In late 2025, wildlife experts travelling to the tropical forests of Sulawesi in Indonesia came face to face with something that defied easy description — a reticulated python so enormous that local villagers, who were no strangers to large snakes, had never seen anything like it. When Guinness World Records officially confirmed its measurements in January 2026, the result was extraordinary: at 23 feet and 8 inches from head to tail, Ibu Baron — or “The Baroness” — had become the longest snake ever formally measured in the wild. It is a record that raises an obvious and rather unsettling question: just how big can snakes actually get?
From living record-breakers to prehistoric giants that make today’s largest snakes look modest, here is everything you need to know about the longest snakes ever found.
Ibu Baron — the longest wild snake ever measured
The story of Ibu Baron began with rumours. Local villagers in the Maros region of South Sulawesi had been reporting sightings of an unusually large snake — larger, they said, than anything they had encountered before. When wildlife guide and licensed snake handler Diaz Nugraha and natural history photographer Radu Frentiu heard the reports, they travelled to Sulawesi to investigate.
What they found exceeded expectations. Using a surveyor’s tape that followed the snake’s natural curves, they measured a total length of 7.22 metres — 23 feet and 8 inches — from head to tail tip. She was also weighed inside a canvas sack on scales normally used for rice, coming in at 96.5 kilograms. Guinness World Records reviewed the photographic and video evidence and officially confirmed the record on 18 January 2026, crowning Ibu Baron the longest wild snake ever formally measured.
Reticulated pythons are named for their net-like (“reticulated”) pattern. Photo: Jeremiah Kurniawan, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
To put that into perspective, Guinness noted that if placed across a standard FIFA goal, Ibu Baron would occupy essentially the entire width from post to post. She is around 10 inches longer than the previous record holder — another female reticulated python measured in Malaysia in 1999. Ibu Baron avoided the fate of many large snakes found in this region — often killed out of fear or for bushmeat and skins — largely because conservationist Budi Purwanto intervened soon after her discovery and brought her into his care. She now lives in a large enclosure on his property in Maros County alongside other rescued snakes.
The biggest snake found dead — and other remarkable discoveries
Ibu Baron is very much alive, but history is full of remarkable accounts of enormous snakes found dead, their true measurements disputed or lost to time. The most frequently cited is a reticulated python reportedly measuring 10 metres — over 32 feet — found in 1912 in Sulawesi. If accurate, that would make it by far the longest snake ever found, but the measurement has never been independently verified and is widely treated with scepticism by herpetologists.
More recently, a huge python found on a construction site in Penang, Malaysia was initially estimated by local civil defence authorities at 8 metres and 250 kilograms — figures that, if verified, would have challenged Medusa’s captive record. However, formal Guinness verification never followed, and the claim remains unconfirmed. This pattern — dramatic initial reports followed by the absence of rigorous measurement — is extremely common in accounts of very large snakes found dead or captured in the wild, which is precisely why Ibu Baron’s Guinness-verified record is so significant. It was documented properly, on camera, with transparent methodology, which is far rarer than it sounds.
Medusa — the longest snake ever in captivity
While Ibu Baron holds the wild record, the longest snake ever confirmed in captivity is Medusa — another reticulated python, this one based in Missouri, USA. Medusa was measured at 25 feet and 2 inches (7.67 metres) in 2011, making her longer than Ibu Baron, though captive snakes typically have advantages in terms of consistent food supply and absence of the stresses of wild life that may allow them to grow larger than their wild counterparts. Medusa lives at The Edge of Hell Haunted House in Kansas City, which is quite possibly the most fitting home imaginable for the world’s longest captive snake.
Titanoboa — the longest snake ever found in the fossil record
As remarkable as Ibu Baron and Medusa are, they are modest by comparison with the snakes that once roamed the Earth. The title of longest snake ever found belongs, for now, to Titanoboa cerrejonensis — a prehistoric species of boa known from the fossils of 28 specimens discovered in the coal mines of Cerrejón in La Guajira, Colombia. Titanoboa lived approximately 58 to 60 million years ago, and is estimated to have measured around 13 metres (42 feet) in length, weighing roughly 1,135 kilograms. It would have measured approximately one metre across at its thickest point. To put that in context, Titanoboa would have dwarfed a modern bus.
A life-size Titanoboa model on display in Vancouver. Photo: Guilhem Vellut, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
However, Titanoboa’s reign as the longest snake ever found may be under threat. In 2024, details were published of Vasuki indicus — a fossil species of snake known from 27 vertebrae unearthed in the Indian state of Gujarat. Vasuki is estimated to have measured between 10.9 and 15.2 metres in length, potentially making it longer than Titanoboa. It lived around 47 million years ago. Researchers have urged caution over officially crowning Vasuki the new record holder, however, due to differences in how the total length was calculated from partial fossil remains. The debate continues — and it is a compelling one for anyone fascinated by the sheer scale of what once slithered across our planet. If you enjoy remarkable stories from the natural world, our piece on big cats in the UK is well worth a read — another case of creatures far larger than most people realise living far closer to home than expected.
How the biggest snakes ever compare in size. Image: Ansh Saxena 7163, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
What is the biggest snake in the world today?
The reticulated python is recognised as the longest living snake species, regularly exceeding 6.25 metres in length. Native to Southeast Asia, Indonesia and the Philippines, reticulated pythons are non-venomous constrictors — they kill prey by wrapping around it and squeezing until it suffocates, feeding on mammals ranging from rodents and pigs to deer and, occasionally, livestock. Ibu Baron is a reticulated python, as is Medusa, and the unverified 1912 Sulawesi specimen.
The green anaconda is the world’s heaviest snake species. Photo: Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The green anaconda holds a different kind of record — it is the world’s heaviest snake species. The heaviest anaconda ever recorded weighed 227 kilograms and measured 8.43 metres, with a girth of 1.11 metres. While not as long as the largest reticulated pythons, an anaconda of that size and weight is a genuinely staggering animal. Both species continue to be studied and documented by researchers, and as Ibu Baron’s discovery shows, the natural world still has the capacity to surprise us with creatures of truly remarkable scale. According to Guinness World Records, verified measurements of wild snakes remain relatively rare — making every properly documented giant discovery a significant event.