Secrets of the King Cobra (2010) - full transcript
NARRATOR:
He is the king of serpents,
unblinking,
hypnotic,
deadly.
And hungry for his own kind.
Towering over a wild
yet vulnerable kingdom,
the king cobra, the largest
venomous snake in the world,
is powerful enough to kill
a full-grown elephant.
And we know
almost nothing about it.
But that´s about to change.
Two king cobras,
each surgically implanted
with tracking devices,
are leading researchers
deep into the jungle
and into a mysterious world
of snake-on-snake violence,
cannibalism,
and surprising tenderness.
Follow these
pioneering serpents
into their quickly disappearing
realms,
revealing secret lives no human
has ever seen before.
♫♫
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In the sun-dappled forests
of India,
a rat snake tastes the air
for the scent of his prey.
♫♫
So intent is the rat snake
on his victim,
he fails to notice
the king.
This is his domain.
And the king cobra´s
favorite meal is rat snake.
So a second hunt begins.
♫♫
The rat snake sees his mistake,
but it´s too late.
The hooded hunter looms
and the rat snake cowers.
The king seems to contemplate
his meal.
A mistake.
There´s an intruder
in the kingdom.
The rat snake uses the
distraction to make his escape.
♫♫
The king´s dinner
will have to wait.
The king cobra grows up to
almost 5 1/2 meters...
...and has ruled
the forests of India
for millions of years.
But this ancient creature lives
in an increasingly human world.
And its kingdom grows smaller
every year.
King cobras reside
throughout Indonesia,
Malaysia, and much
of Southeast Asia.
But a mountain range
along India´s southwest coast,
known as the Western Ghats,
has perhaps the highest density
of king cobras in the world.
The Ghats are one of
the wettest places on Earth.
Vast quantities
of India´s water
run through its labyrinth
of rivers and waterways.
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Endless water providing
for limitless life...
...and countless species.
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All this life ensures a chain
of never-ending death.
♫♫
But it´s the king cobra
that rules these forests.
♫♫
It can live up to
30 years of age
and never stops growing.
To accommodate
this endless growth,
the king must shed its skin
four to six times a year.
The first sign --
its eyes become cloudy
from a milky secretion
released to help separate
old skin from new.
When its eyes clear,
it begins shedding.
It can take up to 10 days
to scrape
the used flakes
of itchy, irritable skin free.
It´s an anxious time
in the life of a snake.
And a bad time to seek out
the company of humans.
But houses offer warmth,
shelter,
and a choice of hiding places.
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It seeks only solitude,
but packs enough venom to kill
a human many times over
and might defend itself
if disturbed...
...with fatal consequences.
♫♫
Fortunately, the villagers
around here revere the king
and know who to call
when one takes up residence.
Okay. (speaks native language)
NARRATOR: Gowri Shankar,
the conservation officer
at the Agumbe Rainforest
Research Station,
has dedicated his life
to saving
and studying the king cobra.
Gowri, and the founder
of the research station,
renowned herpetologist
Rom Whitaker,
are about to embark
on the most ambitious study
ever conducted with the king.
They want to capture
and radio-tag king cobras
for the first time
and follow them into the wild.
But they need a king
for the experiment.
And this distress call
may provide
the perfect opportunity.
WHITAKER: There are problems
with king cobras sometimes.
And no matter how patient
and how kindly they feel
toward king cobras,
having one in your bedroom
is no fun.
NARRATOR: Capturing king cobras
is a potentially
deadly business.
Even the best get bitten.
Gowri has been bitten once.
Rom´s been struck twice.
And he´s now allergic
to the antivenom.
If it´s anywhere, it´s going
to be under the baskets.
I think I can see her already.
Yeah, she´s glistening
under there.
Easy does it. Easy does it.
Oh, man.
Yup, and she´s
shedding her skin, too.
NARRATOR: He handles
the nearly three-meter king
with an ease that comes only
from decades of experience.
She´s really nice, Gowri.
It looks like a female.
NARRATOR: They know by the size
of the head
and the coloring of the skin
that this king
is actually a queen.
WHITAKER:
And let´s get these shots.
NARRATOR: Before they bag her,
they take a photograph
to record the pattern
on her hood.
It´s kind of like fingerprinting
an animal, isn´t it?
-Yeah.
-One more.
NARRATOR: But to do this,
they must make her
open her hood.
In other words, make her mad --
not something
for the faint of heart.
With these mug shots,
they hope to assess how many
snakes live in the area
and keep tabs
on snakes they´ve met before.
A successful photo ID,
and they offer her
a dark escape --
a capture bag, fitted with
a piece of PVC pipe.
WHITAKER: Through the pipe.
NARRATOR:
And the rescue is complete.
Normally, they´d release her
away from the village.
But they´ve got much bigger
plans for today´s prize.
They´ll take her back
to the research station
to prep her for
a groundbreaking role
in cobra research.
Until now, studying kings
in their natural habitat
has been virtually impossible.
The forests are too dense
and the snakes too elusive.
As a result, little is known
about the king´s life
in the wild --
where it goes,
what it does,
or the size of its range.
Rom and Gowri´s plan is
to surgically implant
small radiotransmitters
into two king cobras
and follow them into the wild.
Because these little-understood
animals are now endangered,
this research project
is more important than ever.
India´s forests
are rapidly disappearing
as humans push deeper
into the wilderness.
It is estimated
that snakes kill
as many as 50,000 people
in India every year.
♫♫
While the king cobra is
the largest venomous snake
in India,
there have been only
four reported deaths
in south India
in the past 20 years.
And though it has more venom
than any other snake,
only 10% of the people
they bite die
because kings can control
how much venom they release.
Muscles around the venom glands
contract,
squeezing calculated amounts
of neurotoxins
through its hypodermic fangs
and into the victim.
Or it can release none at all,
which is often the case
with humans.
After all, venom is valuable.
And the king is
a prolific killer
of other snakes.
The king cobra´s diet consists
almost entirely of serpents.
Though it´s an apex predator
among reptiles,
the king increasingly
finds itself
in competition with people.
As India´s burgeoning
human population
continues to grow,
farms and plantations
carve deeper into the forests
of the Western Ghats
and wandering kings
often find themselves
in unfamiliar territory.
Now Gowri and Rom
have been called out
to a betel nut plantation
where a local snake handler
has trouble by the tail.
