Malaysia's Ancient Tradition of Living Alongside Snakes | Slice | Full Documentary

Venturing into the jungle with Osman is a continuous and fascinating discovery. While the others feel overwhelmed and lost in a colossal mass of vegetation without beginning or end, Osman is able to scrutinize each of its secrets, to interpret its signals. Knowledge that comes from a life devoted to the study and protection of the rainforest that covers the island of Langkawi in Malaysia, his home. And because he knows it so well, Osman knows never to let his guard down. I just concentrate to show you the termites, but Ikram have a chance to see, yeah, Malaysian reticulated python and he just shed the skin. See, he found a python. You know python? In Bahasa we call ula sawa. Okay, now I try to wake it up, yeah. I'll try to catch. Just a simple technique, yeah. I just try either we can make it or not, yeah, because sometimes it will. The reticulated python is the longest snake in the world. An adult specimen can reach 10 meters, more than 130 kilos and is capable of killing by asphyxiation and swallowing a wild boar or even a leopard. It's not easy. I don't know where the snake will go out, but if we can't, it means that we just leave it like that, yeah, okay. Ikram will try to have a look because it's a good hiding place, yeah, for the snake. How smart they are, yeah, when they find a small hole, they just simply go and hiding. It means that in the rainforest, yeah, we have the snake, but we don't know where they are. Yeah, like today, yeah, we are lucky to see over there. You know why we just go there? Because of the sunbathing. It's more light. Huh? See the teeth, yeah, it's very sharp. And you can see that the python has two rows, yeah, on the upper jaw, the teeth, yeah, and you can do like that. It means that when it bites, yeah, the very strong teeth. See, it's hidden here, inside. You get a bonus today. Yeah, it's a big bonus. And this is the tongue, yeah, this is the tongue, yeah, and this is the esophagus where they breathe, yeah, and now I'm going to release that. Now I want to make it more beautiful because of the mud, yeah. Now you see, uh, true, yeah, when I let Ikram to make it more nice, yeah, Ikram, can you please wipe it, yeah, to show that it just shed the skin. See how beautiful they are. Yeah, if people ask me what is the most beautiful snake, I would say that reticulated python because they have more, like, rainbow. Like I, I explained earlier that why the snake was here because of the sunbathing. Yeah, they need a proper... Normal, yeah, if the wild snake, the wild python, when you enter their territory and when you come too close to their territory, yeah, they will try to warning you, yeah. It means that they want you not to come close to their area and that's why it's quite dangerous. When it bites, yeah, when you panic, yeah, it will pull your flesh out like that. Yeah, that's why we need, we need to have a proper apparel. Yeah, that's why I don't really, uh, recommend or I'm not allow my guests to go in the rainforest with shorts close to three and a half to four meter size, yeah, reticulated python or python reticulatus. Ikram to, to hold it alone, yeah. Make sure, Ikram, hold. I was just trying to say to you about be careful when you're stepping on the, on the root, it's slippery and for the same time I see the, I think, the first time in five years in the jungle I saw a big python in front of me and catching it with my father. First time I'm holding a wild python with this size, normally just a small size, but after five years this is the first, the first snake ever encountered in the wild. And now I want to say bye-bye, yeah, to my friend. Bye-bye, my friend. Okay, this is the concept that in the, in the wild and also sometimes in the village, where, where sometimes snake enter the house, this is what we do. Yeah, we rescue the snake and we will find the best place for the snake, yeah, to get the back, means that back to the habitat to make sure that nobody will, yeah, do damage or kill them. Okay, that's the concept of our team, yeah, Rimbawidjo Discovery, yeah, to save and to share about our beautiful mother nature. Time to go, yeah. All inhabitants on the island of Langkawi know what to do when a snake appears on their property. Call Osman. He will come to capture it so it will not have to be sacrificed and then release it into the jungle far from the populated areas. And of course there is no shortage of work on an island where a huge variety of snakes live, many of them poisonous, like this banded krait. This rescue work is just one of many initiatives undertaken by Othman in favor of snakes, the animals to whose knowledge and protection he decided to dedicate his life years ago. And Osman soon realized that to protect the snakes, he had to know about them as well as their ecosystem, the rainforest. If people want to explore the jungle, they need a proper guide, because you already enter and you will see the difference when you walk