The Man Who Chose to be Eaten by an Anaconda

Nobody in his right mind would want to be eaten alive by snakes – much less have to do anything with them. But environmentalist Paul Rosolie had a mission. And he wanted the world to listen.

The Passionate Environmentalist

As researcher and conservationist, Paul Rosolie, 27, had studied anacondas in the Amazon for nearly a decade and has looked at death in the eye a couple of times because of his work. The gigantic reptile known to grow as long as 30 feet, strikes its prey with its teeth and ultra-powerful jaws. After which, it crushes its prey with its massive body like marshmallows in the mouth of kids. Picking a fight with an anaconda is certainly not for the fainthearted.

For his part, Rosolie has endured being bitten by the giant snake. The closest brush he had with death was when he was seized by one in a chokehold, breaking his rib in the process. Thanks to the timely intervention of five people, the beast was pried off him. Of course, it nearly got his collarbone popped.

But all that is small stuff to what he had in mind, a feature that will premier on Discovery Channel in his first TV special, “Eaten Alive.”The stunt to have a giant anaconda eat him alive is Rosolie’sattempt to bring attention to the rapid decline of the Amazon – not to mention spiked TV ratings.

The passion to pitch in for the environment is evident. Rosolie, tall and dark, says, “I wanted to do something that would absolutely shock people. ” He adds, “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.”

Who is Paul Rosolie?

This is not only going to put Amazon’s plight on the map, it is going to shoot Paul Rosolie into a global icon for Earth-fighters.

And his stunt might pull it off. He reveals, ““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.”

Already, news of his video has gone viral. A quick Google search for “Paul Rosolie Eaten Alive” gives out 250,000 results and counting. Not bad for a kid who seem to have never found interest in school – other than the one nature taught him.

A native of Wychoff, NJ, Rosolie had a good impression of nature while still very young. Unfortunately, his love for wildlife is in direct contrast for his hate in sitting in classrooms and not before long by 16 he dropped out of high school, saving money to heed to the Amazon. In spite of this, he got his GED, and focused on his studying environmental science at Ramapo College in New Jersey. By 18, he was able to secure a research position in Peru, in the Madre de Dios region.

One of Rosolie’s teacher, Michael Edelstein, an environmental psychology professor at Ramapo observed, “He was not the most traditional student, because he was always disappearing to the Amazon.” The university professor added, “This is someone who has risked his life many times, and who has a genuine sense of being an explorer and discovering things and going into situations one doesn’t know how will end. There’s a sense of pure wonder about him.”

Staring Death in the Eye

The stunt Rosolie took required tenuous preparation for him and his team. To boot, they needed to find the right snake in the Amazon, specifically in what locals call the “floating forest” for the dense vegetation above a body of water – the very habitat of the anacondas.

To do this, they had to go through the most dangerous stuff (e.g., crocodiles, electric eels, flooding rivers). But they did find the right anaconda, a 25-foot female weighing about 450 pounds. The massive reptile took not one but 12 people working in water over their heads to capture.
More importantly, Rosolie had to wear protection to enable his body to withstand the massive force of constriction that would be upon him once inside. A team of engineers were tapped to build a custom-design suit tailored to his body and built with carbon-fiber. A 3-hour oxygen supply was installed to enable him to breath along with communication devices and a slew of camera. In case he fell unconscious, he had to swallow a high-tech pill for his vitals.

On the day set for the event, Rosolie’s suit was doused in pig’s blood and to entice the snake some more to eat him, he imitated the movements of the pig itself as a prey to the anaconda.

The TV special has caught a lot of attention worldwide but on the down side, it has also generated a lot of flak. Sadly, most of his detractors were animal rights activists.

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25 Largest Animals On Earth

This is a video about the 25 Largest animals on Earth. Check it out.

Video

Youtube | list25

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Unfortunate Death of a Mighty Elephant

Sad news came from Kenya’s Tsavo East National Park. One of the most well-known African elephant bulls, Satao, was announced dead. Conservationists have been working overtime on making sure all the animals, especially the elephants, are safe. However, more and more poachers have also taken interest in these animals.

Satao was around 45 years old, but he could have lived longer than 60. Tsavo Trust and Kenya Wildlife Services, partner organizations that works together in the Park, wanted to be sure that it was Satao’s body they found before making any announcements. He was found by a sky patrol that was searching the nearby area. According to a press release from Tsavo officials, Satao was no doubt killed by ivory poachers using poisoned arrows. The ivory market has always been in high demand with buyers from far countries wanting their piece of the precious material. It’s sad to loss such a majestic creature for someone’s want to have an ornament on their table.

