DISCOVERY CHANNEL’S EATEN ALIVE?

Discovery Channel release

Naturalist, author, and award-winning wildlife filmmaker Paul Rosolie attempts a groundbreaking feat aimed at investigating the eating habits of the mythical

Giant Green Anaconda

EATEN ALIVE? premiering Sunday, December 28, at 9:00 p.m., features snake researcher and conservationist Paul Rosolie who has dedicated his career to studying the Giant Green Anaconda, the largest and most powerful snake in the world and the top predator in the Amazon.  An author (“Mother of God: An Extraordinary Journey into the Uncharted Tributaries of the Western Amazon”), Paul has specialized 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.    

 

Photo courtesy of Discovery Channel

This past summer, over a 60-day period, crews documented Paul’s expedition to an enchanted and hidden realm deep within the Amazonian jungle, an area the locals call the “floating forest.”  It is in the floating forest that Paul 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 one and only previous expedition to this secluded part of the Amazonian jungle, Paul was very close to capturing what he believed was the world’s largest anaconda, a 25 to 27-foot (7 to 8-metre long) behemoth that slipped through his hands and nearly dragged him to the bottom of the floating forest. If Paul succeeds this time in capturing this giant beast, he’s going to attempt something no one has ever dared.

“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. “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?”

"It is strange to think that one of the giant species of snakes on the planet is also one of the least understood,” said biologist Shawn Heflick. “An amazing and mysterious serpent, the Green Anaconda is what myths and legends are made of.”

Since Paul’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 Paul 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 Paul’s life.   After all, 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,  Paul 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.

EATEN ALIVE? is produced for Discovery Channel by Expedition Amazon.  For Discovery Channel, Michael Sorensen and Matthew Kelly are executive producers and Meagan Davis is the producer.