Cobra Venom In My Eyes

Cobra Venom In My Eyes

By Giacomo Meeker

I had always kept snakes as pets. Growing up in the swamps of Louisiana gave me the opportunity to catch and keep many wonderful snakes. One thing I always shied away from was catching or keeping the venomous ones. In spring, summer, and fall I would run across cottonmouths every time I went hiking in the swamps behind my house. Fortunately for my mother I only kept the kings, rats, and other safe snakes in the area as pets. Things changed when I was 14 and my father, who is/was an emergency room MD, got a job in rural Indonesia on the island of Sumatra.

The whole family was moved to an American run oil camp in the lowland rain forests of Sumatra. When I say "lowland rain forests", of course I mean what is left of the lowland rain forests, mainly secondary growth with a few giant trees still remaining. In any event, the flora and fauna were nothing short of amazing. I had done my preparation for the snakes before I ever set foot on the island. I went ahead and invested in some nice hooks and tongs. I read up about the snakes of South East Asia from all the books I could find. I was not able to find very much info on the snakes specifically of Sumatra, which happens to be one of the most biologically diverse areas in the world.

Due to the biological diversity, and the remote location of Sumatra, there are many different varieties of snakes that have not been documented and probably even whole species that are undocumented. In any event I felt prepared for anything I might encounter. I fully realized the wealth of snakes and lizards in the area and I was primed to see what I could find. I knew that I would run into my fair share of dangerous snakes. At the age of 14 and being in the jungles of Sumatra I decided I would not pass up any chance to catch and keep any snake regardless of how dangerous it was. I made one exception to this rule. This was the cobra. I was fortunate enough to catch and keep many amazing snakes and lizards in the 2 years I lived there. Most of the snakes I caught and all the lizards I caught did not make reasonable pets. After a while though I was able to settle on a few snakes that made wonderful pets. At the height of my collection I had a Wagler's Temple Viper, Sumatran Bamboo Viper, Mangrove Snake, and one beautiful cream and peach colored Sumatran Blood Python. All were amazingly good tempered and willing to eat at all times. For me the cobra was in a league of it's own when compared to these other snakes that I had as pets. It was a snake I was curious about but a little unsure about catching.

There were 2 species of cobra in the area that I knew of. Of course the King Cobra was the most common and obviously the most feared. However, I never ran into a King except for one that was freshly ran over and measured 13 feet head to tail. And I must say, even a dead one can send chills down your spine. The other cobra in the area is a subspecies of the spitting cobra that ranges from Southern Thailand through Indonesia. I had heard many stories from the local people of cobra encounters in the area. I had to always be skeptical of these stories due to the fact that many harmless snakes in the area would seem like a cobra to the untrained eye. My dad was the local doctor and fearing my propensity toward catching dangerous snakes he warned me that there was no cobra anti-venom at the local hospital and a bite from one, especially on my own in the jungle would be 100% fatal. I knew the risks and felt that it was not worth it to attempt to catch a cobra given the chance. My poor mother was patient enough allowing me to keep 2 vipers and a mangrove snake on the front porch with 3 little sisters running around. Of course I kept padlocks on the cages for those reasons.

Throughout the camp I had earned a reputation as having somewhat of a death wish due to my snake collection hobby. So when people found snakes in their yard I was the one they called. One day a neighbor called me and told me there was a snake in the yard and it had crawled behind some boards propped against the house. So I grabbed my tongs and tupperwear container and headed out. What I did not grab was goggles or glasses. If the snake were a spitter then I would be able to identify it and would not try to catch it. At least that was my reasoning at the time. When I got there a small crowd of locals had gathered. The local Indonesians are incredibly fearful of snakes, much like the locals here in Tennessee.

Upon my arrival, I began pulling the boards away from the house one by one. Eventually I pulled the second to the last board away. There sat a snake that was roughly 5 feet in length with a yellow cream color body and a little white and black coloring around the neck. Something struck me as odd when I saw this snake. It seemed more alert than any snake I had ever encountered. It also seemed to have more energy than any other snake I had encountered. It's hard to explain but there was a level of intelligence in this snake that I had yet witnessed in a snake. I was a little unsure what it was exactly. To my knowledge, there were many cream colored snakes in the area that were perfectly harmless. However, I was going to take no chances.