Because of his sought after tusks, conservationist have been monitoring Satao for the past 18 months. Unfortunately the patrol rangers who works with the park is very underfunded. They don’t even have the proper gear to combat the poachers. Poachers are also desperate to get the money they get with delivering ivory tusks to buyers and would go to extreme means to get them.

Although the death of their dear elephant has left the rangers and conservationist at the Tsavo Park with a heavy heart, they still continue their promise to do what they can to protect and help the animals that inhabit it.

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Giant Cat Takes Out Giant Lizard

Wild animals would do anything to survive, even take down another animal that’s usually bigger than they are to eat and even going into elements that they’re not really known to like.

Cat owners would agree that felines are just not big fans of water. However, the jaguars found in Brazil’s Pantanal Wetlands are actually quite fond of taking a cool dip into the pools and rivers. They’ve adapted to swimming very silently, catching fish and other prey in the water or by the banks and taking them away to eat in private. Jaguars run rampant in these areas and they feed on around 85 different species of animals.

A clip from National Geographic showed an astonishing footage of one of these big cats as it snuck behind a caiman, which are related to alligators, and pouncing on it. It then bites down on the caiman, targeting its central nervous system, and carries it away.

Traditionally, Camians are the ones who stay hidden and attack their pray by elevating their heads just slightly above the water’s surface and staking them. However, the roles are turned upside-down in this circumstance. Although the jaguar’s distinct spotted coat wasn’t really giving it any help in camouflaging against the riverbank, it’s extremely quiet and flexible moves helped it minimize the sound of splashing noises while it swam across the river to get closer to the caiman.

Although the caiman was about the same size as the jaguar, it did overpower and used its strong jaws to paralyze it.

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Walruses

The life cycle of walruses and polar bears were focused in the 2007 released Arctic Tale, a documentary aimed at showcasing the challenges and difficulties of living in truly cold, sub temperate environments.

Primed as a juxtaposition over what polar bears and walruses have to go though just to exist, the documentary also touched up on how much of an impact mankind has in the existence of polar animals, in an effort to illustrate how much damage mankind’s wasteful ways affects all creatures in this world, big or small.

The documentary did well in featuring walruses, from their dietary habits to the dangers they face in the cold and harsh wild.

As mammals, walruses are often categorized as “flippered mammals”, with certain species weighing as much as 3,700 pounds. Known for their long lifespans, walruses are also known for their sociable attributes, and given the harsh state of their natural habitats, one can’t really blame them for moving around in groups.

The name “walrus” is ascribed to have old Norse origins, more popularly known as the old Germanic language. Though the entomology of the name isn’t as exact as one would want it, it is speculated that the name combines “whale” and “horse”.

Though never kept as “beasts of burden”, walruses have been hunted in the past, favored mostly for consumption purposes, with their tusks also utilized in the making of different trinkets and other collectibles.

Today, they are among the many protected species, with different environmental and government agencies standing as their vanguards. As a species, they continue to be one of the world’s most easily recognized, even though the distribution of their population is limited to cold tundras and cold climes.

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Elephants

A person’s a person, no matter how small.

That’s the moral of the story of Horton Hears a Who, a film based on the Dr. Seuss book of the name, which tells the story of Horton the Elephant, who encounters a talking speck, which actually turns out to contain the community of Whoville, home to the Whos. Since Horton is able to hear the people of Whoville’s pleas for help thanks to his big ears, he happily does all he can to protect them from harm. However, the rest of the animals around Horton ridicule him for talking to a speck, leaving him to find a way to prove their existence. In the end, Horton and Whos make their existence known, proving that “a person’s a person, no matter how small.”

The book further cements man’s fascination with elephants. Elephants, recognized as the largest animals on land anywhere on earth, are perhaps the most easy to recognize creatures on earth. As such, these giant animals are among the most beloved creatures known to man. Elephants are divided into 3 species, namely the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the smallest of the 3, the Indian or Asian elephant.

Although their ancient ancestors once roamed virtually all parts of the world, wild populations of elephants are now boxed in continually decreasing swaths of land across Asia and Africa. Ever since the advent of the ivory trade, elephants have been hunted mercilessly for their ivory tusks, which is the most valued source of the material. As such, elephants are at constant threat of poaching, adding to a list of growing problems that include loss of habitat and human encroachment.

Elephants Video

 

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