorite “extreme angler” has come face-to-face with a sight that would paralyze most people with fear. But as Jeremy Wade stares into the eyes of the anaconda — measuring at least 20 feet in length — he somehow keeps his cool. After all, it’s far from the first river monster he’s encountered in his storied career.

The extreme angler

To fans of River Monsters, Wade’s ultra-successful Animal Planet reality show, he needs no introduction. But we’ll give him one anyway, because we’re nice like that. From the Congo to India’s mountain rivers, Wade has searched for exotic freshwater fish all over the world for much of the last 40 years. He even did it for fun before anyone paid him.

A childhood interest

Wade’s interest in fishing can be traced back to his childhood growing up in England. He once told Adventure Outdoors Magazine, “The village where I grew up had a river flowing through it. So, it was inevitable, I think, that I should be drawn to it in the same way that people born in sight of Alpine peaks become climbers.”

A love for exploration

In his early days, Wade explored the world simply by throwing himself in the deep end. He contracted malaria on one expedition in the Congo and it nearly took his life, but he persevered. He loved three things: traveling, making new discoveries, and fishing. He once told Singular City, “You get addicted to that kind of life. Opening yourself up and being vulnerable to the forces of nature and whatever else is out there.”

Trying to make it

Initially, Wade made money by writing about his adventures for fishing publications. He then wrote a book called Somewhere Down the Crazy River, which was published in 1992. Having said that, a genuine career doing what he loved seemed like a pipe dream. That is, until he snapped a fateful photo of an arapaima fish in the year 2000. 

TV comes a-callin'

Wade always felt his adventures would make for good television, but he had no idea how to get a show made. So, when his photo was seen by a producer in the U.K., Wade jumped at the chance to make a documentary in 2002. This eventually snowballed into River Monsters, which began airing in 2009.

A runaway success

Fast forward to 2015, and Wade found himself speaking with The Guardian on the eve of the show’s seventh season. He was as surprised as anyone about its enduring success. He said, “I think if someone had told me eight years ago that I would still be doing this now, I would have trouble believing them. Originally it was just going to be one program.” 

Mystery is the key

Wade admitted, “When Animal Planet came back to us and said, ‘how about a series of these,’ I wasn’t even sure we could make even a handful more.” He proved to be vastly underestimating his show’s potential, though, as it eventually ran for 57 episodes across nine seasons. To Wade, the key wasn’t that it was a fishing show; the key was framing each episode as a mystery.

An underwater detective story

Wade explained, “It’s not a fishing show; it’s not primarily about the process of fishing. It’s about the story and the investigation and then producing the creature at the end. By making it an underwater detective story, we were hoping to open it up beyond just people who like to fish.”

A diverse fanbase

This is undoubtedly what happened, as the viewership of River Monsters was both enormous and diverse. Heck, the second episode of season one scored the strongest ratings for a primetime show in Animal Planet’s history. In 2017 the modest Wade told website TV and City, “We weren’t necessarily expecting the level of enthusiasm that we found in viewers.” 

Sharing the experience

Wade continued, “But it succeeded beyond our wildest dreams, and the audience has been far larger than we thought it would be. A lot of women watching, a lot of children watching as well. We’ve got a very young audience.” It meant Wade truly felt as if his audience was looking over his shoulder at all times.

Fish psychology

In 2019 Wade shared a fascinating insight about what he does with Esquire magazine. He revealed that, in essence, he tries to think like a fish in order to catch them. He said, “A lot of what I do is fish psychology. As a fish, where would I feel safe, have access to food and not have to expend too much energy?”

What’s beneath the surface?

On top of his job giving him the opportunity to get into the heads of fish, it also gives him a chance to engage with the inherent mystery of aquatic life. He explained, “Water is so fascinating. You can’t see what’s there when you look at the surface of a river. There could be something huge right in front of you.” And on his show? Often there very much is

Fish differences

Wade told Entertainment Weekly about the differences between the fish found in the sea and the sort of river monsters he searches for in freshwater areas in 2017. He said, “A lot of the fish that live in the sea, they are your normal, nice, pretty, silvery, shiny fish. The thing about freshwater is, you can’t see what’s there.”

