Is Anaconda ‘Eaten Alive’ Discovery Stunt Even Possible? Snake Experts Weigh In

Discovery’s Eaten Alive special is already appalling animal rights activists and confounding animal experts, even though it hasn’t aired yet. So will a giant snake really get revenge for all the times Bear Grylls feasted on its scaly friends?

Animal rights activists are urging the Discovery Channel not to show wildlife filmmaker Paul Rosolie being eaten alive by an anaconda for a TV special. According to the Daily Mail, more than 20,000 people have signed a Change.org petition to stop the airing of Eaten Alive.

The petition claims that Rosolie’s stunt could harm the snake.

“The Discovery Channel is now committing animal abuse for creating a show called Eaten Alive. A grown man in a ‘special suit’ is planning on being eaten alive by a Green Anaconda. This is animal abuse to the highest degree and absolutely disgusting, and could kill the snake — an adult green anaconda cannot fit the width of an adult man’s shoulders into its body.”

The petition also claims that Eaten Alive “reinforces the negative stereotype of snakes.

The Daily Mail reports that Paul Rosolie has already filmed the anaconda stunt, and insiders have claimed that the snake did not die. Rosolie reportedly covered himself with pig blood to make himself more palatable to the green anaconda that swallowed him. As the Inquisitr previously reported, he also wore a special snake-proof suit. Because Discovery already has footage of the stunt, it seems unlikely that the network will nix its plans to air Eaten Alive on December 7. The network has also released a promo for the special.

Some snake experts are skeptical that Paul will be able to pull off the stunt. In a Red Orbit post, snake conservationist Lisa Powers explained why a green anaconda would have a hard time swallowing a human being.

“Typical prey size is between 20-30% of the snake’s body mass. The shoulders of humans do not equate to those of quadrupeds that these large constrictors normally consume (rodents, deer, peccaries, capybaras, tapirs, turtles, aquatic reptiles like caiman, and the occasional jaguar). Thus, the act of trying to swallow an adult human past the shoulders (our widest point structurally) would not likely progress well and the snake would simply give up.”

Powers pointed out that anacondas constrict their prey before they swallow it. Allowing the snake to do this to Rosolie would have killed him, and it would have been difficult to force the snake to eat a man without constricting him first. Doing so “would have inflicted significant pain as the snake began to swallow.”

Powers also states that extracting the man from the snake’s belly could have harmed the animal. The anaconda would have been forced to strain hard to regurgitate a large prey item or Rosolie would have been pulled out by a cord.

According to Business Insider, snake expert Frank Indiviglio agrees with Powers about Eaten Alive. The herpetologist (a scientist who studies reptiles and amphibians) tweeted that the Discovery stunt is “nonsense.”

@kevloria Discovery has taken a real nosedive in recent years; more nonsense

— Frank Indiviglio (@findiviglio) November 5, 2014

The “nosedive” Indiviglio referred to was likely the airing of specials like Mermaids: The Body Found and Megalodon: The Monster Shark Lives. The Discovery Channel has tricked viewers into believing that mermaids are real and that megalodons are still alive, so why not fool them into thinking that a man has been swallowed by a snake? All the network needs for Eaten Alive is a realistic anaconda model, some good CGI, and a few clever camera angles.

Do you think Eaten Alive will turn out to be the real deal, or is Discovery trying to pull another fast one on gullible viewers?

[Image credit: Discovery]