Deep within the jungles
of southern India,
there lives a legendary king
respected and feared by all.
He is swift and strong and deadly.
He is the largest
venomous snake in the world.
But until now his life
has been a mystery.
This is the story of a monarch
and his remarkable travels
through a fragile kingdom.
It is early on a cool morning
when the king of snakes
embarks on a journey.
His is an ancient forest
alive with creatures great and small.
Like the king cobra himself
many hover precariously
close to extinction.
But on this morning
the jungle pulses with the
sounds of insects and birds.
A great Indian hornbill delicately
feeds his family
hidden in their nest below.
Through this jungle book world
the king roams great distances.
Though his movements are quiet
those around always take notice
for crossing the king cobra's path
could cost them their lives.
Despite the uproar his presence causes
his world is mostly silent.
He only hears the deepest of rumblings
He has picked up the heavy footfalls
of a nearby elephant.
Even the mighty pachyderm steers
clear of this serpent,
for just one bite may bring death.
But the king would strike such
a beast only in self-defense,
for he feeds solely on snakes.
Still, the langurs are cautious.
Today, the king is not interested
even in snakes.
He is searching for something else,
something very important.
His eyesight is better
than most serpents'
but he sees without color and
only registers objects when they move.
He smells the air with his tongue.
So acute is this sense,
he can use it to find water.
And that's exactly
what he's looking for.
Today, water is critical for the king
is about to shed his skin.
He needs extra fluid to help
separate his old coat from his new.
It is an uncomfortable time
for the king cobra,
a new skin is developing
beneath his outer scales.
He must find a place to hide
until it is time to shed.
The king is unaccustomed
to his fragile condition.
It is an uncertain time.
At last he discovers a burrow.
And none of the forest's creatures
wants to share quarters with the king.
For the next ten days,
he will stay here.
Irritable and tense,
he's sensitive to any movement nearby.
Even the harmless wanderings
of a turtle unsettle the king.
For his eyes have become cloudy
from a secretion
which helps separate his skins.
Half blind and vulnerable,
he is always ready to strike.
At last his eyes begin to clear
a sign his new skin
has finished growing.
The king is back
but must still shed his old scales.
His spent skin is tight and itchy.
As he scrapes and rubs to
relieve the discomfort,
his outer scales begin to peel.
It is a remarkable transformation
even his fangs, teeth,
and the tips of his tongue
will be replaced again and again
during the course of his life.
When the skin over his eyes lifts away
he is given new windows
through which to view his world.
At 12 feet long and still growing,
the snake must endure shedding
four or five times a year.
His discarded skin
makes a perfect meal
for the smaller creatures of his realm.
In this kingdom, nothing is wasted.
After ten days without eating,
the king is hungry.
A tree offers a good vantage point
for spotting prey.
For his size,
the king cobra is an agile climber.
Now he waits and watches.
A movement in the tree reveals another
hungry creature... a young hornbill.
Its father has spotted something.
The king cobra watches the hunt unfold
A vine snake ribbons
across a nearby branch.
Much smaller than the cobra,
this nimble hunter is
no match for the hornbill.
The little snake looks
as fierce as he can.
But it is only a brave display.
His venom is mild.
The young hornbill gets the prize.
And the king will
wait for bigger meals.
Below on the forest floor
a rat snake is on the hunt.
It is one of India's largest
non-venomous snakes.
Quick and voracious,
it will take any small mammal.
From his perch
the king spots the movement below.
It is just what he's been waiting for.
Silently, the king cobra
joins in the hunt.
The rat snake follows a scent.
Its sensitive tongue
has led it to prey.
The king cobra is on their trail.
As the rat snake prepares to attack,
the king closes in.
In a flash, the rat escapes.
And now, the hunter becomes the hunted
Against the hooded death,
even a seven-foot snake hasn't a chance.
The rat snake puffs up its throat
and lowers its tongue in threat,
but it is a futile gesture.
One strike delivers venom
and a crushing grip.
The rat snake returns the attack
but it's already doomed.
Within minutes the giant cobra's venom
takes effect, paralyzing the prey.
The heart stops pumping,
the lungs stop breathing,
and the victim suffocates.
