An Audience with the
Part 2:
King .
Once in a lifetime!
Adam Sapiano, the president of the Victorian Herpetological Society, has
recently returned from Agumbe, and shares his personal experience of an
unforgettable trip.
Back in 2016 I was lucky enough to spend a week
with herping legend Romulus Whitaker in my home
town of Melbourne. It was during this visit that Rom
told me if I ever wanted to visit India he would
organise a trip to the Agumbe Rainforest Research
Station. Well, it took almost three years to the day, but
a couple of months back I made the trip along with
four mates.
1.
After visiting Rom and his wife Janaki at the Madras
Crocodile Bank Trust & Centre for Herpetology, we
travelled west across the country to the ARRS. When
we first arrived at the research station, Field Director
Ajay Giri asked, “How many King Cobras would you
like to find?”
I told him that if I got to see one I would be more than
happy, but he assured me that we would find at least
five during our stay.
Our first rescue call came in less than 24 hours after
our arrival. A big cobra had been seen under a pot at a
residential property in a nearby village. How big can a
snake be if it is under a pot? Words cannot describe
my feelings when I first saw the ‘King’. He was
absolutely massive (the pot was HUGE), with a head
bigger than my fist and an overall length of approxi-
mately four metres. The snake was quickly bagged by
Ajay prior to collecting valuable data for his research.
This includes weighing and sexing every individual, in
addition to microchipping for future recognition.
Later, Ajay and his assistant Kumar spent time
talking to the locals and educating them about snakes,
snake bite, and what they should do if they see a
snake.
2.