It´s a king who has
taken refuge in a hole
at the base of a tree,
and the base of the tree
is at the top of a cliff.
The danger factor
is just too much, man.
Never mind the venomous snake,
but how about a 40-foot drop
to your death along with it.
NARRATOR: They´ll need a
serious plan to save this snake
and keep themselves
out of danger.
But if they catch this snake,
they´ll have their
second pioneer serpent
and the research project
can begin in earnest.
Safety first, dudes.
NARRATOR: To keep from falling
12 meters
to the plantation below,
Gowri ropes himself in.
Once we spot the head,
that will help us a lot.
We don´t know where exactly
the head is.
He might be 9 or 10 feet.
NARRATOR:
The plantation workers´ plan
is to pull the tree down,
tearing it
and the snake from the ground.
But that quickly proves
too difficult...
...and Gowri takes over.
♫♫
Carefully digging
around the hole,
he loosens the snake´s grip
on the earth...
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until, finally,
the king comes free.
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Now the local snake handler,
perched precariously
on the top of the cliff,
finds himself face-to-face
with an angry king.
♫♫
But with a firm grip
on the tail,
Gowri drags the 3 1/2-meter
serpent from the cliff.
This snake is broader
and lighter in color
than the female
they rescued earlier.
It must be a male.
♫♫
As the audience gathers,
Rom and Gowri try to lure
the serpent into the bag.
And after some coaxing,
the king obliges.
♫♫
Toughest catch I´ve ever seen
in my life, actually.
Insane, actually.
NARRATOR:
Now, the tagging can begin.
With both a male and female
king cobra,
they´ll be able to compare
the behavior of the sexes,
something that´s a complete
mystery right now.
It´s time to call in
the expert.
Matt Goode is a herpetologist
from the University of Arizona
and a leading authority
on tracking snakes.
GOODE: Well, it´s difficult,
because the animals that
we study are very secretive.
You really have to be creative.
There´s just as much art in it
as there is science.
And you sort of got to think
like a snake, I guess.
NARRATOR: Matt has implanted
radiotransmitters
in hundreds of venomous snakes,
but never a king.
GOODE: Radio telemetry has
really just revolutionized
the study of snakes.
Before, you know,
you could release a snake
and probably never see it again.
Now we can track it
and we can find out
what it´s doing
on a minute-by-minute basis
if we want.
The real motivation is what
it´s like to be a snake.
WHITAKER: Doc, go ahead
and load up some anesthesia.
NARRATOR: At the station,
the team preps the female
for the unique operation,
taking every precaution
to ensure her safety.
GOODE: Let´s get some tape.
NARRATOR: They must estimate
how much anesthetic to use.
Too much and she might not wake
from her drug-induced sleep.
♫♫
Needle drivers.
WHITAKER:
I think she just went down.
NARRATOR:
Matt makes an incision...
and carefully inserts
the radiotransmitter
between the vital organs.
This small tracking device
will emit a signal
that a specialized receiver
can pick up from
over 300 meters away.
Then Matt inserts
two small buttons.
These will take
temperature readings
every hour
for the next two years.
Some final stitching
and the operation is complete.
The king was shedding
when captured,
so they remove
the final flakes of dead skin,
including the eye cap --
the dead skin covering the eye.
You can see fairly clearly
through that.
NARRATOR: All that is left
is to wake her up.
But she does not respond.
So Matt inserts a straw
into her trachea
and gives the king
mouth-to-mouth,
trying to flush the anesthetic
from her lungs.
But she still won´t wake up.
♫♫
Because kings are
an endangered species,
the forest department
keeps careful watch.
♫♫
Finally, the king takes
a breath for herself.
(applause)
WHITAKER: Thanks, doc.
That was fantastic.
Thanks, everybody.
NARRATOR:
The surgery is a success.
Tomorrow, it´s the male´s turn.
That´s so cool, man.
NARRATOR: Soon, both snakes
will be released into the wild.
GOODE: This looks like
a great spot to me,
right in the stream bed.
NARRATOR: This female king was
rescued from a human world.
So for the study, the team
releases her 30 kilometers away
from her old home,
far from humans.
-Ah, there she is.
-Yeah.
By following the king
into her world,
they´ll learn
how far she ranges,
when she´s active,
and how she behaves
in the wild.
Matt is also eager to see if
the king has a homing instinct.
GOODE: It´s one of the main
goals of this study,
is to understand
if there´s a difference
between translocated snakes
and the ones which are already
in their home range
and are used to
where they live.
NARRATOR: If a relocated snake
simply returns
to its old territory
on human turf,
then relocation itself
is not the solution.
GOODE: If we have to come catch
them and translocate them,
then we have a problem
on our hands.
NARRATOR: And if she continues
to clash with people,
she could be killed.
Anxious for a quick escape,
the snake moves south,
away from its home range.
Only time will tell
where she´s headed.
The journey begins, you know?
The adventure begins.
We´ll see what the snake does.
It´s gonna be really cool.
♫♫
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NARRATOR: Matt and his students
set out on the snake´s trail,
tracking as many
as eight kilometers a day.
I think we should head that way.
♫♫
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For the volunteers,
it´s the experience
of a lifetime...
complete with myriad encounters
found nowhere else on Earth.
But they must keep all
their focus on the king.
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All right.
NARRATOR: A few days later,
they release
the male king cobra,
also armed with
a tracking device.
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♫♫
That´s it?
Cool, man.
♫♫
NARRATOR: Food is his priority
after his ordeal.
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♫♫
He tastes the air,
drawing in microscopic scent
molecules with his tongue.
The tongue then transfers
the molecules to a small organ,
the Jacobsen´s organ,
in the roof of the mouth.
Here the molecules
are identified
and the information
is passed to the brain.
One scent in particular
rivets his interest --
a rat snake.
His keen vision
pinpoints the victim.
It too is a formidable hunter,
growing almost 2 1/2 meters
in length.
But it´s also the king´s
favorite food.
♫♫
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The rat snake tries
to look intimidating.
But it´s outmatched
in every way.
The king cobra towers
over his victim.
♫♫
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Hypodermic fangs
deliver a massive dose
of neurotoxic venom.
♫♫
The rat snake is not venomous,
so its desperate counterattack
does little to deter
this predator.
♫♫
The king then walks his fangs
up the body.
