All language subtitles for Cobra Mafia

(birds chirping)

NARRATOR: They rule
the reptilian underworld through fear.

Hooded assassins,
armed with sophisticated weapons

and specialist skills.

(hissing)

Over 270 species of these elite snakes
belong to the Elapidae family.

-(growl)
-(hiss)

Their reign of terror
spans two continents,

where their name alone
evokes widespread panic.

For included in their ranks
are the world's greatest venomous snakes.

They are The Cobra Mafia.

(heart beating)

(birds chirping)

(heart beating)

A newly hatched forest cobra
draws her first breath

and rests for a moment.

A creature sometimes revered
but mostly feared.

Born fully independent,

instinct is already driving her.

A powerful array
of finely tuned senses is firing up.

Her mission is to survive

and to survive she must kill.

(bird calling)

She's on her own and dangers abound.

She may be the only one
of thirteen siblings to survive.

But she's a natural born killer,

equipped with an inherited arsenal
of deadly weapons

and characteristic cobra bad attitude.

(ribbit)

Her presence stirs fear,

as her family name
and reputation precedes her.

(croaks)

For good reason.

Petal might be at her most vulnerable
right now

but she's a little hunter in the making

and we'll soon see
just what she's capable of.

For she belongs
to a veteran gang of predators

who rule the reptilian streets
of Africa and Asia.

(hissing)

The Cobra Mafia
is a group of ruthless hitmen,

each equipped with a set of skills
to run their operations.

Unlike most other groups of snake species,

they're armed with hollow fangs

designed like hypodermic needles,

used to inject deadly venom
into their victims.

But it's their trademark move
and iconic shape

that distinguishes them
from most other serpents.

Raising a third of their body length
off the ground,

they use specially adapted muscles
to expand modified ribs

and stretching their neck skin,

they form hoods, striking the defense pose

that has terrified their enemies
for centuries.

But there are imposters
within their ranks,

Cousins who have mastered the move,

even employ the hooding

and their behavior behind closed doors

doesn't comply
with the strict cobra code of conduct.

Is this a family of cold-blooded killers

or have they just earned a bad reputation?

Africa's hot jungles are home
to high-ranking mob members,

the forest cobras.

Meet Romeo,
don of Africa's forests and waterways,

one of the biggest, meanest,
bad-asses around.

His species territory stretches
throughout the African rainforests,

making him one of the largest true cobras
with such impressive real estate,

in the world.

And big guys play with big guns.

Romeo's bringing his
to the heat of this battle.

When it comes to the ladies,
he means business.

But the prize he's fighting for might not
hang around long enough to be won.

Fern is a female forest cobra.

She's hanging back in the shadows

interested enough but not convinced
of either male's prowess... yet.

They'll have to prove their mettle
to win her admiration

and possibly a chance to mate with her.

Is either guy cobra enough
to convince her he's 'the one'?

In Asia, Fern's cousin, the King cobra,

is also working the dating department

and she's set her sights pretty high.

She's after the godfather.

As far as potential mates go,

he'd be the catch of the century.

He's got the whole package.

His species title as king
comes with a vast territory

that spans the forested regions
in India across into southeast Asia,

an area almost the size of north America.

Growing to over 17 feet in length,

he's the world's longest, venomous snake.

Elongated muscles
and tendons stabilize his ribs

and lower body,
allowing him to extend upwards.

When he pulls
this classic cobra-style move,

he can look a grown man
of six feet in the eye.

And he packs a mighty punch too.

With venom glands
that stretch from just behind his eyes,

king cobras can inject
up to 600 milligrams of venom in one bite.

Only 20 milligrams of venom
is lethal to a human,

So with one bite,
the king can inject enough venom

to kill 20 people
or a fully-grown Asian elephant,

within three hours.

(elephant rumbles)

With all that adding to his appeal,

he's got his hands full with the ladies.

While snakes grow throughout their lives,

their skins don't grow with them.

