Video Shows Famous Snake Catcher Narrowly Escaping Getting Bitten by Giant King Cobra
This is what happens when you touch a king cobra.
Heart-stopping video footage shows the moment a man came close to being attacked by a gigantic king cobra after trying to pick the creature up. The close-up video shows the snake attempting to bite the snake catcher more than once—but he wouldn't give up. Mike Holston, who goes by the Instagram handle @therealtarzann, uploaded the footage himself. He relocates animals to save their lives and seems to go out of his way to handle dangerous creatures. Here's what happened when he tried to pick up the king cobra.
In the Instagram post, Holston is seen crouching behind a swaying king cobra, which seems focused on the person behind the camera. Holston slowly reaches out and lifts the cobra, before letting it drop to the ground. His second attempt to lift the snake is more successful—until it turns around and lunges at him. The video ends with him clearly attempting to pick up the snake one more time. Keep reading to learn more and see the video.
"King of the jungle the KING COBRA👑🐍 Give me some tips 👇🏾," Holston captions the post. His fans had plenty to say about the terrifying video. "And there goes the heart stopping again for you my boi 😩😂🫡 you wild as it gets my guy," says one commenter. "You're really trying to get your Steve Irwin on!" says another. "I just want to be great 🔥I've been on a mission to learn as much as possible in this short lifetime we have!" Holston responds.
Holston has another video where he is seen picking up an incredibly dangerous reticulated python. "Can you guess how long this reticulated python is?" he captions the hair-raising post. "One slip and it's not gonna end well ..one coil around your neck and you can pass out from the pressure of this size in about 15-20 seconds and if the snake decides to get away when the grip drops you'll be lucky enough to wake up and still continue your life but if the snake decides to continue and squeeze due to fear it'll cut off the blood circulation to your brain resulting to be potentially become brain dead due to lack of blood 🩸 flow to the brain …this snake of this size can't eat me but definitely can kill me or send me to the hospital ..he doesn't know I just want to relocate him and save his life!"
Holston seems to have an appreciation for the slithery reptiles and advises people not to attempt what he does. "The cool thing about snakes are all of them are different," he says. "if this were another species like the green anaconda… I wouldn't last at all because the muscle density and weight difference… This is a two man job for sure, just know what you're getting yourself into when dealing with Apex predators …in my world ..snakes are friends not food 🙌🏽."
Holston appears to be trying to help the python by moving it away from people who might eat it. "These guys are working a site right off the edge of the jungle and they are running into multiple species of snakes daily," he says. "Sometimes they are just ignored but big ones like this can be a good meal for the local villagers so instead I got the opportunity to relocate it down river away from where these guys are doing work ….full video coming soon 😎😤."