Each gnawing bite
injects more venom
until the struggling lessens
and an all-out attack
on the nervous system begins.
Eventually, the diaphragm
and lungs are paralyzed
and the victim asphyxiates.
Kings always eat their prey
head first.
Backward-facing teeth
help guide the victim down.
The venom has already started
to digest the rat snake
from the inside out.
It absorbs the entire snake --
bones, scales, everything.
♫♫
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He´s tired and vulnerable
after his big meal
and will lay low
for almost a week,
hiding in the leaf litter.
The radio-tagged female
is still on the move.
For the eager volunteers,
it´s a trial by fire.
Bad weather,
treacherous terrain,
and one of the densest
populations
of deadly snakes in the world
makes tracking through these
forests extremely dangerous.
And trouble can come
when least expected.
Just a few days
into the project,
they lose
the female snake´s signal.
-Nothing, huh?
-Nothing at all.
Still nothing.
You know, guys, we´ve got to
get up out of this stream bed.
We got to get up on top and see
if we can get that signal,
and we need to do it quick,
otherwise,
we´re going to lose this snake.
NARRATOR: If they don´t
pick up the signal soon,
the king
could be gone forever.
If following the tagged snakes
proves impossible,
the project will fail.
Desperately, the research team
scrambles to high ground
trying to regain
the king cobra´s signal.
The tracking device
implanted in her side
broadcasts
more than 300 meters.
But in some conditions,
it can be far less than that.
There it is.
We got it.
Yeah, it´s a long way away.
So we´re going to have
to really move it.
NARRATOR:
They finally locate the signal,
but they must still
visually locate the animal.
There it is.
We still got her.
♫♫
There she is. There she is.
NARRATOR: Matt marks the area
and takes a GPS reading
of the location.
It´s still too early to tell
whether the female king
is moving in search of a mate
or if she´s seeking out
her old home.
♫♫
As the female king slithers,
she secretes pheromones,
leaving a potent scent trail
along the forest floor.
For the eager male
who picks up the scent,
it´s a road map
to her affections.
♫♫
♫♫
Finding her is only
the beginning of his trials.
Females are often wary
of the larger males,
and with good reason.
He could kill her
if she does not accept him.
But she could also kill him,
so he bumps and nudges her
with his nose --
an eager flirtation.
Eventually, the seduction works
and our female relents.
She spreads her hood and raises
her head off the ground.
Mating can take
as long as an hour.
If all goes well,
in about a month,
she´ll lay
some 20 to 40 eggs --
the heirs to the throne.
♫♫
Huh?
-Right above your head.
-Right above your head.
Oh, big male.
NARRATOR: Not more than
20 kilometers away,
the tagged male wanders back
into a betel nut plantation.
He´s watching us.
Yeah, he´s watching us.
NARRATOR: The snake has climbed
high into a tree.
King cobras often climb
in search of food
or simply to bask in the sun.
First, they try cutting down
the branches around him.
He´s going up. He´s going up.
NARRATOR:
But he only pushes higher.
In the end, they cut
the whole tree down.
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♫♫
They once again coax him
into the bag.
WHITAKER: Wonderful.
NARRATOR: The tagged male´s
attraction to humans
offers some troubling insights
into the snake´s behavior.
SHANKAR: Yeah, there he goes.
Don´t move. No one move.
NARRATOR: If he´s lost
his fear of people,
his behavior could be dangerous
for serpent and human alike.
With populations
continuing to grow,
finding a safe way to coexist
with kings is a priority.
Back in the forest,
the radio-tagged female king
has spent the past two weeks
with her mate...
when another male wanders
into their territory.
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During the breeding season,
when two male snakes collide,
everything is on the line.
Often mistaken
for a mating dance,
this display is actually
a form of ritualized combat.
Unwritten rules
govern the duel,
and there´s no biting allowed.
Rising higher than a meter,
each tries to pin the other
to the ground.
♫♫
♫♫
With a final non-venomous blow,
the contest is ended.
♫♫
♫♫
The resident male has lost,
and he must leave his territory
and his mate.
And to the winner
go the spoils.
Like all males
this time of year,
this snake seems to have only
one thing on his mind -- sex.
But our tagged female
has already mated
and wants only
to be left in peace.
♫♫
Unfortunately, she is about
to play out a horrifying scene.
♫♫
♫♫
At first, the new male
king cobra
seems to be merely persistent
in his courtship,
and the tagged female
playing hard to get.
But she´s carrying
another male´s eggs.
Is it possible he senses
the rival´s offspring?
For whatever reason, his
intentions turn from mating...
to murder.
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She is not fully immune
to her own kind´s venom
and he squeezes her
in his vise-like jaws,
pumping venom
into her bloodstream.
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But death does not
come quickly.
♫♫
He is her physical superior,
but she will not surrender.
♫♫
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After more than a half an hour,
with every ounce of life
left in her,
she begins to roll.
♫♫
♫♫
This death roll might be
the final fight for freedom
or simply the final breath
of life,
but it signifies the end.
♫♫
After 45 minutes...
the queen is dead.
♫♫
♫♫
While the male´s true motives
for the murder are unclear,
he is a snake eater,
so he begins to swallow her.
But he may not have
killed her out of hunger.
Whether he´s just an aggressive
male on the rampage
or if some other variable
led to a breakdown
in the rules of the game,
we may never know for sure.
But the pregnant queen
is too large
and he cannot swallow her.
So he regurgitates
her lifeless body...
and pushes on...
leaving the female king,
and the eggs inside her,
for the scavengers.
♫♫
♫♫
Life in the wild is a series
of harsh realities.
But for every tragedy,
there is new hope.
-Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
-See that?
It´s huge.
NARRATOR: Rom and Gowri
have been notified
of another female king,
this one building a nest
in a nearby tract of forest.
With the tagged female gone,
they put the new female
on 24-hour surveillance,
hoping to witness the rise
of the next generation.
With the monsoons coming,
the mother king´s new brood
will need shelter.
She´s the only snake
in the world
that builds a nest
for her eggs,
piling leaves onto a mound
as tall as one meter high.
That is so methodical.
And that´s why you have
this symmetry.
When she finished that side,
she came exactly
to the opposite side.
When she finished that side,
she came to the other side
of the nest,
and now she´s coming
to this side.
