That time Will Smith helped discover new species of anaconda

In 2024, scientists announced the discovery of a new species of giant anaconda in South America. A National Geographic camera crew was present for the 2022 expedition that documented the new species — and so was actor Will Smith, as he was filming for NatGeo’s new documentary series, Pole to pole with Will Smith. Now we can all share in Smith’s Amazon experience, courtesy of the three-minute clip above.

With venom expert Brian Fry, we follow Smith’s journey by boat with a team of indigenous Waorani guides who search the riverbanks for anacondas. And they found one: a female green anaconda about 16 to 17 feet long, “pure muscle.” The Waorani guard the giant snake – anacondas are not poisonous, but they bite – so that Fry (with Smith’s reluctant help) can collect a scale specimen for further analysis. Fry says this will help them detect the concentration of pollutants in water.

That and other collected specimens also enabled scientists to conduct genetic analysis that resulted in the declaration of a new species: the northern green anaconda (Eunectes Akayama, which roughly translates to “Great Serpent”). It is genetically distinct from the southern green anaconda (eunectes murinusThe two species probably diverged about 10 million years ago. The range of the northern green anaconda includes Venezuela, Colombia, Suriname, French Guiana, and northern Brazil.

Smith’s time in the Amazon brought the arachnophobic actor face to face with a giant tarantula while scientists extracted the venom. His further adventures brought him to the South Pole, where he trekked across cold ice fields; to the Himalayas, where he trekked to a small village in Bhutan; in the Pacific Islands to record lost native languages; in the Kalahari Desert, where he joined hunter-gatherer San people on hunts; and to the North Pole, where he joined an expedition to dive under the ice to collect scientific samples.

Pole to Pole with Will Smith It will premiere on January 13, 2026, and stream on Disney+ the next day.