The king cobra can easily
devour this large snake.
His backward-facing teeth help
guide the victim down his throat.
Digestion has already begun,
for the king's venom helps dissolve
the rat snake from the inside out.
Still, the king cobra
will linger over this meal.
And for the days it takes
to absorb his prey,
he'll have no need to hunt.
But yet the king is restless.
It is now the dry season
the time to find a mate.
A new,
intoxicating scent fills the air.
Some of the rain forest's trees
have dropped their leaves
and begun to fruit.
It is a joyous season for langurs.
Across the forest the
jackfruits are ripening.
Their sweet, pungent odor beckons.
It's an irresistible lure to
creatures both small
and great
To reach the succulent flesh
within the 20-pound fruit,
the prickly skin must first be peeled.
It's a messy job for even
the most adept of elephants.
She leaves a veritable
banquet in her wake.
This is a season when king cobras
roam widely through the forest.
But today the king's subjects
are distracted by the fruit.
They take only passing
notice of his presence.
The king still seeks a mate.
And it's in this fruiting season
that he's most likely to find one.
But it's not a female he encounters.
It's a rival... a formidable male.
A potent threat,
he must be driven away.
Each is capable of killing
the other with a single bite.
A strange duel begins
an encounter rarely witnessed
and never before filmed.
Rather than a fight to the death,
the battle has evolved
into a ritualized dance.
To win, one snake must force
the other's head to the ground.
At last, there is a victor.
It's the intruder.
The king has been dethroned.
Driven from his domain,
he must seek another.
But the rain forests of southern India
are a finite land.
As people press in,
less and less remains
for the king cobra.
Our king has no choice
but to leave the jungle.
Fortunately for the king cobra...
water is no barrier.
He is a gifted swimmer.
But what lies ahead for the king?
As the forest is cleared,
its creatures more and more
frequently cross the border
into a strange new realm...
the realm of civilization.
But surprisingly,
a tea plantation is a
welcome sight to the exiled king.
Here there is thick vegetation
and an abundance of rat snakes.
But this is no haven.
For when king cobras
and people cross paths
there is bound to be trouble.
Just one glimpse of the legendary
king can cause panic
and shut down a plantation for weeks.
This cultivated land is not as rich as
the king cobra's old domain,
but still,
he makes himself at home here.
Yet he must be evicted if work
is to resume at the plantation.
And even the king is no match for
humans who are determined and armed.
Fortunately for the king,
a special sort of
hunter has been called in.
His weapons are simply
a stick and a sack
to the amazement of his audience.
In this part of India,
people know to call Rom Whitaker
whenever a king cobra is on the loose.
An American expatriate raised in India
Whitaker has studied
these snakes for over 20 years.
I'll leave the bag here.
You take that path.
Okay.
Careful, huh?
Yeah.
I've been fascinated with
king cobras all my life.
Anyone who likes snakes
knows that this is the super snake,
the snake of all snakes.
As I get to know it better,
it gets more and more amazing.
Finding a king cobra in a
tea estate isn't very easy.
I spent 20 days tracking one down.
The bushes here are so thick that I
have to get down on my hands
and knees to see
where the snake's gone.
It's a dangerous proposition
even for Whitaker.
After several snakebites,
he is now allergic to antivenin.
The next bite could kill him.
He's coming.
I'm moving up ahead.
Okay.
With the serpent cornered,
the challenge now is to complete the
capture without a terrible accident.
The king cobra too is fragile.
The stick could easily hurt him.
He's big, he's really big.
Back, back, back, back, back,
behind, behind, behind.
I don't want to pull, man.
I've been catching king cobras
for quite a few years.
And I've evolved a system
which is quite gentle to the snake.
When the serpent is trapped,
he tries to escape,
lunging toward what appears
to be a dark hole.
He's gonna go in.
He's gonna go in.
Open the bag.
Okay, good.
Watch it,
he's gonna go in.
He's gonna go in.
Watch out.
Okay, twist, man.
This is one hell of a snake.
Whitaker is not just a hunter.
He's a leading expert on king cobras
and each capture is a precious chance
to learn more
about this elusive species.
To take detailed notes on the snake
Whitaker has to
remove him from the bag,
which is just
as dangerous as getting him in.