NARRATOR: It must be perfect
for the eggs to survive --
high enough to avoid flooding
but sheltered enough
to maintain
the right temperature.
The eggs must incubate
at 28 degrees Celsius.
It can take more than 12 hours
of rigorous work.
The mother king will
stay with the nest,
standing guard,
unable to hunt,
until her eggs
are ready to hatch.
She could go as many as
three months without a meal.
Meanwhile, our tagged male
snake is still on the move
and has wandered
once again into a human world.
(dog barking)
He is drawn here on the trail
of a potential meal...
a rat snake,
stalking a rodent right into
someone´s front yard.
♫♫
Nothing will interrupt
this hunt.
Twisting and turning,
he mauls the victim,
pumping it full of venom.
Witnessing this hunt
in human territory
confirms a suspicion Rom
and others have held
for some time.
WHITAKER: We´re learning
an awful lot by radio tracking
for the first time.
And we always suspected
they spend plenty of time
in rice fields.
And that´s where they find
their rat snakes,
because that´s where
the rat snakes find rats.
But now we´ve really proved it
with what we found out.
NARRATOR: Humans attract rats,
rats attract rat snakes,
and rat snakes
attract king cobras.
Still, despite increased
contact with the serpents,
human deaths
are not on the rise.
It is the king cobras
who are more at risk.
But as the dry season wanes,
the kings have
more immediate concerns.
The monsoons of the
Western Ghats are legendary,
dropping almost nine meters of
rain annually in some places.
And everyone must adapt
to the monsoons --
people,
animals,
even the king.
The deluge batters
the female king´s nest.
If the water rises too high,
all her efforts will be lost,
and all of her babies
could die.
♫♫
For months, torrential rains
soak the Western Ghats.
But millions of years
of evolution
have taught this mother well.
The center of the nest stays
dry and the eggs are safe.
Finally, after 100 days,
the baby snakes
are ready to hatch,
triggering the hungry
mother´s departure.
She is, after all,
a snake eater,
and no doubt hungry enough
to eat her own young.
So instinct drives her away
in search of
an unrelated victim.
Deep in the nest,
using a sharp, tiny tooth,
a new king tears
the leathery egg casing...
and breathes its first breath.
♫♫
♫♫
They emerge one by one,
over the course
of a few days --
25 snakes in all...
♫♫
armed with a predatory hunger,
even at birth.
They will remain by the nest
for 24 hours
to absorb
their nutritious yolks --
sustenance
for the hard days ahead.
They are less than a day old,
already powerfully venomous,
but still vulnerable.
Left on their own,
most of the babies will be
taken by predators
such as raptors,
mongooses,
even other snakes.
Or they will die
of starvation.
Only 1 or 2 of the 25 snakes
will survive to adulthood.
And even then,
nothing is guaranteed.
For Rom, after 37 years
of studying the king cobra,
the tagging project has shown
him that he´s just beginning.
WHITAKER:
I wish I could say I know a lot
about king cobras
after all these years.
To be honest with you, we´ve
barely scratched the surface.
NARRATOR: So far, the research
project has been a success
and has provided a rare glimpse
into the secret world
of the king.
WHITAKER: What we´ve learned
so far is pretty amazing stuff.
We know now the kind of resting
places they prefer --
in caves.
They go in caves
and holes an awful lot.
They climb a lot,
which we suspected before,
but now we´ve really
proved that as well.
NARRATOR: They´ve also found
that the male
moved much farther
than the female.
Before the female was killed,
she traveled
around five kilometers.
But over the first
seven months,
the tagged male snake has moved
more than 75 kilometers.
And he shows no signs
of slowing down.
WHITAKER:
We had a sighting recently
and he looks in very good shape,
which means he has been feeding,
he has been drinking,
he has been living well.
We were always
a little bit worried.
This is the first time
a king cobra
has ever been radio tracked.
We don´t want him to feel as
though he´s being chased by us.
We want him to do
everything naturally.
NARRATOR: But there are
troubling discoveries as well.
Researchers believe
the male snake is moving
in search of new territory.
But it seems he´s learned
that human habitat
is a good source of food,
shelter, and warmth.
And he´s twice made
his new home in our world.
Simply relocating snakes away
from humans is not the answer.
But the solution
remains a mystery.
One thing is certain --
as people expand deeper
into the wilderness,
something is bound to give.
WHITAKER: What we´re looking at
is a mosaic of forest,
paddy fields, and plantations,
and that´s king cobra country.
Year by year,
the agricultural land
is expanding
right into the forest.
King cobras really depend
on this land as well.
NARRATOR:
The Western Ghats have already
seen their share
of destruction.
In the past century,
undisturbed forest in the Ghats
has dwindled from about 100,000
to a meager 13,000
square kilometers.
Now a biodiversity hotspot,
it is one of the most
endangered ecosystems on Earth.
WHITAKER: India has lost about
80% of its rainforest.
And that´s our fear, you know,
that the rest of it could go,
that we´ll lose most of
the king cobra´s habitat.
NARRATOR: But the most
intriguing discoveries
from the tagging program
have also been
the most shocking.
Since the project began,
male kings have killed two
pregnant female king cobras
within a 20-kilometer radius.
The researchers don´t yet know
whether the killers were
rogue males on a rampage
or if the brutal killings
of pregnant females
is common among wild kings.
The answers will only come
with continued research.
And the success of this pilot
project will go a long way
in advancing
the study of the king.
Here it is there. Look.
NARRATOR: An autopsy of
the dead female confirms
that she was indeed pregnant...
SHANKAR: ...7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12,
13, 14, 15, 16.
There´s one more.
NARRATOR: ...carrying 17 eggs
when she met her untimely end.
♫♫
She is laid to rest with
a royal funeral pyre --
a fiery homage to this
pioneering queen of kings
whose sacrifice has given us
an unsettling new glimpse
into the king cobra´s
merciless world.
SHANKAR: She was supposed to
build the nest
and get the next
generation ready.
But she ended up here.
♫♫
♫♫
NARRATOR: At least for now,
one new generation
has survived.
But even for these
deadliest of creatures,
survival is a brutal battle.
Each will carry
the time-toughened mantle
of a true survivor...
a crown prince destined
to reign
over one of India´s last Edens.
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
Captioned by VITAC
He is the king of serpents,
unblinking,
hypnotic,
deadly.
