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An American naturalist filmed himself being 'eaten
alive' by a snake for a TV stunt - but is now facing ridicule for
getting his safety team to save him after just part of his head was
consumed.
In footage aired on the Discovery Channel on Sunday night - it airs on
UK TV on Friday - 27-year-old Paul Rosolie and his 10-strong team
tracked down the 20ft-long, 18st anaconda to the headwaters of the
Amazon river.
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Donning a black armored suit, slathered in pig blood, Mr Rosolie then
moved tentatively 'on all fours' toward the enormous beast as the
cameras rolled and his wife, Gowri, watched.
Seconds later, the female anaconda - one of the world's most fearsome
creatures - pounced on its 5ft 9ins victim, latching on to his head,
before constricting his arms and body.
However, as Mr Rosolie felt his arm 'start to break' under the snake's
grip, he ordered his team of fellow naturalists, doctors and vets to
save him - with just the top of his head in the animal's jaws.
Within minutes of the show, named 'Eaten Alive', being broadcast, people
across America were taking to social networking sites to express their
disappointment at the highly anticipated footage.
Twitter user Josh Harris, from Boston , wrote: 'They should rename #EatenAlive
alive to look for snakes for 1.5 hours and then Try to be eaten alive
but only get a scratch on my arm.'
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Meanwhile, Connor McCarthy, from Pennsylvania, tweeted: 'I hope Paul is
happy despite letting an entire nation down. I can't believe he can show
his face on tv right now. What a wuss #EatenAlive.'
And Stacey Taylor, from Ontario, Canada, said: '#EatenAlive complete
waste of my time you didn't even get eaten alive you cant call a show
eaten alive and not get eaten by your anaconda!'
Barstool Trent, from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, posted a picture of his dog
chewing his finger and quipped 'hey, Discovery, can I have my own show?'
The footage, which had been plugged on TV and online for months, was
aired despite protests from conservationists on both sides of the
Atlantic, many of whom deemed the stunt 'cruel'.
In response to the complaints, Mr Rosolie has claimed that he carried
out the risky move in a bid to raise money to save the snake's habitat
in South America - and that the animal was not harmed.
'I wanted to do something to grab people’s attention to the plight of
the disappearing rainforests, something completely crazy,' he said
earlier this month. ‘Everything else has been tried.’
During the documentary, aired at 9pm in the US, Mr Rosolie also
explained how he had tracked down that particular snake after surviving
being seized and dragged into deep water by it in 2008.
Since the incident, he had been 'obsessed' with capturing the beast, he
said.
Before the stunt last spring, Mr Rosolie and his team of naturalists
spent 60 days struggling up to the headwaters of the world’s largest
river, battling electric eels, floods and poachers.
While looking for the anaconda, they also started the first scientific
study of anacondas in the wild, taking down the weight, length and sex
of ones they encountered, the New York Post reported.
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In addition to these measurements, they took samples of the creatures'
skin to test for mercury, a by-product of the gold-mining industry which
is encroaching on their habitat.
Finally, the team came across the green anaconda in the dense foliage of
the Peruvian Amazon - an animal they knew would be big enough to swallow
Mr Rosolie whole.
'An anaconda can stretch to three times its own girth, so a 20ft snake
would easily encompass my shoulders,' said the naturalist, adding: 'If
this snake's hungry, she might actually eat me'.
In the documentary, Mr Rosolie, who described the snake's power as akin
to 'a team of horses', was filmed suiting up before crawling 'on all
fours', pretending to be a wild boar, toward the snake.
In order to avoid being crushed, he was forced to wear a lightweight,
strong carbon-fibre suit that fitted his frame closely. It was created
by a team of engineers using 3D technology.
The suit was also streamlined so he would be less likely to damage the
snake’s insides, and - crucially for Mr Rosolie - so its material would
resist the anaconda’s digestive fluids.
The outfit was equipped with built-in cameras and a radio mic so Mr
Rosalie could communicate with his watching team, while the naturalist
was given a capsule transmitting his vital signs.
'They knew I’m the type who’ll say, "I’m fine, I’m fine"... until I’m
dead,' Mr Rosolie, a New Jersey native who first visited the Amazon at
the age of 18, said.