Every few months, they will shed,

like the female has just done.

Her newly sloughed skin
leaves a pheromone trail,

as she steers a path ahead of him.

Cast aside like a dusty old coat,

it acts as a beacon
to catch the king's eye.

If he picks up what she's putting down,

he might decide to follow his nose,
or tongue.

Because for snakes,

smelling is more a matter of taste.

As the Godfather flicks his tongue,

he collects particles from the air,
and transfers them

to the Jacobson's organ
in the roof of his mouth for analysis.

Like a photograph being developed,

this information creates a mental image
of what he's tasting.

With his forked tongue,
he tastes in stereo,

and he's picked up on her trail.

But the female is cautious
and keeps just ahead of him,

letting him get too close
could be dangerous.

King cobra males
are known to be aggressive.

If he tries to catch up to her,
with bad intentions,

she needs a quick escape route,

or things could turn ugly,

like it did for this female King cobra.

(hissing)

In a classic case of fatal attraction.

The female's got her king's attention,

but is he in the mood,

or is she dicing with death?

The king cobra has caught sight
of the female up ahead.

He edges closer to take a better look.

But as he stops, and raises his body,

she seems uncertain about his intentions.

Cobras typically strike their classic pose

when they feel intimidated.

By looking bigger, they can frighten away
a potential threat.

But he may just be tuning into one of his
more unique and little understood senses,

What we think of as hearing, for him,
is better described as feeling.

Snakes have no external ears
and no eardrums like we do.

Instead, the Godfather
feels vibrations caused by movement,

in the air and along the ground.

One way these vibrations
can be transmitted is through the body,

to the tissues surrounding the jawbone
into the auditory system.

Here, the auditory system within the inner
ear relays the signal to the brain.

the Godfather's seen or heard something

that sends him in the opposite direction.

The female's been rejected.

But at least she's alive to tell the tale.

While her Asian cousin
deals with rejection,

African forest cobra Fern
is getting impatient

as the males posture, pose,
and tangle themselves up again.

(rattling)

But things are looking up,

Romeo is pulling out the big guns.

Physical conflict
comes with a great risk of injury,

and even minor ones like a bite,
in the wild can be fatal.

But Romeo's got a secret weapon.

His tail's very last scale
is shaped into a hard,

pin-sharp spike.

Like a switchblade, he whips it out
when things really kick off.

(rattling continues)

Just a little jab could trick his enemy
into believing he's been bitten.

The final stab means Fern is his.

If it's not too late.

She's given up waiting for the brawlers,
heading off instead, in search of lunch.

Romeo will have to track her
into the forest.

(birds chirping)

There's a reason
forest cobras have chosen to work

the waterways and forests of Africa.

(croaks)

Frogs, toads and even fish

form a large part of a forest cobras diet,

and she needs to be an excellent swimmer
to get around.

Undulating and thrusting forward,

she inflates her lungs,

keeping her body afloat

as she navigates the pools
and streams in search of food.

A toad sees her coming.

(croaks)

Leaping away, he dead-ends
any tasty trail she might pick up.

But Fern doesn't rely only on smell,

or taste, when hunting.

(croaks)

Binocular vision
enables her to pick up visual cues

as subtle as the toad's breathing.

(birds chirping)

The toad can smell her.

He can't tell which way she's coming from.

Like a missile launcher
she's locked onto her target,

calculating exact coordinates
for her strike.

(heart beating)

Frugal with her valuable ammunition,

Fern injects just enough neurotoxic venom
required to kill him.

He puffs himself up,
a classic toad defense move,

making himself bigger,

but it's the last move he'll ever make.

Fern will swallow the toad slowly,
stretching her jaw

to accommodate his size,

and digest him at leisure.

This may give Romeo a much-needed
opportunity to catch up to her.

While Fern's perfected
her forest hunting skills,

her cousin, Capo, a Cape cobra,

lives in a slightly different
neighborhood.

It's a beat Fern couldn't survive in.