And hungry for his own kind.
Towering over a wild
yet vulnerable kingdom,
the king cobra, the largest
venomous snake in the world,
is powerful enough to kill
a full-grown elephant.
And we know
almost nothing about it.
But that´s about to change.
Two king cobras,
each surgically implanted
with tracking devices,
are leading researchers
deep into the jungle
and into a mysterious world
of snake-on-snake violence,
cannibalism,
and surprising tenderness.
Follow these
pioneering serpents
into their quickly disappearing
realms,
revealing secret lives no human
has ever seen before.
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
In the sun-dappled forests
of India,
a rat snake tastes the air
for the scent of his prey.
♫♫
So intent is the rat snake
on his victim,
he fails to notice
the king.
This is his domain.
And the king cobra´s
favorite meal is rat snake.
So a second hunt begins.
♫♫
The rat snake sees his mistake,
but it´s too late.
The hooded hunter looms
and the rat snake cowers.
The king seems to contemplate
his meal.
A mistake.
There´s an intruder
in the kingdom.
The rat snake uses the
distraction to make his escape.
♫♫
The king´s dinner
will have to wait.
The king cobra grows up to
almost 5 1/2 meters...
...and has ruled
the forests of India
for millions of years.
But this ancient creature lives
in an increasingly human world.
And its kingdom grows smaller
every year.
King cobras reside
throughout Indonesia,
Malaysia, and much
of Southeast Asia.
But a mountain range
along India´s southwest coast,
known as the Western Ghats,
has perhaps the highest density
of king cobras in the world.
The Ghats are one of
the wettest places on Earth.
Vast quantities
of India´s water
run through its labyrinth
of rivers and waterways.
♫♫
♫♫
Endless water providing
for limitless life...
...and countless species.
♫♫
♫♫
All this life ensures a chain
of never-ending death.
♫♫
But it´s the king cobra
that rules these forests.
♫♫
It can live up to
30 years of age
and never stops growing.
To accommodate
this endless growth,
the king must shed its skin
four to six times a year.
The first sign --
its eyes become cloudy
from a milky secretion
released to help separate
old skin from new.
When its eyes clear,
it begins shedding.
It can take up to 10 days
to scrape
the used flakes
of itchy, irritable skin free.
It´s an anxious time
in the life of a snake.
And a bad time to seek out
the company of humans.
But houses offer warmth,
shelter,
and a choice of hiding places.
♫♫
♫♫
It seeks only solitude,
but packs enough venom to kill
a human many times over
and might defend itself
if disturbed...
...with fatal consequences.
♫♫
Fortunately, the villagers
around here revere the king
and know who to call
when one takes up residence.
Okay. (speaks native language)
NARRATOR: Gowri Shankar,
the conservation officer
at the Agumbe Rainforest
Research Station,
has dedicated his life
to saving
and studying the king cobra.
Gowri, and the founder
of the research station,
renowned herpetologist
Rom Whitaker,
are about to embark
on the most ambitious study
ever conducted with the king.
They want to capture
and radio-tag king cobras
for the first time
and follow them into the wild.
But they need a king
for the experiment.
And this distress call
may provide
the perfect opportunity.
WHITAKER: There are problems
with king cobras sometimes.
And no matter how patient
and how kindly they feel
toward king cobras,
having one in your bedroom
is no fun.
NARRATOR: Capturing king cobras
is a potentially
deadly business.
Even the best get bitten.
Gowri has been bitten once.
Rom´s been struck twice.
And he´s now allergic
to the antivenom.
If it´s anywhere, it´s going
to be under the baskets.
I think I can see her already.
Yeah, she´s glistening
under there.
Easy does it. Easy does it.
Oh, man.
Yup, and she´s
shedding her skin, too.
NARRATOR: He handles
the nearly three-meter king
with an ease that comes only
from decades of experience.
She´s really nice, Gowri.
It looks like a female.
NARRATOR: They know by the size
of the head
and the coloring of the skin
that this king
is actually a queen.
WHITAKER:
And let´s get these shots.
NARRATOR: Before they bag her,
they take a photograph
to record the pattern
on her hood.
It´s kind of like fingerprinting
an animal, isn´t it?
-Yeah.
-One more.
NARRATOR: But to do this,
they must make her
open her hood.
In other words, make her mad --
not something
for the faint of heart.
With these mug shots,
they hope to assess how many
snakes live in the area
and keep tabs
on snakes they´ve met before.
A successful photo ID,
and they offer her
a dark escape --
a capture bag, fitted with
a piece of PVC pipe.
WHITAKER: Through the pipe.
NARRATOR:
And the rescue is complete.
Normally, they´d release her
away from the village.
But they´ve got much bigger
plans for today´s prize.
They´ll take her back
to the research station
to prep her for
a groundbreaking role
in cobra research.
Until now, studying kings
in their natural habitat
has been virtually impossible.
The forests are too dense
and the snakes too elusive.
As a result, little is known
about the king´s life
in the wild --
where it goes,
what it does,
or the size of its range.
Rom and Gowri´s plan is
to surgically implant
small radiotransmitters
into two king cobras
and follow them into the wild.
Because these little-understood
animals are now endangered,
this research project
is more important than ever.
India´s forests
are rapidly disappearing
as humans push deeper
into the wilderness.
It is estimated
that snakes kill
as many as 50,000 people
in India every year.
♫♫
While the king cobra is
the largest venomous snake
in India,
there have been only
four reported deaths
in south India
in the past 20 years.
And though it has more venom
than any other snake,
only 10% of the people
they bite die
because kings can control
how much venom they release.
Muscles around the venom glands
contract,
squeezing calculated amounts
of neurotoxins
through its hypodermic fangs
and into the victim.
Or it can release none at all,
which is often the case
with humans.
After all, venom is valuable.
And the king is
a prolific killer
of other snakes.
The king cobra´s diet consists
almost entirely of serpents.
Though it´s an apex predator
among reptiles,
the king increasingly
finds itself
in competition with people.
As India´s burgeoning
human population
continues to grow,
farms and plantations
carve deeper into the forests
of the Western Ghats
and wandering kings
often find themselves
in unfamiliar territory.
Now Gowri and Rom
have been called out
to a betel nut plantation
where a local snake handler
has trouble by the tail.