here, because now it's more wide. But after this, it looks similar. To identify areas that have been managed by the forestry, they put three lines at the border of the buffer zone. There's a maximum. When you make development, you must have a space before you come to the rainforest. We are going to release our common cobra. But first I have to do is to make it feel more comfortable, to find air here, because this is what we do. We call it the wildlife rescue. See, they're more higher, because they feel we put a hole here, they can feel the air. Just want to make it open the hood. You can see now why we call a cobra. And through, they will try to avoid humans. Suppose they can go up, but when they take out the tongue, it starts to sense different ions, because we have positive, negative ions. We have different aroma from our body, and they feel that this is more oxygen. It means that there is less human. Yeah, that's why now is the best time for the snake to get its own treatment. At this size, they eat frog or mice. Yeah, that's part of our activity that we do wildlife rescue, and today we do the release. This is a medium size of the common cobra. There's a tongue that out, sense, and then send message to the Jacob sensor to the brain. When they alert, they will always out, in, out, in, out. And then when they make decision, they will go, if their tongue go this way, they will make, this is what I observe. Yeah, because they want to go there, but now they feel more safe, yeah, to go to the other side. Yeah, that's true about how the cobra, and okay, bye-bye. It's a time for you to enjoy the rainforest again. All right, this is a beautiful pit viper, yeah, and this snake is just been identified that is different from southern Thailand snake, yeah, because we can find a lot in Langkawi, yeah, and the beautiful pit viper, yeah, you see how beautiful the blend of the color, yeah, the color of the snake, yeah, the normal habitat, yeah, in the rainforest, but they like to spend most of the time on the rock, and it's a venomous snake, even though it's small, yeah, it's smaller from the, it's smaller from the viper, the mangrove viper, the popia focata, yeah, and also the mountain pit, the mountain viper, and, but the venom is poisonous. It's very, very well camouflaged. It's not easy for you to, to see them, yeah, when you just walk without alert, yeah, we already keep this snake more than one month, and now we are going to release back the snake, yeah, in the forest, yeah, and now I start to realize that, yeah, when I come to Langkawi, wow, this is the, the true international island, and now I can share with people from all over the world, yeah, that's very important for us to share, yeah, because this knowledge, yeah, we need to spread out, yeah, because why, because if we don't spread out the beautiful about the mother nature, the end of the day, the kids will be more afraid, yeah, because why all the movie, all the story tell them that, oh, it's danger. This is part of my aim, yeah, but before I start with other kids, I start with my kids first. They are the future, yeah, because if we don't do, the end of the day, the knowledge will die together with the person that have the knowledge. Osman's encounter with the island of Langkawi changed his life completely. Finding the place where he brought up a family of seven children with his wife Ayu was like arriving at a dream paradise. He was born in a town far away from here, on the Malaysian peninsula across the Malacca Strait, where he prepared for a future that had nothing to do with wild nature. But a sightseeing trip to Langkawi transformed him. Osman decided to face the adventure of inventing a new life around snakes here. His father-in-law initiated his knowledge of them, and he tries to transmit this to his children. This is the water that I get from the mountain, yeah, and I have a tank here, and when the extra water, when the tank already full, and it will become like a small place, yeah, where we have the fish from the river. Our neighbor, Thailand, Indonesia, yeah, they're more focused in culture. In addition to studying, the children help their parents to show visitors the natural wealth of Langkawi. And they also exercise while caring for and handling other peculiar temporary tenants in their home, while helping them to recover their strength or heal from their wounds. This intimate and continuous contact with the Ophidians, guided by Osman's wisdom, allows them to understand their behavior and anticipate their reactions, which will prevent them from unpleasant incidents. All the snakes, in my experience, if you don't do anything, they relax. But if you start to disturb them, they're not so happy. That's why every time when you come close, it's cool, I can feel relaxed. Of course, the snakes welcomed into his home are the big stars of the activities they organize for their visitors. They believe that someone who has felt them so close will never see them the same way again. Knowing them is the first step