Man catches 17-foot anaconda with bare hands

Man in French Guiana used bare hands to catch 17-foot anaconda. Photo is a screen grab from the video

A man in French Guiana used his bare hands to catch a menacing 17-foot anaconda from a river near a friend’s house and put the 175-pound snake in his bathtub overnight until he could relocate the reptile.

Sebastien Bascoules, 39, who has enjoyed handling reptiles since age 10, was called by a friend with news that the anaconda had snatched his dog, Minus, from the riverbank, according to Barcroft TV and various media outlets.

Bascoules, using broken English, described what happened to Barcroft TV, which released this video Thursday:

“It is really common to come across snakes in French Guiana; there are 98 species here,” Bascoules said, according to The Telegraph in the U.K. “I have caught between 15 and 20 anacondas. To capture a snake this size is a dream come true.”

As he waded into the small river, Bascoules said he was not scared because he thought it was smaller, but he was very surprised by its strength when it began to move.

“It was really difficult to capture these kind of snakes because they are very strong,” he said in the video. “This is the reason why I asked my friend to help me by catching his tail otherwise it could bite or strangulate me.

“If you know what to do, there is no problem.”

Once subdued on land, Bascoules put a cloth around the anaconda’s head “and it became inoffensive, like a big worm.”

The kids had no fear around the anaconda, which had a cloth around its head. Photo is a screen grab from the video

As you can see, his kids rather enjoyed checking out the huge anaconda.

Since it was late in the day, Bascoules decided to take the anaconda home and put it into his bathtub until the next day.

“My wife was very, really happy,” Bascoules joked on the video.

“My wife was worried it might escape from the bathroom during the night,” the math teacher told Barcroft, according to The Telegraph.

The next day, Bascoules released the anaconda into a river six miles away, much to the relief of his wife.