- Today, we're gonna find out
why they call king cobras the king.
So I'm here with my buddy Devin.
He brought his amazing king cobra named Taco.
And they call 'em king cobras
because they actually eat other snakes.
We have a frozen thawed reticulated python here
and I'm just gonna go ahead and offer it to Taco right now
and see if it's interested.
Oh yes, look at that, took it right away.
And that's right, king cobras eat other snakes.
Now, they will eat rodents and stuff like that
in the wild as well.
How big is Taco, Dev?
- Nine foot three inches.
King cobras are the largest venomous snake
in the entire world, sometimes exceeding 18 foot in length.
That's another reason why they would be called king.
Now again, in the wild,
they're gonna eat reticulated pythons,
they're going to eat other snakes,
but they're also going to eat rodents as well.
Now it's really interesting to see
this kind of thing going on here.
King cobras have the second largest venom yield
on the planet.
That's what makes king cobras so deadly.
It's not that their venom is very potent.
It is, but it's not one of the top potent animals.
But the thing is, is unlike most snakes,
these guys will bite you and hang on,
really pump you with venom.
The venom yield on a king cobra can be up to 600 milligrams,
even sometimes as much as one gram in captivity.
That is an enormous amount of venom yield,
enough to literally kill an adult elephant.
And that venom is actually cytotoxic and neurotoxic,
which basically happens when this animal
is biting a snake or biting a person,
first signs that's gonna happen
is your nervous system is going start to trigger.
You're gonna feel some pain, you're gonna feel nauseous,
you're gonna feel dizzy.
Things are gonna start to shut down in your nervous system.
And then it has a layer of cardiotoxin.
So within 10 or 15 minutes, your heart starts to stop,
then you go into a coma.
Your breathing becomes very difficult.
You're pretty much gone.
It can be about 30 minutes from a bite to actual fatality.
The thing about king cobras that makes 'em so amazing
is they're so inquisitive and so intelligent,
but also the fact that they're so deadly.
One in three bites, even if medically treated,
can actually be fatal.
Very, very careful, but I'm just gonna sit back.
- Actually got venom drops right here on the ground.
this nice gold liquid here
is actually the venom from Taco's fangs.
- That's absolutely nuts.
So we're just gonna kind of sit back here.
Look at how Taco is gonna eat this reticulated python.
Again, right now, it's just like, it's bitten it.
It's holding on, right?
It's not like a venomous snake that bites
and lets go and lets the venom work.
It's biting and hanging on
and pumping venom into that snake.
Again, this is a frozen thawed reticulated python,
but if this was a live reticulated python,
it wouldn't be able to get away
and Taco's just pumping the venom in
until the animal actually succumbs to that venom
and then is going eat it.
So here, as soon as Taco thinks
that the animal is succumbed, which it certainly has,
it's gonna start just going down
and it's gonna be a really good meal for it.
And there Taco goes, it actually positions itself
and it's just gonna suck it down like a spaghetti noodle.
I mean, this is good protein for this animal.
And a lot of times, king cobras that are fed on snakes
actually grow a little bit bigger.
Now, of course, some rat eaters can get very large too
but this is their normal diet, right?
They're normally eating snakes in the wild
with a handful of rodents,
so they're not heavily rodent eaters in the wild.
That is just absolutely ridiculous to see.
As much as I hate to see animals eat other animals,
and certainly I love reticulated pythons.
The fact is, it's great when you're able to
put a reticulated python that didn't make it to good use.
You're recycling it, Taco is gonna get a nice big meal,
gonna put a tremendous amount of growth in it.
Taco being nine foot three inches long
is actually only about halfway there.
Think about how big Taco is,
one of the prettiest king cobras
I've ever seen in my entire life.
This one is from the Sumatran locality
and it is absolutely a ripper, but one day, again,
it's gonna be 15, 16, maybe even up to 18 foot long.
But just take a look at it,
just making short work of that reticulated python.
In no time, it's gonna put that reticulated python
down like nothing.
This is just so cool, this is the very first time
I've ever seen a king cobra eat a snake in person
so this is absolutely an amazing experience.
What a beautiful snake.
(intense music)
Again, just being able to sit here
this close to a king cobra as it's eating
is absolutely one of the coolest experiences of my life.
The thing is, there's no danger for me right now
because it's preoccupied.
It has something in its mouth
so I don't have to worry about getting bit.
And of course, if it shot over towards my way,
I'm gonna move as quick as I can.
The truth is Taco only has one thing on its mind right now
and that's eating this reticulated python
King cobras are actually the only cobra
that is in the genus Ophiophagus,
which is pretty interesting
and it really sets 'em apart from a lot of other cobras.
Not only are they the longest cobra in the world
but they also can stand higher than any other cobra.
When in a threat display, they can literally be
sometimes four or five foot off the ground
and they have a massive hood on 'em, too.
Something that you don't see with other cobras.
Don't get me wrong, other cobras definitely hood up
and they can stand up pretty high too,
but nothing beats the threat display of a king cobra.