But he must be removed
to obtain a sample of his venom.
The amount of venom this serpent can
inject through his fangs is astounding
one bite can deliver
enough to kill 100 people.
The procedure doesn't harm the snake.
His venom is simply
saliva with a deadly twist.
Good venom sample.
Okay, shall we release him?
Yeah.
The king cobra can produce
an unlimited supply.
One, two, three.
Few people are actually
bitten by king cobras,
for they are reclusive serpents
whose home is deep in the forest.
And this is where Whitaker
makes his release
far from tea estates and people.
After his encounter
with the human race,
the king cobra seeks refuge.
A patchwork of woods
and open grassland,
this new home has all
he needs shelter and food.
But there will also
be other king cobras.
And now he is the newcomer.
Cautiously, he slides
through the undergrowth.
He senses something up ahead
a snake.
Is it food?
His tongue picks up a telltale scent.
It's another king cobra,
but this time a female.
The king may have found his queen.
She stands on guard.
She may be ready to mate,
but her bite is deadly.
So he moves slowly.
He tries to entice her.
But his gentle overtures are rebuffed.
Abandoning the subtle approach,
he becomes bolder.
Perhaps this will excite her.
With the female slow to respond,
the king's advances turn more urgent.
Finally, she begins to show interest
sliding her long,
sinuous body against his.
At last, with their tails entwined
they mate.
It's a lengthy affair
this limbless embrace may last
as long as three hours.
When the male withdraws
his crimson penis,
the union is over.
The two will go their separate ways,
but the king has passed on his legacy.
It is April, the season of serpentine
unions and approaching rains.
Clouds signal a difficult time ahead.
With eggs developing inside her,
the female cobra needs
to feed more frequently now.
In only 40 days,
she'll lay her clutch,
just before the monsoon breaks.
Rising humidity brings forth a new
generation of creatures.
A hammerhead slug feels
its way across the earth.
The female seems to be moving more
slowly as her eggs continue to grow.
And her journey will become
more uncomfortable yet...
for the moisture has triggered
sinister stirrings on the forest floor.
Leeches... the bloodsuckers of the rain
forest come forth by the thousands.
For the past six months,
they have been dormant in the soil.
Now they are hungry for blood
any blood.
From the moment they emerge,
leeches hone in on
virtually any animal that moves.
Once aboard the serpent,
they make for the vulnerable
gaps between her scales.
At this time of year,
hardly an animal
in the jungle is spared this plague.
As daylight fades,
there is at least some comfort.
With twilight,
the jungle becomes cooler.
In the brief dusk of the tropics,
one world prepares to sleep
while another awakens.
A multitude of tiny legs carries
a millipede through the darkness.
Beneath a jackfruit tree,
a porcupine makes an
evening meal of fallen fruit.
On this moonlit night,
the female king cobra
searches for a place to lay her eggs.
Their survival depends on her choice.
Temperature and humidity must be
just right if the eggs are to hatch.
She sizes up a stand of bamboo.
Her rustling startles the porcupine.
Then something remarkable happens.
She begins to gather bamboo leaves
with great sweeps of her body.
She starts to build a nest.
It is an extraordinary feat for
a limbless animal to build a nest,
and the female king cobra is the only
snake that does so.
It is an exhausting task.
As she toils, a slender loris in the
branches above begins his slow,
nocturnal search for food.
He takes only passing
notice of the stirrings below.
The king cobra will continue to
gather leaves for hours
before she is ready to lay.
The loris is suddenly more attentive
the rustling below has stopped.
It is well after midnight
and the cobra is laying her eggs.
The eggs will slowly whiten
as their coating dries.
It will take the mother much of the
night to lay her clutch of leathery eggs
Meanwhile, her upstairs neighbor
has spotted a sleeping lizard.
It's a lucky night for the loris.
With 18 eggs laid,
the mother cobra buries them beneath
another layer of leaves.
Here she will rest, as the Indian sun
warms the forest again.
The cobra's maternal duties
are far from over.
For the next two months,
she will guard her nest from
predators like the mongoose.
This plucky little hunter will try his
luck with anything that looks edible.
