12 Intense Snake Encounters Could YOU Survive a Bite Smithsonian Channel
Transcript
00:00 It's been more than a month since he last ate.
00:02 The rat snake slides right into his trap.
00:27 Any number of potential prey could venture past.
00:31 Velvet isn't picky.
00:33 She'll eat anything from rodents and birds
00:36 to small antelope and monkeys.
00:39 [music]
00:42 [music]
00:46 [music]
00:49 [music]
01:02 [music]
01:11 [music]
01:14 A slight miscalculation makes no difference.
01:25 Once she's set her sights on a target,
01:30 there's no chance for escape.
01:32 Her strike isn't the fastest in the snake world,
01:36 but at over 20 feet per second, it does the job.
01:42 The shock of the attack stuns the bird
01:45 while the complex venom cocktail rapidly floods its body.
01:49 As she waits for her prey to die, Velvet adjusts her fangs.
01:57 They can really get in the way sometimes.
02:04 [birds chirping]
02:07 Within 10 minutes, it's all over and lunch is ready.
02:18 Eating is a specialized process.
02:23 Velvet unhinges her jaw to allow her to open her mouth wide enough.
02:28 Using rows of teeth to latch on,
02:31 she drags her prey to a safe place where she can eat in peace.
02:37 Baby mambas are notoriously nervous and highly aggressive.
02:43 But at this vulnerable age,
02:45 they are still easy prey for mongoose, honey badgers, and predatory birds,
02:50 all of which have immunity to a dose of snake venom.
02:54 [birds chirping]
02:59 [water splashing]
03:02 Over the coming months,
03:15 the hatchlings will grow constantly and rapidly,
03:18 and by a year, the females will be ready to mate
03:21 and the males will be fighting for breeding rights.
03:24 [birds chirping]
03:28 [mambas squeaking]
03:31 For now, their pin-sharp focus is finely tuned on their first mission,
03:37 predation.
03:40 [birds chirping]
03:55 Mambas prefer warm-blooded prey like small mammals and birds.
03:59 [birds chirping]
04:03 [mambas squeaking]
04:14 [music]
04:22 [fire crackling]
04:25 During the course of its life,
04:29 this mamba will learn how much venom is necessary
04:32 in order to immobilize each specific kill,
04:35 sometimes bypassing venom altogether if the prey is small and helpless.
04:42 [birds chirping]
04:46 Just days after birth,
04:49 the baby mambas have already proven themselves as adept hunters,
04:52 capable of fending for themselves
04:57 and taking their rightful place in Mamba Valley.
05:00 Today, Raja is ready to take it to the next level.
05:10 He descends to rouse his bride.
05:18 Hannah exits cautiously.
05:19 Today, the king is bold and eager.
05:29 His sudden change in attitude triggers her into a submissive coil.
05:37 She presents her body to him for inspection.
05:45 He's picking up all the right signs that she's receptive.
05:48 While Hannah's ritual is a slinky display,
06:02 male king cobras are far less subtle.
06:14 Headbutting his queen is the cue that he's ready to mate.
06:18 [music]
06:25 [music]
06:29 [music]
06:32 [music]
06:36 [music]
06:40 [music]
06:44 [music]
06:48 [music]
06:52 [music]
06:57 [music]
07:00 The snakes bind themselves together in a tight embrace.
07:04 Under their leafy canopy,
07:08 they may lie like this for hours as he fertilizes her.
07:12 They will mate several times over the coming days.
07:16 The Chihuahuan Desert is great snake territory,
07:24 full of blacktails, diamondbacks, and Mojave rattlers.
07:28 The only place we're going to find blacktails is up there.
07:33 Rocks, yucca plants, cactus, heat.
07:37 That's a bit of a hike.
07:41 Always watch where you're putting your hand.
07:46 Check his hat.
07:53 [music]
07:56 This is a mottled rattlesnake.
07:59 They live all over the place here,
08:00 but look how camouflaged they are.
08:01 The same color rock, little shadows.
08:04 He's quite an old one.
08:05 This is a full-grown specimen.
08:07 Just going to lift you up here.
08:08 I'm not going to bother you, buddy.
08:09 There we are.
08:10 Rule number one, always use your stick.
08:13 Look at that, a pink belly.
08:16 What a pretty snake, man.