It´s a king who has
taken refuge in a hole
at the base of a tree,
and the base of the tree
is at the top of a cliff.
The danger factor
is just too much, man.
Never mind the venomous snake,
but how about a 40-foot drop
to your death along with it.
NARRATOR: They´ll need a
serious plan to save this snake
and keep themselves
out of danger.
But if they catch this snake,
they´ll have their
second pioneer serpent
and the research project
can begin in earnest.
Safety first, dudes.
NARRATOR: To keep from falling
12 meters
to the plantation below,
Gowri ropes himself in.
Once we spot the head,
that will help us a lot.
We don´t know where exactly
the head is.
He might be 9 or 10 feet.
NARRATOR:
The plantation workers´ plan
is to pull the tree down,
tearing it
and the snake from the ground.
But that quickly proves
too difficult...
...and Gowri takes over.
♫♫
Carefully digging
around the hole,
he loosens the snake´s grip
on the earth...
♫♫
♫♫
until, finally,
the king comes free.
♫♫
♫♫
Now the local snake handler,
perched precariously
on the top of the cliff,
finds himself face-to-face
with an angry king.
♫♫
But with a firm grip
on the tail,
Gowri drags the 3 1/2-meter
serpent from the cliff.
This snake is broader
and lighter in color
than the female
they rescued earlier.
It must be a male.
♫♫
As the audience gathers,
Rom and Gowri try to lure
the serpent into the bag.
And after some coaxing,
the king obliges.
♫♫
Toughest catch I´ve ever seen
in my life, actually.
Insane, actually.
NARRATOR:
Now, the tagging can begin.
With both a male and female
king cobra,
they´ll be able to compare
the behavior of the sexes,
something that´s a complete
mystery right now.
It´s time to call in
the expert.
Matt Goode is a herpetologist
from the University of Arizona
and a leading authority
on tracking snakes.
GOODE: Well, it´s difficult,
because the animals that
we study are very secretive.
You really have to be creative.
There´s just as much art in it
as there is science.
And you sort of got to think
like a snake, I guess.
NARRATOR: Matt has implanted
radiotransmitters
in hundreds of venomous snakes,
but never a king.
GOODE: Radio telemetry has
really just revolutionized
the study of snakes.
Before, you know,
you could release a snake
and probably never see it again.
Now we can track it
and we can find out
what it´s doing
on a minute-by-minute basis
if we want.
The real motivation is what
it´s like to be a snake.
WHITAKER: Doc, go ahead
and load up some anesthesia.
NARRATOR: At the station,
the team preps the female
for the unique operation,
taking every precaution
to ensure her safety.
GOODE: Let´s get some tape.
NARRATOR: They must estimate
how much anesthetic to use.
Too much and she might not wake
from her drug-induced sleep.
♫♫
Needle drivers.
WHITAKER:
I think she just went down.
NARRATOR:
Matt makes an incision...
and carefully inserts
the radiotransmitter
between the vital organs.
This small tracking device
will emit a signal
that a specialized receiver
can pick up from
over 300 meters away.
Then Matt inserts
two small buttons.
These will take
temperature readings
every hour
for the next two years.
Some final stitching
and the operation is complete.
The king was shedding
when captured,
so they remove
the final flakes of dead skin,
including the eye cap --
the dead skin covering the eye.
You can see fairly clearly
through that.
NARRATOR: All that is left
is to wake her up.
But she does not respond.
So Matt inserts a straw
into her trachea
and gives the king
mouth-to-mouth,
trying to flush the anesthetic
from her lungs.
But she still won´t wake up.
♫♫
Because kings are
an endangered species,
the forest department
keeps careful watch.
♫♫
Finally, the king takes
a breath for herself.
(applause)
WHITAKER: Thanks, doc.
That was fantastic.
Thanks, everybody.
NARRATOR:
The surgery is a success.
Tomorrow, it´s the male´s turn.
That´s so cool, man.
NARRATOR: Soon, both snakes
will be released into the wild.
GOODE: This looks like
a great spot to me,
right in the stream bed.
NARRATOR: This female king was
rescued from a human world.
So for the study, the team
releases her 30 kilometers away
from her old home,
far from humans.
-Ah, there she is.
-Yeah.
By following the king
into her world,
they´ll learn
how far she ranges,
when she´s active,
and how she behaves
in the wild.
Matt is also eager to see if
the king has a homing instinct.
GOODE: It´s one of the main
goals of this study,
is to understand
if there´s a difference
between translocated snakes
and the ones which are already
in their home range
and are used to
where they live.
NARRATOR: If a relocated snake
simply returns
to its old territory
on human turf,
then relocation itself
is not the solution.
GOODE: If we have to come catch
them and translocate them,
then we have a problem
on our hands.
NARRATOR: And if she continues
to clash with people,
she could be killed.
Anxious for a quick escape,
the snake moves south,
away from its home range.
Only time will tell
where she´s headed.
The journey begins, you know?
The adventure begins.
We´ll see what the snake does.
It´s gonna be really cool.
♫♫
♫♫
NARRATOR: Matt and his students
set out on the snake´s trail,
tracking as many
as eight kilometers a day.
I think we should head that way.
♫♫
♫♫
For the volunteers,
it´s the experience
of a lifetime...
complete with myriad encounters
found nowhere else on Earth.
But they must keep all
their focus on the king.
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
All right.
NARRATOR: A few days later,
they release
the male king cobra,
also armed with
a tracking device.
♫♫
♫♫
That´s it?
Cool, man.
♫♫
NARRATOR: Food is his priority
after his ordeal.
♫♫
♫♫
He tastes the air,
drawing in microscopic scent
molecules with his tongue.
The tongue then transfers
the molecules to a small organ,
the Jacobsen´s organ,
in the roof of the mouth.
Here the molecules
are identified
and the information
is passed to the brain.
One scent in particular
rivets his interest --
a rat snake.
His keen vision
pinpoints the victim.
It too is a formidable hunter,
growing almost 2 1/2 meters
in length.
But it´s also the king´s
favorite food.
♫♫
♫♫
The rat snake tries
to look intimidating.
But it´s outmatched
in every way.
The king cobra towers
over his victim.
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
Hypodermic fangs
deliver a massive dose
of neurotoxic venom.
♫♫
The rat snake is not venomous,
so its desperate counterattack
does little to deter
this predator.
