Face-to-Fang with Thailand’s Deadliest Snake | King Cobra Rescue

Oh wow. He's right there. He's huge. Holy— Holy wow. That was terrifying. SaWat Dee Krap And welcome back to beautiful Krabi, everyone! This week's adventure is a crazy one. It is extremely dangerous. It’s something I never thought that I would be doing, and it’s something you should not try at home. In last week’s adventure, we explored Krabi Town, Ao Nang, and Railay beaches, which are definitely places that you want to go to— so check out the video if you haven’t seen it. While I was exploring, I went by the Krabi Snake Park and King Cobra Show, where you can get up close and personal with these slithering serpents from the local area. It’s really cool and definitely worth checking out. While I was here, I met the owner, a local YouTuber named Yaya, who was telling me that for the last 26 years he’s been caring for snakes in the region. One of the jobs he does is going to people’s homes to remove snakes that have come down from the mountains and the jungle so they don’t get killed—and then he releases them in a safe location. I thought, “Wow, that sounds so cool. Can I come along? What kind of snakes are you going to be catching?” And then he told me, and I was shocked. We’re not talking about garter snakes, green snakes, vipers, rattlesnakes, boas. We are talking about the big daddy, boom-daddy, papa snake. The one snake that rules them all: the king cobra. It’s the largest venomous snake in the world—coming in at 5.5 m (that’s almost 18 feet long)—and has a bite that can kill 20 humans or one elephant. I love that math. How are you? And today, he got the call. So I showed up to see. "Yeah, I’m so excited. That... so that you saw that today, the snake?" "No, they call us." "Ah, they call you?" "Yeah, it’s in the... in the palm plantation or somewhere. Like... yeah, they work yesterday and they saw [it] yesterday." "Okay." "And they called me last night. I said, tomorrow, okay. If you go and see that again, you call me. And morning, they come, and [it’s] still here." "Okay." "And they send me some picture." "Okay." "Sure. There's a king cobra." "Awesome." "Yeah. Then we need to go to help them." "Very cool." "So we're going to go there now. Maybe next half an hour." "Okay. Awesome." "You have to come too." "Awesome. Thank you so much." Cobra is a common venomous snake of Thailand, and this thing is responsible for the highest mortality rate of snake bites each year in Thailand. And just to show you how serious this is—this is Johnny. He’s the guy that runs the snake show, and he actually lost a finger to a king cobra. And 25 years ago, his brother lost his life to a king cobra bite on his upper arm. So this is extremely serious. These animals are wild, and they don’t have malice in them, but they are something that you have to be careful about—even the guys that are handling them. "And he’s still part of it even after this, because he loves the snake so much?" "Yes, kap." "Yes?" "Yeah. I do this for many, many times." "Yeah. I love that. And I love that you love the snakes." "Yeah." Yaya was just telling me that most people who go out and catch the snakes use a pole that has a noose on the end, and it can injure the snakes. So he always tries to catch them with his bare hands if it’s possible. Every situation is different, but it’s just amazing. He loves them. His staff loves them. And they’re risking their lives to help rescue these beautiful animals—and I just love that. "Yeah, I tell my... my friend or everyone... I tell them, we have to learn them." "Yeah." "Yeah. Then we keep fair for them. We not try to..." "Oh wait, you just try to..." "Yeah. It’s not fair for them." "It’s not fair for them because they’re just being snakes." "Yeah." "They might look like they’re evil with those little eyes, but they’re just animals." "Yeah." "They don’t have evil in them. They’re just trying to survive." "Yeah. And when they come into your house, you’re in their environment." "Exactly." "Have you ever been bit?" "For me? Never. Never." "Yeah?" "Never. Because when we saw them, when we close to them, in your mind, you have not to think anything outside. You have to think only one by one... the snake zone." "The snake zone?" "Yeah. If you worry about the people, blah blah blah blah blah blah blah, and in your brain, you... not—that’s it. You can’t focus." "Yeah, that’s it." "But if you’re okay, one by one. Like I tell my friend, right? A thousand people around you, but you could not hear that." "Yeah. And you should be okay with talking with the king cobra, one by one." "So do you really talk to the snake? Do you communicate with the snake when you’re...?" "It’s not really like that. But we can read them from the eye. We can read them from the acts. We can read them from the... yeah. When they react, we can greet them." "How