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That’s the beautiful growl of the world’s longest venomous snake: the king cobra.
那是世界上体型最长的毒蛇——眼镜王蛇所发出的美妙吼声。
They’re the only snakes that build a nest to incubate their eggs.
它们是唯一一种筑巢孵蛋的蛇类。
Apt to their scientific name, Ophiophagus hannah, meaning a snake-eater, they eat other snakes, including their own kind.
它们与其学名Ophiophagus hannah相吻合，意思是食蛇者，它们吃其它蛇，包括它们的同类。
Growing up to five meters, they possess enough venom to kill 10 people in a single bite, or even an elephant.
眼镜王蛇能长到5米长，它们拥有的毒液足以把10个人一口咬死，甚至是咬死一头大象。
King cobras might be intimidating to most people, but I was always fascinated by them.
眼镜王蛇可能令大部分人生畏，但我一直对它们很着迷。
I've been studying this legendary species for the last 20 years.
我在过去的20年里一直在研究这个传奇物种。
Fifteen years ago, I was bitten by a king cobra while rescuing it from a house, which otherwise would have been killed.
15年前，我在把一条眼镜王蛇从房子里救出来时被咬了，如果我不救它，它就会死。
There is no antivenom for Indian king cobra, so I was certain I would die in about 30 minutes.
对于印度眼镜王蛇没有抗毒血清，所以我当时很确信我在差不多30分钟内就会死。
The bite was in my hand.
伤口在我的手上。
The pain was moving up my arm towards the heart.
疼痛感从我的手臂朝心脏向上移动。
The pain was so excruciating that I actually begged the team to just let me die rather than stay in agony.
这种疼痛非常难以忍受，我当时甚至求我的队员让我直接死也不要处于极度的痛苦之中。
I remembered I had stocked a few vials of antivenom from Thailand, meant for Thailand king cobra, which I decided to experiment with on myself.
我记得我备有几瓶从泰国带来的抗毒血清，这个抗毒血清是针对泰国眼镜王蛇的，我打算在我自己身上做实验。
But the Thai antivenom failed, and we had to stop the treatment.
但是泰国的抗毒血清失败了，我们必须停止治疗。
But here I am, a ghost?
但我现在就在这里，难道我是个鬼魂吗？
No, the king was kind.
不是的，这是因为那条眼镜王蛇十分善良。
It injected a very small quantity of venom into my hand, which wasn't enough to kill me.
它只向我的手里注入了很少量的蛇毒，不足以杀死我。
My mother hoped that this near-death experience would finally stop my snake obsession.
我妈妈希望这一次的濒死经历最终会让我打消对蛇的痴迷。
But no.
但是并没有。
For those three painful days at the hospital, all I wondered was if the king cobra was one species, as science believed, then why didn't the Thailand antivenom work on me?
在医院度过的那痛苦的三天，我一直在想，如果如科学所信，眼镜王蛇都是同一个物种的话，为什么泰国的抗毒血清在我身上无效？
It became apparent that we were missing something.
很明显，我们忽略了什么。
King cobra was first described scientifically in 1836, after which many speculated there could be different species, but no one had ever established it.
眼镜王蛇在1836年第一次被科学记载，在此之后，许多猜测表示它们可能是不同物种，但是没人可以证明。
This became my research topic.
这就成为了我的研究课题。
For seven years after the bite, I traveled across king cobra habitat in South and Southeast Asia.
在被咬了之后的7年间，我去了南亚和东南亚的眼镜王蛇栖息地。
And this is what I found.
这是我的研究结果。
King cobras, despite being the most curious, majestic snakes are disliked, feared and hated by most people on the planet.
眼镜王蛇，尽管是最神奇、雄伟的蛇，也被地球上许多人讨厌、害怕、厌恶。
They're killed on sight for food, poached for skin, for traditional medicinal purpose and for pet trade.
人们为了获取食物捕杀它们，为了获取蛇皮偷猎它们，它们被用在传统医疗手段中、被当作宠物交易。
And of course, their habitats are under severe threat, like many other species.
当然，它们的栖息地也受到了严重威胁，就像许多其他生物一样。