Scorching heat, little shelter

and unusual prey-options
means Capo's had to develop

a special set of skills

and a totally different modus operandi
to remain Don of the desert.

His stronghold stretches across
the arid southwestern region of Africa,

one of the harshest environments on earth.

The vast dry expanses
of uninhabited wilderness

shape the behavior patterns
of all the creatures

that have adapted to live here.

But Capo and his crew
of day-hunters are tough.

They'll do anything to survive.

There's very little food to be found here,

So Capo isn't picky.

He'll eat whatever he can catch,

Or even scavenge on carrion.

But that means
he's sometimes on the menu too.

For Capo, the Cape cobra,

the stark landscape of his territory

is mostly devoid of escape routes
when faced with an enemy.

Sometimes his tough-guy attitude,
wits and cunning

are his only defense.

Yellow mongoose share the daytime beat

with Cape cobras
and this is where it gets complicated.

They're little, cute and deadly.

(mongoose growling)

These two aren't just rivals

competing for the same prey,

they're mortal enemies.

Sharp canine teeth

and lightning speed
make the mongoose a formidable foe.

(hissing)

Given half the chance, she won't hesitate
to make a meal of Capo.

But rearing, with his hood spread,

Capo strikes a terrifying figure,
and it does the trick.

-(growling)
-(hissing)

The mongoose backs down.

Living in such a harsh hood

with such a tough crowd for neighbors,

can really bring out one's bad side.

Learning to stand his ground

has earned Capo a rep
for being edgy and aggressive.

No self-respecting tough guy
would go anywhere unarmed.

Cape cobras are equipped

with one of the deadliest venoms
in Africa.

Drop for drop,
the syrupy toxic cocktail is more potent

than any other true cobra in Africa.

Only a pinprick amount
can kill a man in minutes.

If there's one place in a desert
that should be safe from predators,

it's up as high as possible.

(birds squeaking)

Sociable weavers
build great grassy apartment blocks,

specially designed to keep enemies out.

Access is only possible by air from below.

But Capo's got a trick to get in.

This is a hit he's got to make...

(birds squeaking)

...with so little food around,

A chance at a prize this rich
is too good to pass up.

(birds squeaking)

As he picks his way up the tree,

Up to 100 pairs of weaver eyes

could spot Capo
and sound the alarm to mob him.

But he's timed his operation well.

The birds are caught up
in their daily activities

and his scales provide perfect camouflage.

There's no stopping
his stealthy approach now.

He can taste lunch on the air.

Elongated muscles holding together
hundreds of vertebrae

means Capo is like one long elastic band,

able to twist around any angle.

(birds squeaking)

For Capo,
it's like raiding a well-stocked store.

A nest like this
is a valuable food resource for him.

At any given time
it may be home to over 200 chicks

and he needs only two or three
to fill him up.

(birds squeaking)

Breaching the security of a weaver's nest
is a tough job,

but Capo's pulling it off.

(chicks squeaking)

(squeaking continues)

His success bodes well
for the breeding season ahead.

Like Romeo and the Godfather,

he'll soon be looking for a mate.

Finding one out here
can use up a whole lot of energy.

Fern hasn't moved far
from where she caught her lunch.

It's given Romeo a chance
to catch up to her.

Making eye contact,
they seem to like what they see.

But visual stimulus is all Romeo's got
to go on at the moment.

Even though Fern's giving off signals
that she's ready to mate,

he'll have to put her to the taste test,

just to make sure
they're on the same wavelength.

(birds chirping)

Snakes' sex pheromone
molecules are too large

to float through the air.

To know where he stands with her,

he'll have to touch
his tongue to her body.

The pheromones he tastes will give him
valuable information like her age

and if she's ready to mate.

Turns out, she's not just a tease.

To seduce her,
Romeo gently nudges her body

with his head, rubbing against her,

rippling his muscles
as he lies beside her.

When she's all loved up,

she'll lift the base of her tail,

and he'll entwine his with hers.