08:19 That's my first one.
08:22 [music]
08:24 The mottled rock rattler is synonymous with these treacherous outcrops.
08:29 Only two feet in length when fully grown,
08:35 its grayish-pink scales blend seamlessly into the cliffs and boulders it calls home.
08:40 There are more surprises to come.
08:47 [music]
08:50 Whoa, jeez.
09:04 Easy, easy, boy, easy, easy.
09:07 Don't do that.
09:10 Come here, out you come.
09:12 Here we go.
09:16 That is a black-tailed rattlesnake.
09:18 Look at that.
09:19 Black tail, little black nose.
09:21 How cute is that?
09:23 This is the first one I've ever seen in the wild.
09:26 [music]
09:28 Jules is on a roll.
09:30 His second new species in a matter of minutes.
09:33 And this is exactly the environment they live in.
09:37 About 5,000 feet high elevation, really cold nights,
09:41 very hot day like today.
09:45 Black-tails are easy to distinguish from the western diamondback.
09:49 Their yellowish scales and darker diamonds blend perfectly with the leaves and shadows of the yucca plant.
09:55 He's eating pocket mice all over the place here, little pocket mice, little tiny mice.
10:05 He's also hunted by raptors, birds of prey.
10:10 They live on these rocks too.
10:12 So he lives under stuff like this which will really rip you up.
10:15 So he's a little defensive.
10:17 Very lucky to find one.
10:19 I'm going to put you back in there, buddy.
10:25 No bird of prey is going to get you today.
10:27 Look at that.
10:29 That is gorgeous.
10:32 Look at that guy.
10:34 Okay, go on then.
10:36 Back you go.
10:37 Go hide under there, man.
10:41 Wow, that's fantastic.
10:42 There's a king cobra in town and Gauri Shankar has been called to action.
10:51 Gauri's priority is to get Hanna, the female king cobra, away from people and in her natural habitat.
11:09 Gauri's right-hand man, Prashant, is always at the ready with his special snake bagger.
11:14 Prashant tries to encourage her forward from the opposite side of the road.
11:23 It's working.
11:28 The startled queen bolts straight into Gauri's expert grip.
11:37 (Squealing)
11:39 Hanna is feisty and desperate for an escape route.
11:55 And the bustling crowd is adding to her distress.
12:05 (Squealing)
12:07 The dark space inside the snake bag is her best option.
12:11 Gauri's priority is to get Hanna safely to a release site as soon as possible.
12:19 It's a busy time of year for Simon Keyes, the resident bounty hunter of the snake world.
12:30 I saw this sort of big, sort of greyish snake. It's inside the kitchen. As soon as I saw it, I just, "Whoa, you've got a big black mamba in there."
12:37 The snakes I'm most wary of is the black mamba. But I get excited.
12:42 I'm not scared of them. I actually quite like dealing with them. But when you finish with it, you're sweating, your heart rate's going, it's just madness.
12:50 Problem snake removal is his business.
12:56 And come summer, it's silly season for snake catchers.
13:00 It's such a fast thing, and the teeth are very small, you know. They're only about that sort of long, probably 5mm, 6mm, 7mm, maybe max.
13:06 And they don't actually need to open their mouth very wide at all. It's almost like they just quickly bang on the skin. It doesn't take much.
13:13 You lucky boy. (Laughs)
13:16 That was the quickest cup of coffee you've ever had.
13:19 No, I will, don't worry. Okay, what am I going to do?
13:23 Simon has backup. Neville Vulmerins is a local snake expert who helps Simon keep the human-mamba conflict to a minimum.
13:30 Neville has survived two mamba bites, but he's one of the lucky few.
13:36 When I was 16, I was bitten by a mamba I was trying to catch. That was the first time.
13:42 At first, the bite throbs, and after that, you have this tingling feeling, sort of moving up your arm.
13:49 About an hour and a half later, I was in hospital, unconscious, and I only came out of it about 70 hours later.
13:56 If you're a ballerina, you're going to fall, you're going to twist your ankle.
14:00 If you're a racing driver, you're going to crash. A snake catcher, unfortunately, you get bitten.
14:04 Catching deadly mambas may seem like an exciting hobby, but their lives hang in the balance with every call.
14:18 There is a war brewing in Mamba Valley. Mambas kill people, and people kill mambas.
