|
National Geographic King Cobra
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Deep within the jungles |
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there lives a legendary king |
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respected and feared by all. |
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He is swift and strong and deadly. |
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He is the largest |
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But until now his life |
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This is the story of a monarch |
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through a fragile kingdom. |
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It is early on a cool morning |
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when the king of snakes |
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His is an ancient forest |
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Like the king cobra himself |
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many hover precariously |
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But on this morning |
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the jungle pulses with the |
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A great Indian hornbill delicately |
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hidden in their nest below. |
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Through this jungle book world |
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Though his movements are quiet |
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for crossing the king cobra's path |
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Despite the uproar his presence causes |
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He only hears the deepest of rumblings |
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He has picked up the heavy footfalls |
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Even the mighty pachyderm steers |
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for just one bite may bring death. |
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But the king would strike such |
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for he feeds solely on snakes. |
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Still, the langurs are cautious. |
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Today, the king is not interested |
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He is searching for something else, |
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His eyesight is better |
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but he sees without color and |
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He smells the air with his tongue. |
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So acute is this sense, |
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And that's exactly |
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Today, water is critical for the king |
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He needs extra fluid to help |
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It is an uncomfortable time |
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a new skin is developing |
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He must find a place to hide |
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The king is unaccustomed |
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It is an uncertain time. |
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At last he discovers a burrow. |
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And none of the forest's creatures |
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For the next ten days, |
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Irritable and tense, |
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Even the harmless wanderings |
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For his eyes have become cloudy |
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which helps separate his skins. |
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Half blind and vulnerable, |
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At last his eyes begin to clear |
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a sign his new skin |
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The king is back |
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His spent skin is tight and itchy. |
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As he scrapes and rubs to |
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his outer scales begin to peel. |
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It is a remarkable transformation |
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even his fangs, teeth, |
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will be replaced again and again |
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When the skin over his eyes lifts away |
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through which to view his world. |
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At 12 feet long and still growing, |
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the snake must endure shedding |
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His discarded skin |
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makes a perfect meal |
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In this kingdom, nothing is wasted. |
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After ten days without eating, |
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A tree offers a good vantage point |
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For his size, |
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Now he waits and watches. |
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A movement in the tree reveals another |
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Its father has spotted something. |
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The king cobra watches the hunt unfold |
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A vine snake ribbons |
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Much smaller than the cobra, |
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this nimble hunter is |
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The little snake looks |
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But it is only a brave display. |
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His venom is mild. |
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The young hornbill gets the prize. |
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And the king will |
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Below on the forest floor |
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It is one of India's largest |
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Quick and voracious, |
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From his perch |
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It is just what he's been waiting for. |
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Silently, the king cobra |
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The rat snake follows a scent. |
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Its sensitive tongue |
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The king cobra is on their trail. |
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As the rat snake prepares to attack, |
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In a flash, the rat escapes. |
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And now, the hunter becomes the hunted |
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Against the hooded death, |
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The rat snake puffs up its throat |
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but it is a futile gesture. |
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One strike delivers venom |
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The rat snake returns the attack |
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but it's already doomed. |
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Within minutes the giant cobra's venom |
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The heart stops pumping, |
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and the victim suffocates. |
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The king cobra can easily |
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His backward-facing teeth help |
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Digestion has already begun, |
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for the king's venom helps dissolve |
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Still, the king cobra |
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And for the days it takes |
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he'll have no need to hunt. |
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But yet the king is restless. |
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It is now the dry season |
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A new, |
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Some of the rain forest's trees |
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have dropped their leaves |
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It is a joyous season for langurs. |
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Across the forest the |
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Their sweet, pungent odor beckons. |
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It's an irresistible lure to |
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and great |
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To reach the succulent flesh |
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the prickly skin must first be peeled. |
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It's a messy job for even |
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She leaves a veritable |
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This is a season when king cobras |
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But today the king's subjects |
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They take only passing |
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The king still seeks a mate. |
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And it's in this fruiting season |
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But it's not a female he encounters. |
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It's a rival... a formidable male. |