Ugly and tentacled

Wade went on, “If there’s zero visibility, there’s not much point being pretty because no one can see you. And also, if you want to find your way around, you can’t really see, so you tend to have things like tentacles.” So, yes, ugly and tentacled is the name of the game on River Monsters.

Not without fear

Interestingly, Wade has never been someone who’s claimed to be unafraid of the situations and creatures he deals with. He revealed, “People assume I’m fearless.” But that isn’t the case at all. Wade confessed, “A lot of the things I deal with are pretty scary. Fear makes you pay attention — it’s about absolute concentration.”

The electric eel

That absolute concentration had to work overtime on a number of occasions over the course of the show’s nine-season run. Take, for instance, the time Wade went looking for an electric eel, something capable of sending out a mind-boggling 500 volts. A shock from one of those bad boys could paralyze a person, leading to a potential drowning, even in shallow water.

Fail to prepare, prepare to fail

Oh, and Wade had also heard of an electric eel wrapping around a victim, sending repeated shocks to their heart until they died. Knowing how catastrophic the outcome could be, he did what any good extreme angler would do — he prepared. He revealed, “We got the kind of people who work on power lines. Thick rubber boots and gloves. We took a defibrillator.”

The catfish

There was also the time Wade encountered a small catfish in Argentina. That doesn’t sound so scary, right? Well, this particular catfish stabbed the back of his hand, releasing the toxic slime it contained within. This meant the wound stung like hell and bled like crazy. But undoubtedly one of the hairiest encounters Wade ever had was with a huge arapaima fish — yes, the same fish that led to his TV career.

The arapaima

The arapaima is an enormous fish that lives in the Amazon and can weigh as much as 400 pounds. Wade was attempting to trap an 80-pound specimen in his net when it struck him in the chest. Wade pondered, “I don’t know if it was making a last bid for freedom or if it was actually aiming for me. He hit me in the sternum.”

A close call

Wade confessed, “I could still feel that after six weeks. I was very worried at the time that it might have damaged my heart.” Luckily for him, this wasn’t the case, and he was able to recover — but it was certainly a close call. Again, though, Wade and the production team are always prepared for any eventuality.

Medical training

In a Reddit Ask Me Anything session, Wade explained that he and his crew are trained in various medical procedures. This makes sense, because they’re so often in remote locations without easy access to medical facilities. He wrote, “We have very small trauma packs which will include dressings, nasopharyngeal tubes for airways, EpiPens, those kind of things, just basic simple stuff.”

Did you film it?

Wade then jokingly detailed what happened anytime Animal Planet was contacted about an injury or incident. He wrote, “And the production company always asks two questions on the rare occasions we call them if there is an emergency. Question one: is everybody okay? Question two, immediately afterwards: did you film it?” Ha!

The effect of climate change

Now, while catching unusual fish on film was the name of the game for River Monsters, the show did begin to face a significant problem after a few years on the air. Thanks to global warming, fish all over the world have been getting smaller. It meant that true monstrously-sized fish became pretty few and far between for Wade and his crew.

A decline in fish sizes

Speaking to The Guardian in 2015, Wade explained, “Big fish get the attention of the viewers, but because of the way the food pyramid works, those fish are not very numerous. There has been a marked decline in fish sizes over the last few years. I’ve witnessed that myself and talking to people.”

Catch-and-release

It led to Wade using the catch-and-release method of fishing, which is as self-explanatory as it seems. He admitted, “The idea of catch-and-release is a bit bizarre, catching a fish just to put it back, but that’s the only way that freshwater fish stand a chance, worldwide.” The problem also forced the show to widen its net in terms of the kind of river dwellers they looked for.

Widening the net

Wade said, “We’ve revisited species and done them from a slightly different angle. We’ve looked at a couple of creatures that are river monsters, but aren’t fish, like the anaconda from last season.” Ah, yes. By “the anaconda,” the modest Wade was talking about the 20-foot long beast that may have already killed a man by crushing him. Wait, what?!