14:23 Every year during the silly season, hundreds of snakes are killed or captured for the fast-growing exotic reptile trade.
14:32 A black mamba fetches around $160 in the snake trade, and they're in high demand to collectors around the globe.
14:46 Concentration levels go through the roof, because if you slip, you are potentially dead.
14:51 It's going to bite me.
14:54 I haven't got this thing blackened today.
14:57 Do you want me to grab it?
14:59 I'm not happy about this at all.
15:08 I need to get my finger behind.
15:11 Do you want to take that off?
15:13 I'm going to take it off.
15:14 If you slightly release your grip for half a second, it will take a gap and bite you.
15:25 It doesn't matter how many times you do this, you can so easily slip.
15:30 It's not one of those cases of flux. It's perfect.
15:32 Watch those two tops of the thing. Don't slide.
15:35 I've got it.
15:37 Do you want me to help?
15:42 It's a bit tight.
15:43 It was a bit close from where I like them.
15:45 These things are like a loaded gun.
15:47 It's got its own mind. It pulls its own trigger. It doesn't need someone to help it.
15:51 It's game over for a life in leafy suburbia.
15:54 Imagine the scene.
16:01 You and your family are on safari at a private game ranch in South Africa.
16:06 It's 10 o'clock in the morning when you see the snake.
16:11 A dead black mamba lying in the road.
16:14 Your nine-year-old son is eager to see a mamba up close.
16:25 It's a once in a lifetime opportunity and he's fascinated by snakes.
16:31 It's clearly dead and it should be safe to handle.
16:38 But then, as he opens its famous black mouth...
17:03 From the moment the fang pricks his finger, the venom starts to attack his nervous system.
17:08 You have 20 minutes to get him the antivenom before his organs start to shut down.
17:15 The paramedics are en route, armed with the life-saving antivenom, but they're 10 miles away.
17:28 Six minutes after the bite, his whole body is tingling.
17:35 It feels like millions of insects crawling under his skin.
17:40 Ten minutes into the bite, he's drowsy and he can't keep his eyelids open.
17:57 He's sweating with fever.
18:00 Eleven minutes and his coordination is gone.
18:04 He's losing consciousness.
18:07 Twelve minutes into the bite, he's struggling to breathe as his lungs become paralyzed.
18:13 His heart's racing to keep up.
18:16 And finally, he receives the life-saving black mamba antivenom.
18:23 Jamie was in a coma for four days.
18:26 He's one of the few lucky survivors.
18:29 The beginning of summer is a hive of activity in the camelthorn tree.
18:38 Days are longer and mornings are shorter.
18:42 The animals are getting used to the heat.
18:47 The beginning of summer is a hive of activity in the camelthorn tree.
18:52 Days are longer and mornings warmer.
18:56 At daybreak, sociable weavers are already on the move.
19:04 They leave in the morning to forage and come back to feed their chicks.
19:15 It's a happy surprise.
19:17 A boom slung has found the nest.
19:21 A three to five foot long venomous snake with an Afrikaans name that means tree snake.
19:28 It systematically goes from nest chamber to nest chamber and eats the chicks and eggs whole.
19:35 The snake takes its time. It's threatened by nothing.
19:44 The parent birds watch helplessly.
19:46 Living in a large colony has many advantages, but when a predator finds the nest, it's a tragedy.
19:55 The boom slung can kill the entire colony's brood in hours.
20:12 The chicks are gone, but the adults are safe.
20:15 The sociable weaver's life strategy is to invest their energy into the survival of the adults.
20:21 They will soon produce another brood to replace the eaten one.
20:26 Life goes on.
20:29 Down in the forest, one of the emerald chicks has left the penthouse.
20:39 While its more cautious sibling still sits tight.
20:43 But caution won't help against this backdoor intruder.
20:50 A chicken snake.
20:57 It's a skillful climber, and at this time of year, it has more opportunities to feed,
21:05 as there are defenseless chicks in the branches.
21:09 It hunts in silence, its nine-foot body sliding effortlessly from tree to tree.
21:23 The chick is oblivious.
21:33 But it seems almost ready to fly.
21:36 For the first time, it tries to use its wings.
21:44 Flicking out its tongue, the snake can scent the chick on the air.