In a scene from Kipling's Jungle Book
it is the cobra against
the infamous mongoose.
The mongoose is a notorious egg thief
and one of the few creatures willing
to challenge a king cobra head on.
The persistent little mongoose
angers the mother cobra.
Towering three feet above him
she has no need to strike.
She has made her message quite clear.
On this humid, summer day,
others in the forest search for nests.
Finding king cobra nests in the
wild is really difficult.
So I've been offering rewards.
But still, in 20 years,
I've seen only four.
People think that a king cobra
on her nest is the most
dangerous creature on earth.
But what surprises me is that
they're actually shy and retiring.
All I have to do is gently prod
the nest and off she goes.
But I know she'll stick around just
to see what's going on.
This is a great chance for me to learn
more about this wonderful reptile.
Let's checkout the
condition of these eggs.
Even with the mother guarding them
some of the eggs won't survive.
Ah, here's a rotten one.
In this nest there are 18 eggs and a
few of them will never hatch.
God, there are leeches here too.
I'll chuck the rotten one away.
You better get them off your hands
before they start...
Ah, they've never bothered me.
Thirty point nine.
Not bad. Pretty constant.
Let's close up.
When the researchers have
finished their task,
they replace the eggs and rebuild the
mother's carefully constructed nest.
Only after they've gone
will the mother return.
Then she will resume
her watch for another month.
A protective mother king cobra
is just one of many challenges
for scientists working
in the rain forest.
I've been wandering in these
forests for decades,
and although we do keep
an eye open for elephants,
I've never been attacked by anything
except the little creatures
mites, ticks, leeches.
Look at these suckers.
Well, as gory as it looks,
it really doesn't hurt very much.
Oh, that's a fat one.
Look at that.
The fish are eating them.
Pulling them off does feel a bit weird
And of course,
you go on bleeding for hours.
But they don't really
seem to do you any harm.
Soon leeches will be the
least of anyone's worries
for it is July and at last the
monsoon arrives in earnest.
Sweeping in from the Indian ocean,
it will bring as much as 30 feet
of rain in a single season.
The lashing rain will
test the king cobra's nest.
The deluge may last for weeks.
Though the nest is battered
it served its purpose
the female and her eggs
have weathered the storm.
After two months
the mother's long vigil is over.
Instinct tells her to abandon the nest
before her infants emerge
for she is a snake-eater by nature.
Within the nest,
her eggs are stirring with life.
Their mother glides off to hunt
her first meal in months.
Her babies will now have
to fend for themselves.
With a tiny sharp tooth
the first one tears open its shell.
One by one the others follow.
Soon the nest glistens with a dozen
miniature king cobras
complete with venom and tiny fangs.
For the first 24 hours
the hatchlings remain near their eggs
as they absorb their nutritious yolks
and take in the world
for the first time.
At last they start
to explore their nest.
The pencil-thin babies are
just 15 inches long,
but already they act
like their parents.
Quick to respond to movement
they spar with each other.
Then, instinctively
most leave the nest and climb into
the bamboo above for safety.
But one youngster lingers below.
Instead of leaving the
dangerous forest floor,
this hatchling is drawn
to the water for a drink.
It will be a costly mistake.
A crocodile is watching.
Beneath the other more
cautious hatchlings,
the mongoose returns
to the abandoned nest.
He's rummaging for leftovers.
He devours a king cobra
that never hatched.
In just a week, one of the hatchlings
sheds his skin for the first time.
He will shed every month
for his first year,
since baby king cobras grow quickly.
Now the hungry hatchling must
search for his first kill.
He spots his prey
a little olive water snake.
At this age, the baby king cobra can
barely make enough venom
to kill a tiny creature like this.
But his hunting form is
already impeccable.
He spreads his ribs
and makes a perfect little hood.
With his first successful kill,
the little cobra is well on his way
to becoming the next king.
In ten years, he may grow to 15 feet.
But only with luck.
For the forests of southern India
are shrinking.
In such a changing world
the hatchling's prospects are unsure.
What will become of the little king?
Will he be banished
to the realm of legends,
remembered only in a storybook?
For today, at least,
this mighty monarch rules
the fragile forest.
For he is king.