Claim: A South American camper was eaten by an anaconda.
Status: False.
Example: [Collected on the Internet, 2000]
EXPLANATION:
"Apparently, three boys were sleeping in the jungle in South
America when the other two woke up, one was missing and a huge
snake was laying next to them. You'll see the snake in the first
two photo's with the boy inside and the third one is when they cut
the snake open to reveal the boy. You have to see this.....
Unbelievable... "
Origins: This piece circulates in a version with the three photos
shown above as a set, and also as only the last photo (the one of
the putatively cut-open snake). The location of the tragedy is
variously claimed as South America (and the snake an anaconda),
Borneo, and Singapore. The victim is said to be a local child, a
camper, or "a crew member on an oil rig."
There isn't much to say about this one other than it's just another
hoax similar to the one about a crocodile eating a Florida golfer:
a hoax created by using some several-year-old photos out of context
within a fictitious explanatory framework. The first two photos
have been around for several years and appear to be real pictures
of a python (a snake found in southeast Asia, not South America)
that has consumed a moderately large animal such as a pig. (It's
unlikely that either a python or an anaconda could swallow
something as large as the human being pictured here.) The final
photo doesn't match the other two in detail or quality and simply
looks like a bad fake. Either way, no major news service has run
any stories in recent months about a camper's having become dinner
for a snake in either South America or Borneo.