Warners prepare for the last crusade to find giant snake
LISBURN men Greg and Mike Warner are going back into the
Amazon jungle in search for DNA and photographic evidence to prove the
existence of a type of giant snake related to the anaconda.
The father and son team want to dispel any suggestion that their aerial expedition in March this year, which showed the existence of a giant snake, was inconclusive.
They already have reams of footage taken from the air of trench marks up to five metres wide believed to have been made by the snake, but now the team want bone, tissue and possibly photographic evidence too.
They have been encouraged by recent evidence from Juan Pablo on the edge of the jungle city of Iquitos, in the Amazon close to their earlier expedition, of large trenches in November.
Their researcher took pictures and got eye witness accounts that the giant snake had been in the jungle.
This follows eye witness accounts from a woman in June who saw a giant boa drag a floating island across a lake to destroy a house just over I km away.
This time the Warners will conduct much of their research on foot. Cameras will be placed in key locations for a month to try to capture footage of the snake and their team will be include a television crew and up to 20 others including locals as well as other scientists.
This will be our last crusade," said Greg. "It will be dangerous and we are working towards a very detailed plan without getting ourselves killed but we want to go and finish the job. " Their earlier research has attracted interest across the globe from television crews and leading scientists.
They noticed many of the large snake sightings come after electrical storms. "We don't know if it awakens them but they seem to come out from the ground after the storms," said Greg. "These latest discoveries in November are significant finds, which will have cooberated our theory. The giant black snake is known for its burrowing behaviour and propensity to leave large channels and trenches in its habitat."
"If we do get pictures that this snake does exist then we will have drawn a definite conclusion. We are hopeful" he added.
Ulster Star
18/12/2009
