Face To Face With The Kings Of Bali

Photo by: Reinhardt O’Kennedy

I never would have thought that I would be flying to Bali in Indonesia to do conservation work and filming.

Bali is a well-known tourist destination with nice hotels and a tropical party atmosphere. When I told people, I was going there to find snakes and film them, people thought I was crazy. Why aren’t I going to Bali to relax and drink cocktails by the pool like a normal person? Probably because I’m not very normal and it’s the way I like it. It was a new opportunity to be in front of the camera and to learn about a species of animals that brings irrational fear into people’s minds. Our goal was to help people understand them and to see they don’t need to be feared, but respected. This was the first project for The Conservation Front and what a first project it was.

Leaving Adelaide at the start of November with the lead cameraman, Reinhardt O’Kennedy we headed directly to Bali. It was my first time to the tourist island and I was super nervous about being in front of the camera. I had barely done any of that in the past but it was something I hoped to do more of in the future as another avenue to get conservation messages across.

Once we had arrived we caught a cab to Kuta where we were staying for the next few days to gather the scenic and landscape shots before the rest of the team arrived. We met with the producer, Sean Kennedy who arrived a few days earlier. We all discussed ideas and where we hope we can take the project while also enjoying Bali’s beaches.

Photo by: Reinhardt O’Kennedy

On the first day though we were in for a surprise when the organisation we doing the story on, the Bali Reptile Rescue Centre, got in contact with us to see if we wanted to join on a snake relocation. The species in question is one of the most well-known species of snake, but yet they are still very misunderstood and many people don’t know much about them. They are the largest venomous snake on the planet and

we were about to see our first one in the wild, the King Cobra.

Snakes cop a bad wrap all over the planet and on Bali its no different. Basically, all of the jungles have been converted into plantations, villages and agricultural lands which leaves very few natural habitats for the king cobras to operate in. They are very special as they are actually snake eaters so where you have a healthy population of snakes, kings could also be in the area trying to get a feed. We had chosen to come in the spring when the female kings had laid their eggs in their nest and were protecting them. This leads to human-snake conflicts as they usually nest in bamboo on community lands.

We were picked up at our hotel and we left the more touristy areas and headed out to the much quieter West Bali to the reptile centre. It is a small establishment but had a wide variety of wildlife from all different snakes that were waiting to be released back into the wild, small crocodiles that were going to get killed by fisherman if not caught, genets that had been kept illegally for the coffee industry and a fly fox that hangs peacefully near the entrance. We even were able to hold 1-day old baby reticulated pythons that

will one day become the longest species of snake on the planet.

It was here where I had my first sighting of a King Cobra. There were 4 in separate enclosures. Agus who is an expert in dealing with kings got a big male called Dragon out of his enclosure so we could have a look. He was massive and chunky. I had only seen pythons that were that big. He was super impressive. Everyone just kept walking around and talking and slowly Dragon had had enough of the attention and decided he wanted to head back into his little house.

Gorgeous female king after she was located and caught

It wasn’t long before we were on our way to the village that had reported a king and her nest close by. I was so excited to see a wild king and to see how the Bali Reptile Rescue team operated. When we got to the village, we were shown the way and then we had to go the rest by foot.
It was a steep descent into a little drainage line and we had quite a crowd following us down. It seemed like the whole village was behind us and in slippery and steep conditions they needed to make sure they stayed a safe distance away.

The rain started to spit and on the steep slope we came across a big piece of bamboo with a lot of branches sticking out. The king ducked underneath the leaf litter that was caught at the base of the bamboo and she went into the little holes to hide away. Shinta the snake lady of Bali pointed out the nest.

This is so amazing, as how does an animal make a nest with no arms or hands? Very impressive.

A king cobra nest in the middle of the bamboo

We all hung back and let the experts do their thing. They searched and searched in all the holes and the surrounding area near the bamboo. Then all of a sudden, she bursts out of no where down into the stream and into some large boulders that had fallen down the hill some time ago, startling all the locals and they moved further up the hill.

It was now up to Agus and Ray to find this snake and safely capture her. I watched on, transfixed on what was unfolding and eager to see this snake close up and not as a blur. It didn’t take long and Ray was able to locate her. He used his hook and grabbed her by the tail, making it look so easy. Because cobras are focused on movement, she just stared at him. Ray placed her down and her attention turned to us as we stood in front of her. She wasn’t massive but you could see in her face that she had so much character.

A staff member from the Bali Reptile Rescue handling the female king

After the king was safely bagged, we turned our attention to the nest to remove the eggs. There was over 30 eggs in this nest and they were all collected and taken back to the centre for incubation. They will be released back into the wild once they have hatched and the babies are big enough.
This was the start of our Bali adventure and we couldn’t wait to get the rest under way. We had a few more days before the rest of the team arrived so we could get stuck in.

Follow The Conservation Front for more updates as the documentary is soon to be released.