♫♫
The king then walks his fangs
up the body.
Each gnawing bite
injects more venom
until the struggling lessens
and an all-out attack
on the nervous system begins.
Eventually, the diaphragm
and lungs are paralyzed
and the victim asphyxiates.
Kings always eat their prey
head first.
Backward-facing teeth
help guide the victim down.
The venom has already started
to digest the rat snake
from the inside out.
It absorbs the entire snake --
bones, scales, everything.
♫♫
♫♫
He´s tired and vulnerable
after his big meal
and will lay low
for almost a week,
hiding in the leaf litter.
The radio-tagged female
is still on the move.
For the eager volunteers,
it´s a trial by fire.
Bad weather,
treacherous terrain,
and one of the densest
populations
of deadly snakes in the world
makes tracking through these
forests extremely dangerous.
And trouble can come
when least expected.
Just a few days
into the project,
they lose
the female snake´s signal.
-Nothing, huh?
-Nothing at all.
Still nothing.
You know, guys, we´ve got to
get up out of this stream bed.
We got to get up on top and see
if we can get that signal,
and we need to do it quick,
otherwise,
we´re going to lose this snake.
NARRATOR: If they don´t
pick up the signal soon,
the king
could be gone forever.
If following the tagged snakes
proves impossible,
the project will fail.
Desperately, the research team
scrambles to high ground
trying to regain
the king cobra´s signal.
The tracking device
implanted in her side
broadcasts
more than 300 meters.
But in some conditions,
it can be far less than that.
There it is.
We got it.
Yeah, it´s a long way away.
So we´re going to have
to really move it.
NARRATOR:
They finally locate the signal,
but they must still
visually locate the animal.
There it is.
We still got her.
♫♫
There she is. There she is.
NARRATOR: Matt marks the area
and takes a GPS reading
of the location.
It´s still too early to tell
whether the female king
is moving in search of a mate
or if she´s seeking out
her old home.
♫♫
As the female king slithers,
she secretes pheromones,
leaving a potent scent trail
along the forest floor.
For the eager male
who picks up the scent,
it´s a road map
to her affections.
♫♫
♫♫
Finding her is only
the beginning of his trials.
Females are often wary
of the larger males,
and with good reason.
He could kill her
if she does not accept him.
But she could also kill him,
so he bumps and nudges her
with his nose --
an eager flirtation.
Eventually, the seduction works
and our female relents.
She spreads her hood and raises
her head off the ground.
Mating can take
as long as an hour.
If all goes well,
in about a month,
she´ll lay
some 20 to 40 eggs --
the heirs to the throne.
♫♫
Huh?
-Right above your head.
-Right above your head.
Oh, big male.
NARRATOR: Not more than
20 kilometers away,
the tagged male wanders back
into a betel nut plantation.
He´s watching us.
Yeah, he´s watching us.
NARRATOR: The snake has climbed
high into a tree.
King cobras often climb
in search of food
or simply to bask in the sun.
First, they try cutting down
the branches around him.
He´s going up. He´s going up.
NARRATOR:
But he only pushes higher.
In the end, they cut
the whole tree down.
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
They once again coax him
into the bag.
WHITAKER: Wonderful.
NARRATOR: The tagged male´s
attraction to humans
offers some troubling insights
into the snake´s behavior.
SHANKAR: Yeah, there he goes.
Don´t move. No one move.
NARRATOR: If he´s lost
his fear of people,
his behavior could be dangerous
for serpent and human alike.
With populations
continuing to grow,
finding a safe way to coexist
with kings is a priority.
Back in the forest,
the radio-tagged female king
has spent the past two weeks
with her mate...
when another male wanders
into their territory.
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
During the breeding season,
when two male snakes collide,
everything is on the line.
Often mistaken
for a mating dance,
this display is actually
a form of ritualized combat.
Unwritten rules
govern the duel,
and there´s no biting allowed.
Rising higher than a meter,
each tries to pin the other
to the ground.
♫♫
♫♫
With a final non-venomous blow,
the contest is ended.
♫♫
♫♫
The resident male has lost,
and he must leave his territory
and his mate.
And to the winner
go the spoils.
Like all males
this time of year,
this snake seems to have only
one thing on his mind -- sex.
But our tagged female
has already mated
and wants only
to be left in peace.
♫♫
Unfortunately, she is about
to play out a horrifying scene.
♫♫
♫♫
At first, the new male
king cobra
seems to be merely persistent
in his courtship,
and the tagged female
playing hard to get.
But she´s carrying
another male´s eggs.
Is it possible he senses
the rival´s offspring?
For whatever reason, his
intentions turn from mating...
to murder.
♫♫
♫♫
She is not fully immune
to her own kind´s venom
and he squeezes her
in his vise-like jaws,
pumping venom
into her bloodstream.
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
But death does not
come quickly.
♫♫
He is her physical superior,
but she will not surrender.
♫♫
♫♫
♫♫
After more than a half an hour,
with every ounce of life
left in her,
she begins to roll.
♫♫
♫♫
This death roll might be
the final fight for freedom
or simply the final breath
of life,
but it signifies the end.
♫♫
After 45 minutes...
the queen is dead.
♫♫
♫♫
While the male´s true motives
for the murder are unclear,
he is a snake eater,
so he begins to swallow her.
But he may not have
killed her out of hunger.
Whether he´s just an aggressive
male on the rampage
or if some other variable
led to a breakdown
in the rules of the game,
we may never know for sure.
But the pregnant queen
is too large
and he cannot swallow her.
So he regurgitates
her lifeless body...
and pushes on...
leaving the female king,
and the eggs inside her,
for the scavengers.
♫♫
♫♫
Life in the wild is a series
of harsh realities.
But for every tragedy,
there is new hope.
-Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
-See that?
It´s huge.
NARRATOR: Rom and Gowri
have been notified
of another female king,
this one building a nest
in a nearby tract of forest.
With the tagged female gone,
they put the new female
on 24-hour surveillance,
hoping to witness the rise
of the next generation.
With the monsoons coming,
the mother king´s new brood
will need shelter.
She´s the only snake
in the world
that builds a nest
for her eggs,
piling leaves onto a mound
as tall as one meter high.
That is so methodical.
And that´s why you have
this symmetry.
When she finished that side,
she came exactly
to the opposite side.