'We had to make sure I didn’t get crushed, but the suit took care of
that. But if I was eaten, we were worried what would happen to my
breathing system because I could have suffocated very quickly.'
Mr Rosolie's suit also comprised a face mask connected to a crush-proof
hose that trailed behind him, leading to an three-hour oxygen supply.
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After suiting up, Mr Rosolie was filmed approaching the giant anaconda.
Within seconds, it had risen up and struck him in the face, before
grabbing his arm and coiling itself around his body.
'I'm getting coils over me,' the naturalist could be heard saying as his
helmet camera captured the inside of the snake's jaws. 'She's got my
arms pinned. She knows there's nothing I can do.'
He then exclaimed: 'Oh god,' prompting his concerned wife to ask: 'Paul,
are you ok?' Several tense seconds later, Mr Rosolie replied: 'I'm ok',
yet his heart rate had noticeably increased.
'Paul, your heart rate is getting pretty high and your breathing is
really labored,' one of the team members could be heard telling him. He
replied: 'I'm trying to stay calm.'
Footage shows the beast wrapped around the entirety of Mr Rosolie's body
as he wriggled on the floor of the rainforest. His team asked whether he
could breathe, but he did not reply.
A few seconds later, he told his worried friends: 'Stand by guys, I'm
starting to feel like she's consuming me.' The snake then opened its
mouth and latched on to Mr Rosolie's head.
Mr Rosolie exclaimed: 'Guys, my face is down,' before shouting: 'I'm
calling it, I need help!' as he feels his arm starting to break under
the anaconda's grip.
As commanded, the naturalist's team rushed over and wrestled the snake
off his body. They later released the animal into the wild and took
measurements of its strength from Mr Rosolie's suit.
But because the snake was positioned 'high on the armor', they were
unable to 'get a solid reading'.
Speaking of the moment he was 'eaten alive' after the event, Mr Rosalie
said: 'The last thing I remember was her mouth open wide and everything
went black.'
He added: 'I went limp and let it constrict. All the while I was just
thinking: “Eat, eat, eat!" She wrapped around me and I felt my suit
cracking and my arms ripping out of their sockets.'
He also revealed that the snake was actually constricting him for an
hour before he was rescued.
Mr Rosolie's bid to be eaten - and rescued before perishing - took
filmmakers two years to prepare.
Their main task was to ensure that the naturalist - who has written the
well-received book Mother of God - did not end up like the snake’s usual
meals: crushed until he was asphyxiated.
However, over the past few months, the stunt has attracted criticism
from campaigners globally.
The campaign group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)
judged from early reports of the experiment that the snake was
‘tormented and suffered for the sake of ratings’.
The anaconda would have expended valuable energy in swallowing Mr
Rosolie and then regurgitating him, it argued.
However, Mr Rosalie said on the Discovery Channel's website: 'I would
not have done this if there were any real chance of hurting or stressing
out the snake.'
He added: 'I’ve seen first-hand how the Amazon Rainforest is being
destroyed. It is so rampant that we may be the last generation with the
opportunity to save it.
'People need to wake up to what is going on. What better way is there to
shock people than to put my life on the line with the largest snake on
the planet, the Green Anaconda?'
Anacondas will bite their prey, such as wild pigs, with teeth that curve
backwards - preventing the animal from breaking away. Their power is
awe-inspiring, Mr Rosolie said.
Then they will pull their prey - any creature that they can subdue and
swallow - into water if they can, wrapping it in coils that crush its
bones to make swallowing it easier.
During the documentary, Dr Patrick Krugg explained how the snakes 'real
killing forces comes when they start to wrap their coils around their
prey'. They swallow their prey headfirst, he said.
Another expert explained how anacondas can open their mouths to almost
180 degrees.
Although anacondas are in fact shy creatures, they can be deadly when
roused. Reaching up to 30ft in length, they live in or around water and
are far thicker than the pythons of Africa and Asia.
They are not venomous but boast powerful jaws attached by elastic
ligaments.
Eaten Alive will be aired in the UK on Friday at 9pm.
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