You can see I'm kind of help pushing the snake
a little bit right now
because until the snake gets
a little bit down Taco's throat,
it basically is just kind of moving back and forth
and it's trying to undulate those teeth and those fangs
into pulling that snake in.
Once it gets a little bit down into its throat,
then it can start to undulate its muscles
and move the snake down quicker, it's already starting to.
That first little inch or two
took quite a while for Taco to start.
But now that it's got three, four inches
of that snake down its throat,
it's starting to move really quick
and is making pretty short work of this reticulated python.
As I see it's fangs going and just kind of grabbing
and pulling and grabbing and pulling,
it's pretty spectacular.
Man, I tell you, this is, I'm on cloud nine, guys.
This is one of the coolest things I've ever seen.
I cannot thank Dev enough for allowing me
to be involved in this.
Matter of fact, I'm gonna put a link in the description
to all of Dev's stuff.
Go show him some love because, hey,
the work he's doing with king cobras is amazing.
(intense music)
And what you're seeing here kind of proves
what amazing work Dev has been doing with Taco.
I mean, for this animal to literally be in a room
full of people, cameras, commotion,
it left, it's here, it's stuff like that.
And it's still just eating like nothing.
Doesn't seem to be phased one bit with the fact that
I'm just literally a hand length away from the animal.
It just seems to be going about its way.
That tells you how intelligent these animals are
and how well they can be trained.
(suspenseful music)
As Taco was finishing up, I wanted to
make sure you guys knew about the amazing event
we're putting down in Orlando called Animal Con USA.
It's the last weekend in August.
All of your favorite animal creators,
over a hundred animal creators
from all over the world are flying in.
It's your opportunity, not only to get to
meet them and greet them,
but also to hang out and have a great time.
I'm gonna put a link in the description
to AnimalConUSA.com, definitely get your tickets now.
Again, the last weekend in August in Orlando.
You guys think this is amazing as I do,
make sure you go down and hit that like button,
comment down below what you think about things.
And hey, don't forget to subscribe for more awesome content.
You can see Taco is getting down to the very little bit.
It's peeking up now, now it's starting to
look around a little bit.
That last little tail isn't gonna take long to get down.
It's gonna move the rest of the body of that snake down
and it's gonna have an amazing meal.
This is probably the time
when I'm gonna back up just a little bit.
Not that I'm worried about Taco at all
but I want to play it safe, I don't wanna take any chances.
This is incredible, what an amazing experience.
Look at that, look at how Taco is just finishing up.
Absolutely wonderful.
(intense drum music)
Well, Dev, that was absolutely an amazing experience.
And of course, we actually found out that Taco was a male
when we sexed it here, believe it or not.
Matter of fact, I'll put a card to that video right here.
You guys can check that out.
There's a new snake in Dev's care
and it happens to be a female king cobra.
Take a look at that, how old is this?
Gotta be super, look at how it hoods up like that.
- She's not even a month old.
She will be a month on the 10th.
I've only had her for a couple of days.
- Oh my gosh, so this is as fresh it be.
And of course this is Sumatran,
which is the exact same locality as Taco.
Dev can breed it together and hopefully produce
more beautiful king cobras, just like Taco.
This is amazing, do you think you'll be able to
tame this one out the same way that you've done with Taco?
- Probably working with her
the same exact way that I deal with Taco, possibly,
but each snake has a mind of their own.
They all have their own demeanor.
So if I can get her close to what Taco is, I'll be fine.
- Oh my gosh, that would be absolutely amazing.
Taco is literally a one in a million, it really is.
This is a baby king cobra pattern.
They always have bands and they always have jet black.
Taco was very similar to this as a baby.
And then of course, as it's gotten older,
it loses all those bands
and turns that beautiful adult king cobra.
I mean, look at how amazing that is.
Its name is Tequilla
and it's amazing to see its baby colors.
As this animal gets to a year, two years of age,
it's gonna turn more of a tan brown, even a reddish color.
It's gonna be one day, maybe 14, 15 plus foot.
King cobras have been known to get up to 18 foot in length
meaning they're the largest venomous snake on the planet.
Of course, they're called the king
because they eat other snakes, right?
You could just see, you know,
it almost looks like a stature.
Maybe right now you're thinking, is that even real?
But watch this.
Hoo, it's real, key in on my hand right there
and saying, don't get too close.
This is threat display.
It's a little tiny snake in a big world.
So right now it's just saying, hey, don't muck with me.
Turn around and seeing me a little bit and that's okay.
It's just trying to keep me away from it, right?
It doesn't wanna mess with me.
King cobras really don't wanna ever bite.
Very few encounters in the wild of king cobras
'cause they're very shy animals.
They'd really prefer to run away from you
then try to bite you, but you definitely don't wanna
get bit by something like this.
Even a baby like this has a heck of a venom yield.
Come on, look, come on over here.
Making them really a quite fierce animal
and something to be really careful with.
There you go, look it, it's really hooding up now.
Come on, bud.
Messing with those cobras certainly got my heart rate up.
Speaking up, our time is up.
Hope you guys enjoyed today's video.
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have a wonderful day, reptile army.
Remember, be kind to someone
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