In 2024, researchers revealed the discovery of a brand-new types of huge anaconda in South America. A National Geographic electronic camera team was on hand for the 2022 exploration that recorded the brand-new types– therefore was star Will Smith, given that they were recording for NatGeo’s brand-new documentary series, Pole to Pole with Will Smith. Now we can all share in Smith’s Amazon experience, thanks to the three-minute clip above.

Together with venom professional Bryan Fry, we follow Smith’s journey by boat with a group of native Waorani guides, searching the river banks for anacondas. And they discover one: a female green anaconda about 16 to 17 feet long, “pure muscle.” The Waorani protect the huge snake– anacondas aren’t poisonous however they do bite– so that Fry (with Smith’s not surprisingly unwilling assistance) can gather a scale sample for additional analysis. Fry states that this will allow him to figure out the build-up of toxins in the water.

That and other gathered samples likewise made it possible for researchers to carry out the hereditary analysis that led to the statement of a brand-new types: the northern green anaconda (Eunectes akayama, which approximately equates to “the fantastic snake”). It is genetically unique from the southern green anaconda (Eunectes murinus; the 2 types most likely diverged some 10 million years back. The northern green anaconda’s grass consists of Venezuela, Colombia, Suriname, French Guyana, and the northern part of Brazil.

Smith’s time in the Amazon likewise brought the arachnophobic star face to face with a huge tarantula while researchers drawn out the venom. His more experiences brought him to the South Pole, where he travelled throughout freezing ice fields; to the Himalayas, where he travelled to a little town in Bhutan; to the Pacific Islands to tape a lost native language; to the Kalahari desert, where he signed up with the hunter-gatherer San individuals on a hunt; and to the North Pole, where he signed up with an exploration to dive under the ice to gather clinical samples.

Pole to Pole with Will Smith premieres on January 13, 2026, and will stream on Disney+ the following day.