Handling the King
The recent incident involving a King Cobra at Bicholim has drawn the attention of a curious public to the existence of this reptile. Rahul Alvares, a snake-handler, writes of his recent experiences with the snake.
In November last year, a King Cobra was found by terrified villagers on the outskirts of the Molem Wildlife Sanctuary. Not knowing how to handle the large and extremely dangerous snake, the Forest Department’s officers, when called to help, killed it instead. The King Cobra was reported to be 12 feet long.
Like other wildlife enthusiasts, I was shocked with the news of the killing. I couldn’t imagine that the Forest Department’s officers would themselves kill such a beautiful and endangered animal. (Just shows how wildlife is treated in Goa, by people who are required to protect these animals.) I’ve had some experience with King Cobras myself when I was helping Romulus Whitaker with his film on the King Cobra for National Geographic. Ever since, I have always dreamt of handling and learning more about these much-misunderstood but magnificent reptiles which actually belong to a species separate from the ordinary cobras we know.
What makes a King Cobra so dangerous? For one thing, it is the largest venomous snake in the world. (The record is about 18 feet). The King Cobra is the only snake that can discharge enough venom in a single bite to kill even an elephant. Of course, what makes the snake doubly dangerous in India is that we do not produce King Cobra anti-venom. So a bite in India could invariably prove to be fatal. The venom, though, is less toxic than common cobra.
In spite of being so dangerous, however, there are almost no records of any bites in India, primarily because the King is a shy animal and is only found in dense jungles where there are plenty of snakes for it to feed on. This is the other speciality of the King: it feeds solely on other snakes, taking monitor lizards occasionally. Another interesting feature is that it is the only snake to build a nest for laying eggs. This it does by gathering leaves with its coils. After the young are born, however, the mother leaves them to fend for themselves as is the practice with all other snakes.
I have been handling poisonous snakes now for 7 years. This year, after graduation, I decided to make a trip to Malaysia and Thailand, where King Cobras are numerous and as common as cobras are in India. Labs in these countries also produce King Cobra antivenom, so it safer to learn how to handle such snakes there.
The Queen Savofha Institute is one such place in Thailand which keeps a large number of King Cobras. The institute is the second oldest snake farm in the world and apart from producing anti snake venoms, they also produce rabies vaccines. Anti snake venoms of the King Cobra, the Banded Krait, the Malayan pit Viper, the Popes tree Viper, the Common Cobra and the Russel’s Viper are produced and exported all over the world. The institute also breeds snakes like King Cobras so that it does not deplete wildlife populations in its search for venom.
The institute has a slide show and a live snake handling demonstration twice a day. At the live snake show, trained staff bring out King Cobras, Siamese cobras, Banded Kraits and Mangrove snakes. They end the show with a friendly python which they allow the audience to handle and photograph. They also demonstrate how they milk some of the snakes to extract their venom. Uthorn, the snake park manager, promised they would show us how to handle the King Cobra, if we wanted to.
My body was tingling with excitement as the show began and I was hoping he was not joking.
As Uthorn held the mike and engaged the audience with snake stories, a worker came in from the side dragging a huge King Cobra very casually through the crowd of people standing at the edge of the stage. A few people noticed the snake and jumped back shrieking. “All part of the game,” I thought.
Taking it to the centre of the stage, the snake handler gently eased his fingers off the King Cobra’s neck and released the huge reptile in front of the audience. Cameras were flashing but the King stood motionless, its head about one and a half feet above the ground. It concentrated its attention only at the snake handler walking around it.
The snake was about four metres long and it didn’t seem to be aggressive in the least. It was only when the handler really agitated it that it attempted to strike down with an open mouth. After the effort, it recoiled back slowly, like a spring. At times it would lunge its entire body forward with its hood still up. This is a feat that common cobras cannot do.
“Now you watch how to catch the King Cobra with bare hands,” said Uthorn. The handler distracted the King Cobra with his foot and then slowly maneuvered his hand behind the giant snake’s head. There was pin drop silence among the audience. Suddenly, a swift grab, and the King Cobra was caught neatly behind the head, helpless. The handler bowed and there was a round of applause.
