US Naturalist Paul Rosolie Swallowed by
Anaconda
NEW YORK: When naturalist Paul Rosolie wanted to focus attention
on the destruction of the Amazon rainforest, he decided he needed a stunt
guaranteed to get people looking.
So the staunch
environmentalist offered himself as dinner to an anaconda -- and was swallowed
alive, filming every moment.
Anacondas, the
largest snakes in the world, typically suffocate their prey before ingesting
it, making Rosolie's attempt all the more dangerous.
But Rosolie
survived, and now people all around the world will have a chance to watch his
harrowing journey into the stomach of the beast, starting Sunday night when the
video airs in the United States on the Discovery Channel.
The idea came to him
after a decade spent working in, and working to save, the rainforest habitat,
Rosolie told AFP.
"Everybody on
Earth knows that the rainforests are disappearing and most people can tell you
how important they are, but still, not enough people are paying attention, not
enough people realize this is such a problem."
The American
activist said he was proud to take on the adventure, even though the prospect
of dying was hard to swallow.
An hour inside
To avoid
suffocating, experts crafted Rosolie a specially designed carbon fiber suit,
equipped with a breathing system -- as well as with cameras and a system to
communicate.
"We didn't know
if this was going to work, if I was going to be eaten, but we made sure that if
I did make it inside the snake, I wouldn't suffocate," Rosolie explained
after the ordeal.
The next challenge
was trying to find a snake in the Peruvian Amazon jungle.
"We spent 60
days out in the jungle, camping, hiking, looking through swamps every
night," Rosolie said.
Eventually, they
found a female snake, which at, six meters (20 feet) long, fit the bill.
"When I went up
to the snake, it didn't try to eat me right away," Rosolie
recounted.
"It tried to
escape. And when I provoked it a little bit, and acted a little more like a
predator, that's when it turned around and defended itself."
The explorer was
swallowed head first and spent more than an hour inside the giant snake, he
said, adding that he kept in touch with his team the whole time.
He said he was
scared that something would go wrong, but at the same time, "I was very
excited to do it."
"You are going
up against one of the greatest predators of the planet and doing something that
no one has ever done before," he said.
Anaconda doing well
He did not give
details on how he was freed from the snake, but he insisted his team was
careful not to harm it and that he was the only one in danger.
"We didn't
force the snake to do anything, we didn't ask from the snake anything out of
the ordinary," Rosolie said, explaining that "snakes very often
regurgitate if they're eating something and a predator comes by, they have to
give up their meal so they can escape."
The anaconda is now
doing well, he said.
But Rosolie has
faced fierce criticism from animal rights groups, including from PETA, who said
"the snake was tormented and suffered for the sake of ratings."
Rosolie said he even
received death threats.
But he wasn't fazed,
saying the shock value is important to increase attention to his cause.
A fund linked to the
show was set up to raise awareness and money to protect the Amazon and could
also allow for more research of anacondas in their habitat.
After the US
showing, "Eaten Alive" will air on December 10 in Finland, Denmark,
Hungary, Poland and Sweden, and two days later in Australia, before being
broadcast in other countries, including China and India.
Discovery said it
expect at least three million viewers in the United States and a million others
around the world.
Pasted
from <http://www.ndtv.com