Conversation that got me wondering...

From what I've been reading, anacondas can be found in South America, Central America, and east of the Andes. Panama is at the very southern tip of Central America.

I believe the the green anaconda can be found as far north as Panama. It can definitely be found in Columbia and Venezuela. The world record holding specimen was found in Columbia in 1944 by a group of petroleum geologists measuring 37.5 ft.

Maybe it was an anaconda then. It WAS the 1950's, they could've been more common in the northern end of Central America then.