After the show, I asked Uthorn if I could learn how to handle the King Cobra. He didn’t seem keen at the prospect. Since I was a foreigner, a bite from a King Cobra might have complications. I later met the Asst. Director of the Snake Institute, Dr. Montri, who made me write a letter to the Director saying I would be fully responsible in case of any untoward accident. For three days, I visited the institute daily, watching every snake show and greedily absorbing as much as I could of the handling procedure.
The staff finally agreed to teach me how to handle the King Cobra the day before I was to leave the country. “I think you know how to handle it”, Dr Montri said. “You just need one experience at it, right?” he smiled. I tried to hold back my excitement. “Only once”, Dr Montri repeated sternly.
Inside the giant King Cobra cage one of the snake catchers lifted a huge dome-shaped concrete shelter under which several King Cobras lay sleepily. There were at times 7 or 8 of them under one dome but he picked them up by their mid body as if they were tame pythons.
“He is very confident that his gentle behavior will not instigate them to attack,” Dr Montri said, at my astonished look. The handler himself had already lost a finger to a King Cobra bite earlier.
Slowly, the handler pulled out a massive King Cobra from one of the other domes. The specimen was probably about 4 metres long and as thick as my bicep. I asked for a snake hook and fumbled around with it, trying to handle the King Cobra in the manner I catch other cobras. The handler, however, wanted me to catch and hold it with my bare hands. I was getting confused about whether I should try his gentler techniques or whether I should rely on my own which were based on safety first.
“Grab the hood from behind,” urged Dr. Mantri, translating what the snake handler was saying in Thai. I wasn’t too confident about this, so instead I tried my own technique which is to touch the head and slowly push it towards the ground with the snake hook. This I have managed fairly easily with cobras at home in Goa.
But the King Cobra quickly opened his mouth upwards as soon as I touched him.
The handler shook his head. He moved his hand in a grabbing action over the King’s head, gesturing me to do the same. I had watched this about seven times before. Now was my chance.
Distracting the snake with my right hand, I slowly inched my left hand closer behind his head. I froze for a few seconds, my hand centimeters away from its head. Then, with one swipe, I grabbed the head.
“Ah!” smiled the handler, broadly.
It was as easy as I had thought it would be, because King Cobra heads are large. All the same, the method wasn’t fool proof. I realized that if I did this often enough I too would end up one day with one finger missing.
I released the King Cobra and then tried my hand with a smaller specimen, a female. This one I caught by gently grasping it mid body with one hand and then slowly sliding my other hand towards its head and then grabbing its neck: something I would never do back home.
I returned to Malaysia, where I visited two more snake parks, one at Perlis and the other at Bukit Jambul in Penang. At the Penang snake park, I met a snake handler named Sultan who proved to be a very warm and friendly guy. He was originally from India and was pleased to know that I too came from there. Sultan does a snake show on weekends where he does stunts like kissing the King Cobra on the hood and a few other antics.
The star of the show, however, was a nineteen foot, 81 kg reticulated python which I was brave enough to put around myself.
The Bukit Jambul Park has mainly snakes including some exotic ones such as Puff Adders from Africa, Spitting Cobras and Anacondas from South America, and many different Albino Cobras and Pythons. There were also a few other animals like Tigers, Giant Tortoises, Giant Dragon Fish, Emus, Iguanas and many different types of birds.
“I will show you whatever I know,” Sultan said, when I asked him if I could train. So, far the next three days I went to the park regularly to handle the King Cobra. I pestered Sultan with questions and learnt quite a bit.
Now I’m back home in Goa, admiring the lovely photos of me with the King Cobras, hoping to go back there again. There is so much to learn about these beautiful animals. Nowadays, because of so much deforestation, King Cobras are turning up quite often in public places.
Like the tiger, the King Cobra lies at the top of the food chain. It has no known enemies, except man. The presence of King Cobras in a forest is a sign of a healthy functioning ecosystem. We need to know more about them, if we are to save them. At any rate, they must be protected at all costs.
Ends