22:00 It knows exactly where to go.
22:03 The mother returns to encourage the chick to fly.
22:12 But time is running out.
22:19 [MUSIC PLAYING]
22:22 The mother is insistent.
22:33 It must fly, or die.
22:47 Just one leap of faith.
22:53 It's the beginning of a new life, a journey on the wing.
23:03 Once bustling with industry as the most productive mercury mine on the planet,
23:12 the ghost town of Terlingua, Texas is now a quaint reminder of the bygone era.
23:17 Jules takes some down time.
23:24 He's heard of rattlers reaching monstrous proportions here,
23:30 and he's eager to see some of these phantoms in the flesh.
23:34 A snake expert in town is news that gets around fast.
23:40 [PHONE RINGING]
23:43 Hello, this is Jules.
23:45 Yes.
23:47 Yes.
23:49 Wow.
23:51 I'll be right there.
23:53 Thanks. Bye.
23:55 The boy saw a large snake go under the pulpit.
24:01 And that was the end of the service.
24:03 The small chapel in Terlingua has an unwanted visitor.
24:10 [DOOR CREAKING]
24:36 A collection of offerings under the altar is the perfect place for an irreverent rattler.
24:41 Oh.
24:46 I see his tail. Where's his head?
24:50 I can just see the tail doing this. He's a very small tail.
24:54 That is not a very good sign.
24:58 [DOOR CREAKING]
25:00 Stop.
25:08 Oh, there you are.
25:14 Look at that.
25:17 You can just see that the tail is moving.
25:26 You can just see, see that little rattle.
25:29 He's got one, he's got two sheds on there. That's the only reason it's making a noise.
25:34 That's the two dry bits of skin just flicking together.
25:38 Easy, baby. There we go. Look at that.
25:44 That is a Western Diamondback rattlesnake, probably a few months old.
25:54 I'm going to put you in the jar, buddy. That's it.
25:56 What are you doing in church?
25:58 It's hardly the monster Jules had heard rumour about.
26:02 Look at that. Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop. Stop being so mad.
26:16 One thing about babies, they are probably more dangerous than anything else for three reasons.
26:23 One is they're small and everything is trying to eat them.
26:26 So they defend themselves with as much aggression as they can come up with.
26:30 Two, they're very camouflaged. You don't see them.
26:34 They can hide under a jar or under a piece of rock just like that.
26:37 And when you dig around the garden, bang, you get bitten.
26:40 The other thing is because they have little tiny rattles or no rattles at all when they're first born,
26:45 you don't hear them and they are venomous when they're born.
26:49 As the summer draws to a close, the creatures of the Western Ghats seek out shelter to prepare for the rainy months ahead.
26:57 A ratsnake heads deep into the forest.
27:02 But Raja's on a different mission.
27:06 It's been more than a month since he last ate.
27:11 The ratsnake slides right into his trap.
27:17 (Music)
27:28 Raja's fangs take their deadly hold, shooting a dose of neurotoxic venom into his quarry.
27:35 (Music)
27:42 His fangs gather up the meal step by step and inch by inch, feeding it down his long straight digestive tract.
27:51 (Music)
27:59 King cobras can't chew.
28:01 It's all in the gulp.
28:06 In the wild, animals create pathways through the bush known as game trails.
28:12 For creatures like tiny rodents to the world's largest land mammals,
28:18 these trails provide easier movement and often lead to waterholes or good feeding grounds.
28:25 (Music)
28:30 And it's along paths like these that puff adders will position themselves to wait for prey.
28:36 (Music)
28:47 But when unsuspecting victims weighing thousands of pounds tread too close for comfort,
28:53 a little 13-pounder puff adder can defend itself in a mighty way.
28:59 (Music)
29:02 It doesn't seem possible that a bite from a tiny snake could pierce the skin of a rhino,
29:07 let alone do any serious damage.
29:10 But here's evidence to the contrary.
29:13 A bite caused such severe necrosis on the leg of this black rhino that her entire foot rotted off,
29:25 leaving behind just bone fragments and flaps of decaying flesh.
29:30 Trauma like this would render most animals immobile,
29:34 ensuring a slow and painful death due to starvation and septicemia.
29:40 It's an extreme example of what happens when a puff adder bite is left untreated.
29:50 (Music)
30:03 you