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A potent threat, |
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Each is capable of killing |
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A strange duel begins |
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an encounter rarely witnessed |
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Rather than a fight to the death, |
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the battle has evolved |
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To win, one snake must force |
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At last, there is a victor. |
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It's the intruder. |
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The king has been dethroned. |
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Driven from his domain, |
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But the rain forests of southern India |
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As people press in, |
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less and less remains |
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Our king has no choice |
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Fortunately for the king cobra... |
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He is a gifted swimmer. |
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But what lies ahead for the king? |
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As the forest is cleared, |
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frequently cross the border |
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the realm of civilization. |
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But surprisingly, |
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a tea plantation is a |
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Here there is thick vegetation |
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But this is no haven. |
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For when king cobras |
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there is bound to be trouble. |
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Just one glimpse of the legendary |
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and shut down a plantation for weeks. |
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This cultivated land is not as rich as |
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but still, |
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Yet he must be evicted if work |
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And even the king is no match for |
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Fortunately for the king, |
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a special sort of |
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His weapons are simply |
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to the amazement of his audience. |
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In this part of India, |
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whenever a king cobra is on the loose. |
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An American expatriate raised in India |
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Whitaker has studied |
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I'll leave the bag here. |
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You take that path. |
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Careful, huh? |
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I've been fascinated with |
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Anyone who likes snakes |
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the snake of all snakes. |
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As I get to know it better, |
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Finding a king cobra in a |
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I spent 20 days tracking one down. |
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The bushes here are so thick that I |
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and knees to see |
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It's a dangerous proposition |
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After several snakebites, |
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The next bite could kill him. |
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He's coming. |
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I'm moving up ahead. |
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Okay. |
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With the serpent cornered, |
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the challenge now is to complete the |
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The king cobra too is fragile. |
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The stick could easily hurt him. |
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He's big, he's really big. |
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Back, back, back, back, back, |
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I don't want to pull, man. |
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I've been catching king cobras |
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And I've evolved a system |
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When the serpent is trapped, |
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lunging toward what appears |
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He's gonna go in. |
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Open the bag. |
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Okay, good. |
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he's gonna go in. |
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Watch out. |
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This is one hell of a snake. |
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Whitaker is not just a hunter. |
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He's a leading expert on king cobras |
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and each capture is a precious chance |
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about this elusive species. |
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To take detailed notes on the snake |
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Whitaker has to |
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which is just |
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But he must be removed |
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The amount of venom this serpent can |
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one bite can deliver |
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The procedure doesn't harm the snake. |
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His venom is simply |
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Good venom sample. |
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Okay, shall we release him? |
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The king cobra can produce |
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One, two, three. |
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Few people are actually |
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for they are reclusive serpents |
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And this is where Whitaker |
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far from tea estates and people. |
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After his encounter |
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the king cobra seeks refuge. |
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A patchwork of woods |
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this new home has all |
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But there will also |
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And now he is the newcomer. |
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Cautiously, he slides |
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He senses something up ahead |
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Is it food? |
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His tongue picks up a telltale scent. |
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It's another king cobra, |
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The king may have found his queen. |
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She stands on guard. |
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She may be ready to mate, |
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So he moves slowly. |
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He tries to entice her. |
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But his gentle overtures are rebuffed. |
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Abandoning the subtle approach, |
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Perhaps this will excite her. |
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With the female slow to respond, |
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Finally, she begins to show interest |
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sinuous body against his. |
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At last, with their tails entwined |
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It's a lengthy affair |
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this limbless embrace may last |
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When the male withdraws |
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the union is over. |
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The two will go their separate ways, |
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but the king has passed on his legacy. |
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It is April, the season of serpentine |
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Clouds signal a difficult time ahead. |
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With eggs developing inside her, |
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the female cobra needs |
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In only 40 days, |
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just before the monsoon breaks. |
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Rising humidity brings forth a new |
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A hammerhead slug feels |
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The female seems to be moving more |
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And her journey will become |
