Man Inside Anaconda for 2 Hours?

[innertrack]

I think this story is almost certainly bogus, but judge for yourself by viewing the link below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLtiaAlv9B0

When the story proceeds to the point where the man has been fully swallowed feet first, the narrator inaccurately references Eaten Alive. In the actual TV documentary, it was Paul Rosole's intention to be swallowed whole in his protective suit, but he called for rescue when the pressure on his shoulders became unbearable. But the narrator describes the event as if Paul Rosole had been completely swallowed by the anaconda and survived. His point was that without the protection of the suit and an air supply, your chance of survival is slim to none. But because he didn't even bother to get the reference right, what about the rest of it?

There was also a blatant hole in his reasoning. If the victim blacked out, how did he supposedly know he was inside for two hours? Could you actually survive for two hours? I think that even the story was true up to that point, regurgitation would have to be almost immediate for him to survive.

I hope this wasn't already posted already, but I did look for it and didn't find it. Apologies if it's already made the rounds here at Eka's.

[RuffledFerret]

I don't believe it for a second. It sounded the entire time like someone was looking up common facts about anacondas and constructed a somewhat-believable story around this premise.

- No Richard Harris can be found (other than the actor) online that relates to any story like this, confirming it's nothing but hearsay, a skeptic's worst nightmare. A story coming from a friend of a friend automatically frees the teller from responsibility of speaking to its truthfulness, but more than that it simply is not a good source to trust. Information can change and become distorted quite quickly as it is passed from person to person.

- The New York Zoological society indeed offered a reward ($50,000) from 1910-2002 for the "live delivery" of an anaconda in "good health" and measuring at least 30 feet in length. No one came forth to claim it, or even to organize an expedition of any kind in order to properly search for one. My real question is what sort of apparently-spontaneous office-working fool would think to quickly look up information regarding one of the most dangerous creatures on the planet and then decide to go hunt for one himself?

- The piranha bit has mixtures of true and false facts, but I doubt any normal person having their thumb bitten completely off would then continue their quest for a giant predator immediately afterward. Too much pain would be involved and I imagine the prospect of learning how to live the rest of your life without one of your fingers would be a hindrance on its own.

- The anaconda's eating of the businessman: once again, a mixture of facts and falsehoods. There is indeed an article somewhere online explaining that the best way to kill an anaconda is to low still and wait for it to ingest your feet - something that happens very seldom - therefore rendering it incapable of quickly escaping, and then going at it with a knife. Another question I then have is, despite the stress of the situation, how could one fail to realize at any point as they're being swallowed that they no longer have their knife on their person and be prepared to strike?

- Constricting snakes do not suffocate their prey, they squeeze them so tight that it slows the flow of the animal's blood and eventually stops the heart. I'm aware that snakes probably don't really care about the science and surely just do this because it works for them, but this is just another bit of misleading information. Constriction may as well be considered another part of the ingestion process with how common it is regarding larger prey.

- As powerful as a snake's stomach acids are, it still requires time to break down what finds its way into its belly. The "2 hours" cannot be verified even by the subject himself, as he supposedly passed out during whatever happened, and yet it still is such an important-if-dubious detail that it makes up the very title of the story?

- Snakes do regurgitate their prey when threatened, but depending how deep inside them their meal is this process may take a good while, certainly long enough for the threat - in this case, a large feline of some kind - to viciously attack and possibly kill them. I can't say for certain whether or not that same feline would then find a seemingly-dead human being covered in another creature's stomach juices to be appetizing, but I feel it's safe to say no.

This is all I have on the story, but I am extremely skeptical. It makes for a great YouTube story, as it's impossible to verify for certain (Why doesn't he ask his friend-of-a-friend to come on and tell the story himself?) and is more than likely exaggerated and/or rationalized in several places.

[innertrack]

Nice thoughts, RuffledFerret. The idea that I think drives a lot of content on YouTube is passive income. Advertising revenue pours into the most visited or most heavily subscribed posters.To get a large enough number of hits, people try almost anything. Some go for cuteness, others for human interest, and others yet for outrageous or even controversial content. So if people respond in droves to something ridiculous or incendiary, what does the content creator care? All those angry posts put money in their pockets. So I think this video fits in the category of outrageous or ridiculous. But the guy posting it is making money from it regardless.