do you feel?" "Yeah. Something like that." "When you go out and you're looking at that 8-meter king cobra in the eyes, do you get scared?" "Uh, sometime I got that. Yeah. Sometime I got that. And have one on the... on my YouTube." "Yeah? On your YouTube channel?" "Definitely check out his YouTube channel. I’ll put a link in the description below." "Thank you." "Yeah. I have one. All 26 years I work with the king cobra to help the people—only one can make me feel scared." "Really?" "Yes. Really." "How do you call it?" "It looks—it has the powers in the eyes, and it has the power in the face." "Wow." "It's like that. But in that time, I know, that means like... not try with me." "Yeah?" "Yeah. Similar like king tell me, like, not try with me, not drive with me, or something like that." "Yeah." "But I have to help the people. If the big king lives there, people cannot work. If they cannot work, they didn’t have any money for family, for children, for blah blah blah blah blah. I have to remove this one back to far away from each other." "Yeah. Oh, and okay..." "When the king starts to come up, come to me like... okay, yeah. Come on. You're talking. Come on, guy. We are talking. We just talking. Okay? Yeah. Okay. You not... cannot stay here. They have to work. But I doing that because I have to calm my heart from my brain." "Okay." "Come on. Come back. Come back. Come back. It’s not cold." "Yeah." "Okay. Come. Come. Come. And okay, yeah. He do for me three times. And after that we know—maybe okay, I not try to kill him. And then he go down." And I do feel like animals can sense our intentions. Like, if you’re going to hurt an animal, it has that sense that’s like, “I’m going to protect myself.” But if— "That's true. Yeah. I think king is very smart. Very smart." "Yeah, they’re very smart. They can think." "They can think. That’s the reason people in Thailand, we—we didn’t kill the king. Most people. Because they didn’t want—don’t want to cut them." "Yeah. Because people don’t want to hurt them." "They don’t want to hurt. Like... like local farmers don’t. Because they understand that they’re part of the ecosystem. Because they eat the smaller snakes that could bite them. And the bigger snakes like the king cobra go away." "Right. Because they’re smart. And they know that humans aren’t food. So they just say, ‘You stay there. I’ll stay here.’ But sometimes..." "Yeah, it crosses." "Yeah. And when they cross it..." "We have to go." "And then we have to go." "We have to go." "Okay. See you guys. See you there." We have arrived. It was about an hour drive out here with the team through some beautiful Krabi landscape, with those giant limestone formations all around. So nice. Then, when we got here, we did some off-roading to get out into this palm plantation, and the snake is not far away. So let’s head over and see if we can help this guy—and not get hurt in the process. Hello? Hello? Off we go. All right, let’s do it. Let’s go. Oh wow. He’s right there. He’s huge. Oh wow. Oh wow. There’s his head. Holy heck. He’s right there underneath this log. You can see him breathing—contracting and expanding. It’s crazy. I don’t think I ever thought I’d be this close to a king cobra in the wild. And you can actually hear the snake. They don’t hiss. They make like a... they actually growl. And something that’s so cool about these animals is that they can come out and stand up to one-third their body height. That means that if it’s a 5-meter snake, it’ll stand up and look me in the eye. That is terrifying. I just can’t believe we’re so close. Wow. Only in Thailand. Hook ready—so he can pull the snake out before he grabs it with his hands? "Yeah. Are you excited?" "Are you?" "Yeah. Because it’s under a big boat and we cannot take it by hand. We have to pull it out and then take it by hand." "Yeah? Wow. Okay, let’s see. Let’s do it." Leave the hot. Holy. Holy. Wow. Oh wow. That was terrifying. Holy. This is insane. That snake is huge. Just remember: Stay calm and cobra on. Holy wow. Holy. That was terrifying. This thing’s got to be 3–4 meters long. Oh wow. Oh wow. Good job! Oh wow. This guy’s big. That’s big. How big do you think he is? He’s so long. This is amazing. That was insane. That snake is so fast, so big—and it just kept going around the wood like that. I was... I was scared. And I wasn’t even right there. But when he popped his little head up and went—[hiss noise]—I swear my heart stopped for a second. Wow. Let’s go see where this goes. Did I kiss him? Oh, that’s right. I kissed a cobra. Sorry ladies—once you go snake, you can never go fake. I don’t know. And now we put him in a bag so he doesn’t hurt himself inside of the container as we transport him to the release. This thing is huge. Wow. It’s what I call a sapp snake. "Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you." "Box of