But the couple briefly splits apart.

Their activities could last all day,

the tree stump boudoir offers them
a little privacy

and protection while their attention is,
elsewhere.

Only newly hatched snakelings, hours old,

are more vulnerable to an enemy attack
than they are now.

Romeo and Fern are lucky in love,

but what they don't know is that
their cozy beat is about to be invaded.

But not by an enemy.

This is an inside job.

Two young newcomers are searching
for fresh hunting grounds.

They're cousins of the forest cobras,

Armed with unique firepower.

they're headed straight for Romeo
and Fern's territory in the forest.

(birds chirping)

It's early spring

and Fern the forest cobra
has some important decisions to make.

Although she's just mated with Romeo,

she isn't pregnant yet.

Like many female snakes,

she's got her own natural form
of birth control,

allowing her to store sperm
and impregnate herself later.

She's waiting for just the right time
and place to lay her eggs.

They'll need up to 80 days to hatch,

So she needs to hurry.

The longer she delays,

the later in summer
her babies will be born.

They'll need the abundant food
and warm weather of the season

to get a good start in life.

The added pressure
of competition for food they could face

during colder months may cause Fern
to abandon her baby plans for the year.

She can store Romeo's sperm for months,

even years, yet the longer she leaves it,

the higher the chance of it deteriorating.

Worse still,
something could happen to her

before she gets another chance
to have her young.

With summer on its way,

and the unwelcome arrival
of her cousins imminent,

she's up against
a fast approaching deadline.

Meet Fern's Cousins.

Hailing from the high altitude
rocky outcrops

and grasslands north of her territory,

the Rinkhals,
otherwise known as The Faker,

seldom ventures too far south.

So what's the real reason
he's fleeing his usual beat?

Closing in from the east,

his accomplice,
The Sniper is also heading south,

towards the forest.

He's looking for fresh hunting grounds.

His real name is a dead giveaway

for the highly specialized,

unique weapons he and his cousin,
the Rinkhals are carrying.

(hissing)

He's a Mozambique Spitting Cobra.

Together, they're coming
armed to the teeth...

literally.

Like their cobra relatives,

these two have needle-like fangs,

but they've got an extra adaptation

for more serious firepower.

The central ducts are like the trajectory
of a high-powered rifle,

but customized with an exit point

at the front of the fang,

rather than at the tip
like their non-spitting relatives.

This means that when they force venom
at high speed

down the barrel of their fangs,

it shoots straight out
in whatever direction they're aiming,

spraying their targets
with a toxic shower up to 10 feet away.

It's the perfect defense weapon,

no contact is required

and venom in the eyes of their victims
can quickly cause blindness.

Rinkhals are distinguished
by the white bands

on their necks when they hood,

but they're masters of disguise.

Their dorsal scales
vary in color from dirty gray

to bright yellow and red stripes,

making them hard to identify.

But that's not the only trick
the Rinkhals have up their sleeves.

An old rival
has recently taken up residence

in the rocky outcrops

the Rinkhals and his crew usually patrol.

He's got a reputation as a snake killer.

Weighing up to 35 pounds, rock monitors
snack on snakes like the Rinkhals.

But the lizard is about to be scammed.

If Rinkhals
can't spit their way out of trouble,

they play dead...

so well it's an act worthy of an Oscar.

But it's not just death
they're good at faking.

Their keeled rough scales,

so unlike shiny smooth cobra skin,

betray these tricksters' true identities.

They're merely distant relatives

who've adopted cobra characteristics.

But they're proving themselves
worthy honorary members

of the cobra family.

Leaving his territory,

the Rinkhals must pass
through human settlements along the way.

He and his crew
are often found hanging about homes

and construction sites.

But it's not because they like people.

The Rinkhals runs
a successful pest control operation

and he's got a reputation
for taking no prisoners.

Rodents spread disease
and cause destruction.

A single female mouse
can have up to 140 babies a year.

Left unchecked,
rodents could take over the world.