Bone Crusher

In the episode “Bone Crusher,” Wade embarked on a grisly mystery in the Amazon River. In Brazil’s Porto de Moz, a local man had been found dead, complete with some very unusual injuries. Many of the bones in his body were crushed, and he had substantial bruising on his torso and neck. Added to this, the number of missing person cases in the area had shot up.

Man-eating proportion

Wade believed the culprit may have been a giant anaconda, and so he set out on his investigation. First of all, though, he wanted to ascertain if anacondas can really grow to, as he put it, “man-eating proportions.” It led to him wrestling with a 12-foot long version on a soccer field. Again, what?!

Manhandling an anaconda

With Wade advancing on the slithery beast, his voiceover narration helpfully told his audience just what the heck was happening. He said, “I’m trying to catch it with my bare hands,” and then he simply grabbed the thing. It was still able to squirm and wriggle though, so Wade said, through gritted teeth, “I possibly need to grab it a little bit closer to the head.”

The struggle continues

As the anaconda continued to writhe, a nervous Wade said, “What I want to avoid doing is getting its body around my arm, because if that happens, what can happen is it can actually restrict the blood flow. And my hand will eventually go numb and let go.” By this point, it was clear Wade was getting tired from exerting so much force simply to contain the snake.

Showing its teeth

Suddenly, Wade prized open the snake’s jaw to show its razor sharp teeth to the camera. He said, “I can see the teeth on the mouth. They’re like the barbs on a fish — they’re pointing backwards. Basically, if that bites you it’s gonna be very hard to get that off.” So far, so terrifying.

Putting the squeeze on

Business then picked up a notch when the anaconda doubled down on its efforts to wrap around Wade’s arm and leg. He grimaced, saying, “It keeps trying to throw a coil around my body. It’s instinctive follow-up to this is squeezing the victim to death. It’s a struggle to stop it from wrapping around me.”

Let it go

At this point, common sense thankfully prevailed. Wade’s voiceover admitted, “I can feel my arms start to weaken, so before the anaconda gets the better of me, I drop it in a transport container. It will be taken far away from here and released into the jungle.” Overall, it was obvious how much raw power the anaconda possessed, and how incredibly dangerous it could be.

Time to go diving

Overall, while his tangle with a 12-foot anaconda was scary, Wade wasn’t convinced it was big enough to do the damage exhibited on the corpse. So, being the fearless adventurer he is, he decided to go diving in the river — in a location where something huge had recently been seen. Oh, man.

Exploring the deep

Clad in his usual protective scuba gear, Wade submerged himself in the anaconda’s natural habitat. Via voiceover, he explained, “I scan both banks for anything that resembles an anaconda. The last thing I want to do is startle one and provoke an attack.” And then Wade stumbled upon something that turned his blood cold.

A monstrous beast

An unnerved Wade narrated, “Rounding a bend, there’s a cloud of silt and everything I’d hoped for and feared is suddenly there right in front of me.” Below him lay a huge anaconda, coiled, still, and silent. He exclaimed, “I’ve stumbled into a potential man-eater. Weighing at least 200 pounds, it’s a monstrous beast with a frightening girth.”

A man-sized appetite

The tenor of Wade’s narration said everything about how awestruck he was being in such close proximity to the massive monster. He said, “It is huge. It is absolutely huge. A bruiser like this can go without eating for six months, by which time it has worked up a man-sized appetite. And what they do is they lurk underwater in ambush.”

Scale of this beast

Wade continued, “It’s terrifying being this close to an anaconda that could seize me in a flash and then crush me to death. But only by getting up close can I grasp the true scale of this beast.” His closeness to the snake then made Wade do some scary mental calculations about what could happen if the situation went south.

A frightening conclusion

Wade said, “I can all too easily imagine those jaws working their way around my head, while those massive coils dislocate my shoulders so the rest of me is slipped down.” He then lined himself up eye-to-eye with the snake and made a frightening conclusion. Wade stated, “I’m looking it in the eye. Actually, one this size could swallow an adult human.” He’d found his man-eater — and lived to tell the tale.