snakes. Love it. Khop khun kap." That was so amazing. I never thought I’d be doing anything like that or be that close to a king cobra. Wow. It’s so powerful and so beautiful all at the same time. And in Thailand and in India, they actually celebrate these as revered figures. So you’ll see temples around here where they’re worshipping king cobras. They’re often referred to as the Naka—the protector of Buddhism and water. And they even date back to the Buddhist time, where it’s said that when he was getting his enlightenment, a king cobra actually came out and spread his hood above him so that he wouldn’t get sunburned. So these are an integral part of their culture and why they’re respected so much by the people and this amazing team of snake wranglers. "Ow, that was crazy!" "You got it?" "Yeah." "Yeah. Hopefully you did good." I just can’t believe how you just like went in there—I mean, he was going everywhere—and you just like... I saw you looking into his eyes. Like that connection was there. Just so amazing to see. Thank you so much. "So what do we do now?" "We take the snake and let it go?" "Yeah. We just bring it back to my... to the farm. The next few days. Four or five day maybe." "Yeah?" "After it just ready, and we, uh, we have to take the ticks out, to put some li on him, and waiting until... yeah, couple day. Or maybe we have more again. And we, all together, we go." "Oh wow. Something like that." So you actually care—you take them back and care for them, and treat them, and give them medical care? "Yeah. Wow. That’s so amazing." "Yeah. Not... not, uh, we take it and we go. Not. Because we have to do something more." "Yeah. Oh wow. Very cool. I love this. Thank you so much for letting me be part of it." Snake is ready to go. Let’s head back to town. So we just got back from the jungle with the snake, and they got another call—that there is another king cobra. But it’s right in town, at this market right here. Crazy. Underneath a refrigerator. "Black snake! Black snake! Black snake!" So it’s not a king cobra—it’s a black snake. But we’re still saving snakes, people. And that’s what’s important. And we’re getting paid in fruit. "Hey, a big one!" Now that’s what I call snake fruit. (It’s not actually snake fruit, but I love it.) Wow. I am absolutely beat right now. My adrenaline was like straight through the roof with that. I’ve been skydiving, bungee jumping, white water rafting on class 5 rapids... I’ve done some crazy stuff. But nothing has ever made my adrenaline pump like it did when that king cobra did his little [hiss] and he moved forward. I almost poofed myself. It was terrifying—but also incredibly beautiful to be able to be next to a creature like that, an apex predator, and to be able to touch it afterwards, and to be close to it—and know that we’re actually helping it. Normally king cobras will go away when humans come close, but unfortunately, as deforestation happens and we encroach into their territories, we do have more crisscrosses of these interactions. And it’s so great to have people like Yaya and his team that will actually come and help to rescue them so they don’t get hurt or killed. And I just think that is so special. And if you have the chance to come down here to the Snake Park, I highly recommend it because it is a great time—and these guys are awesome. They were really the highlight of the day, hanging out with the local Thai people because they are just so great. I even got to come back after we caught the second snake and have some lunch with them, and we got to chat. And they were telling me about how long they’ve worked here and some of the injuries they’ve had from the snakes. One of the guys has this huge scar up his hand from a cobra bite. Thankfully, he survived—but it’s okay. And he’s still doing it five years later. I love that. And I think one of the lessons here is that we tend to judge things just by how they look on the outside. And snakes look scary—but the truth is, they’re more scared of us than we are of them. So don’t just judge things on how they look on the outside and make these decisions about what they are. Give them a chance. Understand them. Because when we understand something—when we shine a light on it—then we don’t have to fear it anymore. And I’m way less afraid afterwards than I was when we were there. I mean, I guess that makes sense anyway—but I just feel like if I were to meet up with these snakes on my own, I would understand them now, and I would have way less of that fear and be able to handle myself in a better situation. Just amazing. This entire experience. I can’t believe we just did what we did. I loved it—and I hope that you did too. If you enjoyed this video, please give me a big thumbs up, comment, subscribe, and don’t forget to blinging-ling the king cobra. I’ll see you next time. Khop khun kap.