The man who decided to be eaten alive by an anaconda for a new Discovery Channel show said he "wanted to absolutely shock people."
Paul Rosolie, 27, has spent nearly 10 years studying anacondas in the Amazon.
The Amazon is facing rapid destruction, which is one of the main reasons why Rosolie planned to get eaten by the anaconda as part of Discovery's new show "Eaten Alive."
"Environmentalists, we love to preach to the choir. What I'm trying to do with this is bring in a bunch of people that wouldn't necessarily know what's going on in the Amazon," Rosolie said to the New York Post. "For the type of attention that this is getting and for the type of emergency that's going on down there - desperate times, desperate measures."
Since Discovery announced that Rosolie would be eaten alive by the anaconda he received a lot of backlash from animal rights activists. The comments didn't bother Rosolie, who has been studying anacondas for most of his adult life.
"Once they see the show, these are people who are going to be supporters," Rosolie said to the Post. "It's a cool little dissonance there - they're all coming out against me, but I'm the guy that's been down there in the jungle trying to protect these things."
One of the most dangerous parts of the expideition was finding an anaconda in the Amazon to use. To catch the 25-foot, 400- to 500-pound female snake, it took 12 people fighting in water over their heads. Herpetologists were also at the scene to look out for the well-being of the snake.
Rosalie wore a custom-designed suit to protect him from the snake's constriction and doused it in pigs blood so he would smell like the snake's usual prey, reported the Post. Before the anaconda ate him he also swallowed a high-tech pill that would transmit his vitals in case he fell unconscious.
Despite the danger he was putting himself in, Rosalie said he was more concerned about the snake's well-being.
"I didn't want to stress [the snake] out too much. I wanted to make sure that the suit was smooth and wasn't going to hurt the snake," Rosolie said to the newspaper. "I really wasn't scared. We tested this suit and worked on this with experts, so we knew I was going to be safe."