[RuffledFerret]

Nice thoughts, RuffledFerret. The idea that I think drives a lot of content on YouTube is passive income. Advertising revenue pours into the most visited or most heavily subscribed posters.To get a large enough number of hits, people try almost anything. Some go for cuteness, others for human interest, and others yet for outrageous or even controversial content. So if people respond in droves to something ridiculous or incendiary, what does the content creator care? All those angry posts put money in their pockets. So I think this video fits in the category of outrageous or ridiculous. But the guy posting it is making money from it regardless.

As long as someone is entertained, I guess that's all that matters. Just not a big fan of how easily fake stories and misinformation can spread.

[innertrack]

Nice thoughts, RuffledFerret. The idea that I think drives a lot of content on YouTube is passive income. Advertising revenue pours into the most visited or most heavily subscribed posters.To get a large enough number of hits, people try almost anything. Some go for cuteness, others for human interest, and others yet for outrageous or even controversial content. So if people respond in droves to something ridiculous or incendiary, what does the content creator care? All those angry posts put money in their pockets. So I think this video fits in the category of outrageous or ridiculous. But the guy posting it is making money from it regardless.

As long as someone is entertained, I guess that's all that matters. Just not a big fan of how easily fake stories and misinformation can spread.

I agree. The best example I know of a deliberately false story that became the prevailing belief in popular culture predated the internet by decades. Quicksand mythology was perpetrated by Hollywood, and none of it is factual. You'll sink to your death. Don't struggle, or you'll sink faster. While it's true that quicksand can be dangerous, you float, and you have a higher float point than you would in water. In most cases you can escape easily by getting your body as horizontal as you can, then just crawl across the surface to get out. The real danger comes in two forms. Sometimes you're too stuck to get out on your own, in a thick clay for example. But the worst case is anywhere that water can rise while you're trapped, drowning you.

Ironically, the reverse has happened with regard to stories of snakes swallowing humans. Until recently, scientists had long insisted that human shoulders were an insurmountable challenge. Then in the space of about a year, two people in Indonesia were eaten by large constrictors. Every claim prior to that was "debunked" by self-proclaimed experts. But anyone who has ever seen the videos of a python swallowing a large pig understands how the snake gradually works its upper jaw to cover one shoulder and ingest it and then twists to take in the other. So I personally believe that humans have been an opportunist menu choice for large snakes as long as both have been around. They don't go looking for us and they don't hunt us. But if we stumble on them (and they are masters of concealment), they reprise their natural role as an ambush predator.

[MirceaKitsune]

If only. There's totally no way all that could be real. Not referring to a snake swallowing him, that part I do believe is possible... all else though is fiction to the point of comedy.

[Nerdrarg]

Absolutely fake. If someone survived inside a snake, it would have been bigger news.

If I recall, it was hyped for MONTHS, and of course this forum watched the story with GREAT interest.

If I recall, he had the suit on, the snake got like 2 inches, and he called it off.

I don't blame him, but its fake, and probably left on the channel to trick people into thinking it actually happened

[Kitsouille]

It just feels like it sounds cool if you can state your life achievements and you can try impressing gullible people when you say you've been eaten alive. No you didn't.

[gibrick]

I've only ever seen it once where a person was actually swallowed whole by a snake, however she died in the process because you know the anaconda kills their prey before eating it. I can't recall where it was but I saw it on a medical page on insta, they found the snake near a woman's garden after they noticed she had been missing for a few days. They killed the snake, cut it open, and found her deceased corpse inside. Thing to note here is the person was most certainly and definitely dead.

[Eznam]

Absolutely fake. If someone survived inside a snake, it would have been bigger news.

If I recall, it was hyped for MONTHS, and of course this forum watched the story with GREAT interest.

If I recall, he had the suit on, the snake got like 2 inches, and he called it off.

I don't blame him, but its fake, and probably left on the channel to trick people into thinking it actually happened

Honestly his suit would have never worked anyways. He's essentially a giant chunk of plastic, I'm surprised the snake even tried eating him to begin with. It's very unlikely he would have gotten past the shoulders with a head piece shaped like that. The most major flaw of the suit was that the arms were *outside* of the chest piece, which is just asking for a broken arm, he should have had his arms along his body in the suit strapped to him, or he should have had them crossed on his chest. And lastly they could have covered the suit in fur to at least attempt to make it easier on the snake. Anyways, a better attempt for this stunt would be creating a fake deer with an empty torso he hides into. Easy to coax the snake into eating, easy to safety pad, easy to keep the necessary equipment inside *and* you can add plexiglass holes all over for cameras and viewports.