Man to get eaten alive by anaconda is from New Jersey

It's a slimy thing to do, some folks are saying.

Kind of eye-popping, too, if you're not careful.

A naturalist from New Jersey set out to be eaten by an anaconda, and the tale is the subject of Eaten Alive, a Discovery Channel special slated to air at 9 p.m. Dec. 7.

Even though Discovery claims the snake survived the experience, PETA, the animal-rights group, has called for the show's cancellation, saying the reptile "was tormented and suffered for the sake of ratings."

The Human Snake Snack is Paul Rosolie, who was born in New York but raised in the North Jersey town of Wyckoff, not far from Ramapo College of New Jersey, where he got his degree in environmental studies.

Before graduating four years ago, he'd already fallen in love with the wilds of the Amazon, where he's been leading trips through Tamandua Expeditions.

The snake stunt seems to follow a fairly straightforward process, judging from the two promotional videos, one on YouTube, the other on Discovery.

It's well known that anacondas can swallow whole even huge critters like crocodiles.

So, first, you traipse into the jungle and find a gigantic snake.

Then, you put on a protective suit, to help survive any coiling, constriction, biting, swallowing and attempted digestion.

They reportedly added pig's blood to whet the snake's appetite.

Then it's a matter of getting yourself, well, wrapped up in the project, as glimpsed in one of the videos. We added a couple of helpful labels.

"We're going to get me inside of a snake," Rosolie says. "... The head must go in first."

How much of him got devoured  and how he escaped -- or got the snake to regurgitate him -- remain to be seen on the special.

Contact staff writer Peter Mucha at 215-854-4342 or pmucha@phillynews.com. Follow @petemucha on Twitter.