When she finished that side,
she came to the other side
of the nest,
and now she´s coming
to this side.
NARRATOR: It must be perfect
for the eggs to survive --
high enough to avoid flooding
but sheltered enough
to maintain
the right temperature.
The eggs must incubate
at 28 degrees Celsius.
It can take more than 12 hours
of rigorous work.
The mother king will
stay with the nest,
standing guard,
unable to hunt,
until her eggs
are ready to hatch.
She could go as many as
three months without a meal.
Meanwhile, our tagged male
snake is still on the move
and has wandered
once again into a human world.
(dog barking)
He is drawn here on the trail
of a potential meal...
a rat snake,
stalking a rodent right into
someone´s front yard.
♫♫
Nothing will interrupt
this hunt.
Twisting and turning,
he mauls the victim,
pumping it full of venom.
Witnessing this hunt
in human territory
confirms a suspicion Rom
and others have held
for some time.
WHITAKER: We´re learning
an awful lot by radio tracking
for the first time.
And we always suspected
they spend plenty of time
in rice fields.
And that´s where they find
their rat snakes,
because that´s where
the rat snakes find rats.
But now we´ve really proved it
with what we found out.
NARRATOR: Humans attract rats,
rats attract rat snakes,
and rat snakes
attract king cobras.
Still, despite increased
contact with the serpents,
human deaths
are not on the rise.
It is the king cobras
who are more at risk.
But as the dry season wanes,
the kings have
more immediate concerns.
The monsoons of the
Western Ghats are legendary,
dropping almost nine meters of
rain annually in some places.
And everyone must adapt
to the monsoons --
people,
animals,
even the king.
The deluge batters
the female king´s nest.
If the water rises too high,
all her efforts will be lost,
and all of her babies
could die.
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For months, torrential rains
soak the Western Ghats.
But millions of years
of evolution
have taught this mother well.
The center of the nest stays
dry and the eggs are safe.
Finally, after 100 days,
the baby snakes
are ready to hatch,
triggering the hungry
mother´s departure.
She is, after all,
a snake eater,
and no doubt hungry enough
to eat her own young.
So instinct drives her away
in search of
an unrelated victim.
Deep in the nest,
using a sharp, tiny tooth,
a new king tears
the leathery egg casing...
and breathes its first breath.
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♫♫
They emerge one by one,
over the course
of a few days --
25 snakes in all...
♫♫
armed with a predatory hunger,
even at birth.
They will remain by the nest
for 24 hours
to absorb
their nutritious yolks --
sustenance
for the hard days ahead.
They are less than a day old,
already powerfully venomous,
but still vulnerable.
Left on their own,
most of the babies will be
taken by predators
such as raptors,
mongooses,
even other snakes.
Or they will die
of starvation.
Only 1 or 2 of the 25 snakes
will survive to adulthood.
And even then,
nothing is guaranteed.
For Rom, after 37 years
of studying the king cobra,
the tagging project has shown
him that he´s just beginning.
WHITAKER:
I wish I could say I know a lot
about king cobras
after all these years.
To be honest with you, we´ve
barely scratched the surface.
NARRATOR: So far, the research
project has been a success
and has provided a rare glimpse
into the secret world
of the king.
WHITAKER: What we´ve learned
so far is pretty amazing stuff.
We know now the kind of resting
places they prefer --
in caves.
They go in caves
and holes an awful lot.
They climb a lot,
which we suspected before,
but now we´ve really
proved that as well.
NARRATOR: They´ve also found
that the male
moved much farther
than the female.
Before the female was killed,
she traveled
around five kilometers.
But over the first
seven months,
the tagged male snake has moved
more than 75 kilometers.
And he shows no signs
of slowing down.
WHITAKER:
We had a sighting recently
and he looks in very good shape,
which means he has been feeding,
he has been drinking,
he has been living well.
We were always
a little bit worried.
This is the first time
a king cobra
has ever been radio tracked.
We don´t want him to feel as
though he´s being chased by us.
We want him to do
everything naturally.
NARRATOR: But there are
troubling discoveries as well.
Researchers believe
the male snake is moving
in search of new territory.
But it seems he´s learned
that human habitat
is a good source of food,
shelter, and warmth.
And he´s twice made
his new home in our world.
Simply relocating snakes away
from humans is not the answer.
But the solution
remains a mystery.
One thing is certain --
as people expand deeper
into the wilderness,
something is bound to give.
WHITAKER: What we´re looking at
is a mosaic of forest,
paddy fields, and plantations,
and that´s king cobra country.
Year by year,
the agricultural land
is expanding
right into the forest.
King cobras really depend
on this land as well.
NARRATOR:
The Western Ghats have already
seen their share
of destruction.
In the past century,
undisturbed forest in the Ghats
has dwindled from about 100,000
to a meager 13,000
square kilometers.
Now a biodiversity hotspot,
it is one of the most
endangered ecosystems on Earth.
WHITAKER: India has lost about
80% of its rainforest.
And that´s our fear, you know,
that the rest of it could go,
that we´ll lose most of
the king cobra´s habitat.
NARRATOR: But the most
intriguing discoveries
from the tagging program
have also been
the most shocking.
Since the project began,
male kings have killed two
pregnant female king cobras
within a 20-kilometer radius.
The researchers don´t yet know
whether the killers were
rogue males on a rampage
or if the brutal killings
of pregnant females
is common among wild kings.
The answers will only come
with continued research.
And the success of this pilot
project will go a long way
in advancing
the study of the king.
Here it is there. Look.
NARRATOR: An autopsy of
the dead female confirms
that she was indeed pregnant...
SHANKAR: ...7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12,
13, 14, 15, 16.
There´s one more.
NARRATOR: ...carrying 17 eggs
when she met her untimely end.
♫♫
She is laid to rest with
a royal funeral pyre --
a fiery homage to this
pioneering queen of kings
whose sacrifice has given us
an unsettling new glimpse
into the king cobra´s
merciless world.
SHANKAR: She was supposed to
build the nest
and get the next
generation ready.
But she ended up here.
♫♫
♫♫
NARRATOR: At least for now,
one new generation
has survived.
But even for these
deadliest of creatures,
survival is a brutal battle.
Each will carry
the time-toughened mantle
of a true survivor...
a crown prince destined
to reign
over one of India´s last Edens.
♫♫
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♫♫
Captioned by VITAC