Somewhere in the City of Vancouver lurks a 50-foot-long, 1,750-pound mechanical serpent.
Nicknamed Titanoboa, the massive electronic reptile and its creators hold the Guinness World Record for largest robot snake.
The boa bot was built by a local team with the help of the eatART foundation, and is a "full size electro-mechanical reincarnation" of an extinct species of the same name.
The species lived about 60 million years ago, and is believed to have gone extinct due to climate change. With its tablet eyes and "blood" of biodegradable oil, the robo-reptile was created years ago to provoke discussion about climate change and energy use.
"Most adults are asking, 'Why would you do this?'" artist Charlie Brinson said in an interview with CTV Vancouver's Maria Weisgarber.
"But the kids who see it are just like, super excited."
The team didn't set out to break a record, but when Guinness reached out, they accepted the title.
Guinness has also awarded the title of world record holder to dozens of others living in B.C.
Quinn Spicker was a student at Simon Fraser University when he broke the existing record for longest time spent juggling upside-down.
Now the chief technology officer of a software startup in Vancouver, Spicker was able to perform for 12 minutes and 50 seconds in 2010.
"Most kids, when their parents go away, their parents say, like, 'Don't throw a big party,' or something. My mom said, 'Don't hang upside-down,'" he said.
"She was afraid that I'd pass out."
Years after achieving fame in a strange way, Spicker said his skill isn't something that comes in handy very often.
"People are saying, like, 'Oh, use it for your dating profile' or something like that. It's not helpful."
But Cameron Fraser actually does use his talents.
In circus school from a young age, he decided to attempt a backflip on a unicycle. On a trampoline.
"In the learning process, I broke 20 unicycles," Fraser said.
Riding a sturdier model in 2003, he set the record with two flips in a row. Ten years later, he unofficially broke his own record with 10 consecutive flips.
"I haven't been challenged this far, so nobody's allowed to challenge me now," he joked.
Now a production manager with Circus West, the same company where he attended circus school as a child, Fraser said he hopes to keep setting the bar for unicycle-trampoline backflips a bit higher for himself.
Miscellaneous: From beds of nails to tallest bigfoot
One of the most startling and specific records is for "most motorbikes driven over the body whilst laying on a bed of nails (two minutes)." The bizarre feat was achieved when 70 motorcycles drove over Burnaby Q. Orbax in 2015 in Vancouver. He more than doubled the previous record of 31.
Orbax also holds the record for "farthest distance to pull a vehicle with meat hooks in the back."
British Columbian Fred Vasquez holds the record for fastest completion of the first level of a video game called Demon's Souls, and the longest marathon playing table hockey (30 hours) was set by six Vancouver men in 2014.
In Surrey, a group of 172 musicians broke the record in 2015 for most bottles played in a musical performance (1,100). The following year, the world's largest Pez dispenser sculpture was unveiled in Richmond.
The largest tin soldier is on permanent display in New Westminster, measuring 9.75 metres and weighing about 4.5 tonnes. West Vancouver resident Rebecca Findlay holds the record for largest collection of Scooby Doo memorabilia with 1,116 items.
A woman in Squamish held the record for fastest 10 kilometres pushing a pram, and in 2008, a Surrey school teacher set the record for world's longest beard for facial hair measured at 2.36 metres.
And according to Sasquatch researchers, B.C. is home to the world's tallest bigfoot. Eyewitnesses say the creature stands between three and six metres tall.
Records set in sports and athletics
During the 2010 Olympics, records were broken for most medals won at a single Winter Games (37, by the U.S.), and most gold medals won at a single Winter Games (14, by Team Canada). The record for most participants in a Winter Olympic Games (82 countries) was also set that year, as was the longest single-country distance for an Olympic torch relay.
The record for highest margin of victory in a Harry Potter inspired Quidditch World Cup final was broken when Harry Potter fans gathered in Burnaby in 2014.
Pierre Marc Jette skied the most vertical feet in a calendar year in Whistler in 2014-15, spending more than 1.836 million minutes on the slopes as part of a fundraiser for the B.C. Alzheimer's Society.
Also in 2014, Mark Haimes and Reg Mullett broke the record for greatest vertical descent on a mountain bike in 24 hours (32,796.9 metres) on the Mount 7 Psychosis course in Golden.
Less expected, U.K. man Shaun Baker broke the record in 2000 for greatest speed travelled by someone in a kayak on snow (62.94 km/h).
The world's longest ice skating trail is located in Invermere, and the longest 720 ramp jump on skis was broken at Blackcomb Mountain.
Adam Ellenstein's 40-hour swim broke the record for fastest, continuous lengthwise swim of Okanagan Lake.
Food records broken in B.C.
Residents of Canada's west coast have a history of shattering food-based world records.
In 1990, the town of Oliver broke a three-year-old Guinness record for largest cherry pie, with a massive six-metre-diameter dessert that weighed 37,713.08 pounds.
Kelowna holds the record for heaviest peach (810 grams, or one pound, 12 ounces), set in 2016.
Five years before the massive stonefruit, the city also broke the record for world's longest fruit snack with a 91.44-metre (300-foot) piece of strawberry fruit leather.
Also grown in B.C., the world's tallest snapdragon reached a height of 224.79 centimetres in June 2016 in Surrey, and the largest sunflower head was grown in Maple Ridge in 1983.
Vancouver's Dougie Luv restaurant held the record for most expensive hotdog with its $100 cognac-infused Dragon Dog. And a restaurant in Richmond broke the record for world's priciest pizza, charging $450 for a gourmet pie covered in smoked salmon, prawns, Alaskan cod, lobster and Russian caviar.
Other titles held by B.C.
Here's a list of some of the dozens of other records held by B.C. residents or set in the province:
- Greatest vertical distance snowboarded in 12 hours
- Oldest person to sail single-handedly around the world (female)
- Longest journey by car using alternative fuel
- Largest carrot cake
- Longest lapsed time between performances by a high school band leader
- Largest collection of uncut banknotes
- Most step-ups in eight hours
- Longest ice skating trail
- Longest marathon hand bell ringing
- Largest dugout canoe
- First robotic surgery
- Most people using virtual reality displays
- Longest chain of safety pins
- Oldest obituary photo
- Longest-held captive orca
- Highest cable car above ground (aerial)
- Tallest totem pole
- Longest-lived holder of the Victoria Cross
- Oldest male golfer to score their age
- Fastest crossing of Canada on foot (female)
- Most goals scored by an individual in an international ice hockey tournament
- Earliest barnacle
- Largest abalone
- Most men's log rolling world championships
- Most valuable coin tower
- Most vertical feet snowboarding downhill with helicopter drop in 24 hours
- Highest score on Effing Worms