He's usually not seen or heard,

but he's polite and pulls his weight
around the house.

In lieu of rent
he rids homes of other unwanted guests.

(hissing)

The briefest contact is enough
for him to inflict a deadly bite.

(squeaking)

Neurotoxins flood her bloodstream,

quickly disarming her nervous system,

killing her within minutes.

A fully-grown Rinkhals
may feed only once every few weeks.

But he's not full yet.

(rats squeaking)

There's always room for dessert.

(squeaking continues)

His tastes may seem unpleasant,

and his presence strikes fear,

but the Rinkhals has nothing
on his Asian co-conspirator,

a snake who's also adopted the cobra name

and whose status as king
serves as a convenient cover

for his diabolical habits and tastes.

With his cobra good looks
and similar anatomical features,

The Godfather has also managed
to pass himself off as one of them.

But a slight twist in the menu
when it comes to dinnertime

sets king cobras apart
from their true cobra relatives.

Living in close proximity
to human settlements

means the Godfather's hunting ground

sometimes extends into the nearby village.

And he's not the only one
looking for food.

A beauty rat snake is also on the prowl.

The rat snake's hesitation
loses him his meal.

But the king is right on target.

(intense music)

All cobra species will eat other snakes
given the chance.

King Cobras choose to prey
exclusively on snakes.

The Godfather's just living up
to his species name,

Ophiophagus hannah.

In English, it means "snake eater."

in Africa,
hunting is the last thing on Fern's mind.

She's carefully chosen a nest site
and laid her eggs.

Her parenting duties are now over
and she won't be back.

The nest is at great risk from predators

like the Mozambique Spitting Cobra.

If found, it would make for an easy,
nutritious meal.

But it's what lies just
beyond the borders of Fern's territory

that has caught this Mozambique
Spitting Cobra's attention.

Lush gardens provide
the perfect habitat for the sniper,

who's looking for new turf.

Getting in isn't easy.

The local residents aren't too welcoming.

The sniper's come for a big prize

and adapting to a new habitat
is a small price to pay in exchange.

(croaks)

But who said anything worth winning
ever came easy?

(croaks)

The sniper's going to have
to try another strategy.

Perhaps the night beat
will be more profitable.

For the Mozambique Spitting Cobra,

settling in the suburbs

and switching to the nighttime beat
is working out well.

In the pitch dark,
his excellent night vision

isn't the only sense
he's using to hunt with.

Combining his ability to taste the air,

with his sense of smell,

he can pinpoint the exact position
of his target.

(croaks)

(crickets chirping)

The toad smells danger,
but which way to turn?

He makes the wrong choice.

Fern chose her nest site well.

For almost two months,
it's gone unnoticed by predators.

But it's late in the season.

The newly hatched snakelings may struggle

to find small enough prey
like young frogs and toads.

(birds chirping)

An army of tiny soldiers
armed with chemical weapons,

they disperse into the forest,

natural born killers on the loose.

Petal's senses are firing up.

She's 30 minutes old and she's hungry.

To eat, she must hunt.

In true forest cobra style,

she heads for water,

genetically programmed
to look for amphibious prey.

While she's inherited
her mother's killer instincts

and got the right tools,

she's still gotta learn how to use them.

It's been a week since she hatched

and Petal's yet to launch
a successful attack.

Although she was born
with a large yolk sack in her stomach,

it will only provide her
with nourishment for up to two weeks.

(hissing)

(croaks)

She can't give up.

He's almost three times her size,

but her first bite
is enough to inject paralyzing venom.

(birds calling distantly)

(birds chirping)

Petal's perseverance pays off.

In time, she will learn
to eat her dinner with more finesse.

But for now,

she's proved she can survive
in the fast lane of cobra life.

The cobra mafia members
aren't just masters of mayhem.

They face lives filled with enemies

competing for territory, mates and prey.

Whether true cobras
or distant relatives claiming the name,

they're all true survivors.