All doubt in my mind was put to rest as my tongs neared the snake. The hood spread and the snake began to hiss. I then knew what I was dealing. As much as I had told myself that I would not attempt to catch a cobra, the thought of not catching this snake did not enter my mind. Initially, I was a little confused as to what type of cobra I was looking at. My books had said the spitting cobras were jet black and I was sure it was not a King cobra. I did not believe it was a spitter, but I was going to avoid getting spit on just in case. It turns out that the spitting cobras in Sumatra were cream colored instead of black. I gently grabbed the snake as it was turned away from me. The snake quickly turned and looked me straight in the eye. In a fraction of a second I had venom across my whole face before I could even flinch. I heard the crowd of people hold their breath. Immediately my eyes burned like someone had put gasoline in them. Some venom had gotten in my mouth. It was a very bitter taste. My right eye got more venom than the left and it was tearing heavily. I had to keep my right eye closed. The swelling started in immediately. My left was still burning and tearing up but not enough to force me close it. With one eye closed and the other one tearing heavily I was able to maneuver the snake into the container and place the lid on it with my tongs. The container was small for a 5 foot snake and there was no way I was going to get near the container and try to put the lid on it with my eye sight so blurred. Luckily the container was transparent and instead of trying to escape through the top of the container the snake continued to try and escape through the clear plastic. This gave me time to put the lid on the container with the tongs.

I already knew the dangers of cobra venom in the eyes and face. I knew that washing it out as soon as possible was a necessity. I also knew that there were no open sores on my face as that would enable the venom to get into my blood stream. Venom in the eyes is not a major problem as long as you wash it out quickly and there are no open sores that would allow the venom to enter the blood stream. However, my mom did not know this.

By the time I had walked home my mother had already heard the news via an amazingly fast network of paranoid mothers. As expected she had heard a little different story than the one that actually happened. She had heard that I had been spit in the eye by a cobra and was permanently blind. She was very upset when I walked in the house with a spitting cobra in the box, one eye swollen shut and another very blood shot. Luckily my home was a few blocks away and my father was home to help wash my eyes out. My father was his usual relaxed self and provided some eye drops that numbed the eyes and allowed us to thoroughly wash them out. My eyes were swollen and blood shot for a few hours but there was no major damage. I have never seen my mother so upset at me though. Lucky for her I decided not to keep the snake. I had gone through enough just catching the thing. I didn't even entertain the idea of keeping it. My father and I took it out into the jungle with a video camera and got some awesome video of me letting the thing go. The one thing that struck me about this snake was it's seemingly remarkable intelligence. It was by far the most intelligent snake I have ever been around. I felt grateful for having had the chance to encounter such an awesome creature. For me the few hours of swelling and pain in the eyes were well worth it.

I hope you enjoyed this story from my boyhood but I would like to stress to you the importance of conservation of our rainforests. I'm sure you already know that our tropical rainforests are being destroyed at a rapid pace. I think it is worth noting to you the process of deforestation and how it begins. At least how it happens in Sumatra. In Sumatra it all begins with oil. You start with virgin rain forest that may potentially have large oil reserves below them. US oil companies in particular Chevron, Texaco, Shell, and Exxon get permits to drill. They create the first roads into the rain forest to drill at selected sites of which the vast majority of the sites do not produce a single drop of oil. Once the road is there, the logging companies come in and start clearing it out. In Sumatra these companies happened to mostly be Dutch. Finally once the roads are there and the land is cleared the poverty stricken people in an extremely over populated country begin to settle in. The first thing they do is slash and burn whatever pockets of rainforest are left to create suitable land for agriculture. The end result is complete desolation of huge amounts of rainforest. I tell you these things for 2 reasons. First, The creatures I encountered in Sumatra were amazing. I was very fortunate to observe these exotic creatures in their natural environments. In my opinion the eventual extinction of these species would truly be a tragedy. Second, the idea that countries in the west have nothing to do with deforestation of tropical rainforests is completely false. The Sumatran Tiger is currently the most endangered of all tigers and US oil company drilling is the direct cause of that. Just remember that the next time you see an Exxon commercial giving themselves credit for their tiger conservation fund.

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