MUMBAI: On 31 December, Discovery Channel will present a never-seen-before deadly encounter - ‘Eaten Alive?’. The programme features snake researcher and conservationist Paul Rosolie, attempting to get eaten by the giant snake - alive. Paul has dedicated his career to study the Giant Green Anaconda, the largest and most powerful snake in the world and the top predator in the Amazon. This challenge was created to get maximum attention for one of the most beautiful and threatened parts of the world, the Amazon Rainforest and its wildlife.
The two-hour special, ‘Eaten Alive?’ will premiere on Wednesday, 31 December at 8 pm on Discovery Channel.
Rosolie has specialised in the western Amazon for more than a decade and his efforts have helped bring awareness to the Peruvian Rainforest, the natural habitat of the Giant Green Anaconda. This year, over a 60-day period, crews chronicled Rosolie's expedition to the hidden realm deep within the Amazonian jungle. It is in this floating forest that Rosolie believes the largest anacondas in the world live and breed and one of the only locations to truly study these elusive and majestic snakes in the wild. On his previous expedition to this secluded part of the Amazonian jungle, Rosolie was very close to capturing what he believed was the world's largest anaconda, a 25 to 27-foot behemoth that slipped through his hands and nearly dragged him to the bottom of the floating forest.
"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," said Paul Rosolie. "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?"
Since Rosolie's goal was to persevere through the constriction and potential ingestion deep into the belly of the beast, he relied on a custom-built suit he designed for his protection. Constructed by Rosolie and his team of engineers working alongside herpetologists, the suit was built to ensure the snake's safety just as much as it was to protect Rosolie's life. The highest measured force of an anaconda constriction has been documented at 90psi, which would be the equivalent of having a large school bus on one's chest. Since anacondas rely on their massive size and power to subdue their prey, Rosolie risked life and limb in the hopes of measuring the constriction force of a massive anaconda, to gain more insight on its hunting and feeding behaviors, and ultimately, to gain a greater understanding of the inner workings of these majestic creatures.
Both Paul Rosolie and the Giant Green Anaconda are healthy and alive.
Tune in to watch Paul's daring attempt to enter the belly of the beast, and his terrifying encounter with the massive snake.