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for the moisture has triggered |
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Leeches... the bloodsuckers of the rain |
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For the past six months, |
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Now they are hungry for blood |
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From the moment they emerge, |
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leeches hone in on |
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Once aboard the serpent, |
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they make for the vulnerable |
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At this time of year, |
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hardly an animal |
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As daylight fades, |
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With twilight, |
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In the brief dusk of the tropics, |
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one world prepares to sleep |
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A multitude of tiny legs carries |
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Beneath a jackfruit tree, |
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a porcupine makes an |
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On this moonlit night, |
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the female king cobra |
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Their survival depends on her choice. |
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Temperature and humidity must be |
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She sizes up a stand of bamboo. |
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Her rustling startles the porcupine. |
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Then something remarkable happens. |
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She begins to gather bamboo leaves |
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She starts to build a nest. |
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It is an extraordinary feat for |
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and the female king cobra is the only |
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It is an exhausting task. |
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As she toils, a slender loris in the |
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nocturnal search for food. |
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He takes only passing |
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The king cobra will continue to |
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before she is ready to lay. |
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The loris is suddenly more attentive |
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It is well after midnight |
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The eggs will slowly whiten |
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It will take the mother much of the |
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Meanwhile, her upstairs neighbor |
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It's a lucky night for the loris. |
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With 18 eggs laid, |
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the mother cobra buries them beneath |
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Here she will rest, as the Indian sun |
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The cobra's maternal duties |
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For the next two months, |
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she will guard her nest from |
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This plucky little hunter will try his |
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In a scene from Kipling's Jungle Book |
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it is the cobra against |
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The mongoose is a notorious egg thief |
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and one of the few creatures willing |
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The persistent little mongoose |
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Towering three feet above him |
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She has made her message quite clear. |
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On this humid, summer day, |
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Finding king cobra nests in the |
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So I've been offering rewards. |
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But still, in 20 years, |
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People think that a king cobra |
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dangerous creature on earth. |
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But what surprises me is that |
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All I have to do is gently prod |
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But I know she'll stick around just |
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This is a great chance for me to learn |
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Let's checkout the |
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Even with the mother guarding them |
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Ah, here's a rotten one. |
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In this nest there are 18 eggs and a |
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God, there are leeches here too. |
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I'll chuck the rotten one away. |
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You better get them off your hands |
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Ah, they've never bothered me. |
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Thirty point nine. |
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Not bad. Pretty constant. |
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Let's close up. |
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When the researchers have |
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they replace the eggs and rebuild the |
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Only after they've gone |
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Then she will resume |
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A protective mother king cobra |
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for scientists working |
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I've been wandering in these |
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and although we do keep |
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I've never been attacked by anything |
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mites, ticks, leeches. |
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Look at these suckers. |
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Well, as gory as it looks, |
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Oh, that's a fat one. |
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Look at that. |
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The fish are eating them. |
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Pulling them off does feel a bit weird |
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And of course, |
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But they don't really |
| 00:45:03 |
Soon leeches will be the |
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for it is July and at last the |
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Sweeping in from the Indian ocean, |
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it will bring as much as 30 feet |
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The lashing rain will |
| 00:45:45 |
The deluge may last for weeks. |
| 00:46:37 |
Though the nest is battered |
| 00:46:40 |
the female and her eggs |
| 00:46:44 |
After two months |
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Instinct tells her to abandon the nest |
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for she is a snake-eater by nature. |
| 00:46:59 |
Within the nest, |
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Their mother glides off to hunt |
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Her babies will now have |
| 00:47:19 |
With a tiny sharp tooth |
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One by one the others follow. |
| 00:47:38 |
Soon the nest glistens with a dozen |
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complete with venom and tiny fangs. |
| 00:47:47 |
For the first 24 hours |
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the hatchlings remain near their eggs |
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and take in the world |
| 00:48:03 |
At last they start |
| 00:48:24 |
The pencil-thin babies are |
| 00:48:27 |
but already they act |
| 00:48:29 |
Quick to respond to movement |
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Then, instinctively |
| 00:48:36 |
the bamboo above for safety. |
| 00:49:01 |
But one youngster lingers below. |
| 00:49:03 |
Instead of leaving the |
| 00:49:06 |
this hatchling is drawn |
| 00:49:09 |
It will be a costly mistake. |
| 00:49:17 |
A crocodile is watching. |
| 00:50:03 |
Beneath the other more |
| 00:50:06 |
the mongoose returns |
| 00:50:09 |
He's rummaging for leftovers. |
| 00:50:14 |
He devours a king cobra |
| 00:50:50 |
In just a week, one of the hatchlings |
| 00:50:54 |
He will shed every month |
| 00:50:57 |
since baby king cobras grow quickly. |
| 00:51:19 |
Now the hungry hatchling must |
| 00:51:38 |
He spots his prey |
| 00:51:42 |
a little olive water snake. |
| 00:52:01 |
At this age, the baby king cobra can |
| 00:52:05 |
to kill a tiny creature like this. |
| 00:52:08 |
But his hunting form is |
| 00:52:11 |
He spreads his ribs |
| 00:52:25 |
With his first successful kill, |
| 00:52:27 |
the little cobra is well on his way |
| 00:52:36 |
In ten years, he may grow to 15 feet. |
| 00:52:39 |
But only with luck. |
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For the forests of southern India |
| 00:52:45 |
In such a changing world |
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What will become of the little king? |
| 00:53:00 |
Will he be banished |
| 00:53:03 |
remembered only in a storybook? |
| 00:53:09 |
For today, at least, |
| 00:53:11 |
this mighty monarch rules |
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For he is king. |