in protecting them. Osman has decided to dedicate his life to acquiring this wisdom, sometimes taking on unconventional and very risky challenges. When I observe the movement, I understand the snake behavior. I start to know about how they're going to move. That is very important. Before you want to do anything, you must know. I think all over the world, if you take one profession, you're not going to be a master in one day. That's why when I'm doing the movement in front of the cobra, I must know the distance. Even when the snake, for example, stands about this high, I must know the right distance. Even though the snake will strike, at least I have a proper distance. I have a proposal about nature to understand about snake behavior, but not the normal research. What do you want to do? I want to stay in the room with the cobra. Are you crazy? Are you sure? At that time, my wife was pregnant with our second baby. How many? Maybe 100? 27 days, 6 December 1998 till 2nd January 1999. 150 poisonous cobra. I've been bitten three times in the room. I've been bitten first day here, second day here, the fourth day. This choreography, created by Osman himself, was the protagonist of another important event in his life. The jury of the World Snake Handling Championship was astonished to see a young 24-year-old who was competing for the first time in that competition handling a king cobra. It was a competition that he won. And neither was it in vain, as it was something completely unique and never seen before, as was his way of interacting with a large poisonous snake. It shows that when you want to do something that is your first experience, you must observe. You must start to know about the animal. This observation of the snakes was one of the basis on which Osman's imagination built the choreography he showed at the World Championship. The other was silat. It is a martial art traditionally practiced in Malaysia and other countries of its geocultural environment. Unlike other martial arts, silat requires the accompaniment of an orchestra of traditional instruments, although it is the combatants with the speed of their movements who set the pace. Malaysia has one of its most resplendent natural jewels in the Langkawi Archipelago. In 2007, UNESCO confirmed this by recognizing it as the world's first geopark in Malaysia and in all of Southeast Asia. A recognition of great importance that seeks to encourage its inhabitants to become aware and protect the natural wealth that surrounds them, enjoying their resources in a sustainable way. It is the great architect of a landscape dominated by a forest overflowing with animal and plant biodiversity, with which its inhabitants live in harmony. Osman and his family live on the largest island of this archipelago, with which he shares his name, which is made up of more than a hundred islands in the Andaman Sea and of which only four are inhabited. Like Osman and his family, the majority here profess the Muslim religion, which is the official religion throughout Malaysia. But this pre-eminence does not hinder the peaceful coexistence with believers of other faiths that live in Langkawi. If its landscape is varied, so is its culture. For centuries, this island has been a land that welcomes people of very different origins, beliefs, and traditions. Thus, confused with the singing of the muezzin, prayers to the Hindu deities, or the chants of Buddhist monks, are heard every day in Langkawi. As strong as a faith is Osman's belief that it is vital to share and protect our natural environment for future generations. That's why I think I'm doing the right profession now, to become nature guides, because now there's a lot of issue that we are facing now related to mother nature. And this is what we need to share to our younger generation, yeah, how important, because the sharing concept will make them understand. Because if they just read, if they just see in YouTube or whatever, why don't we spend more time, yeah, and let them to do, let them to touch, let them to see, let them to feel, smell the real mother nature. People try to reduce their stress in life, and when they come to the beautiful rim for rest. The mangrove swamp is one of the most important ecosystems, by extension and biodiversity, of all the ecosystems on the island. It is a territory defined by its border character and survival in a hostile environment. The mangroves, the trees that make it up, are capable of growing in soils waterlogged by salt water. Osman often carries out guided visits to these salt forests to show participants both the variety of animal and plant species that inhabit them, and the environmental importance of this unique coastal ecosystem. Traversing the waters closest to inhabited areas reveals to its visitors the negative human influence on the mangrove swamp, in the form of rubbish, drifting or crawling along its banks. The dogs have also made the mangrove their home, looking for what has often denied them in the villages. They share the territory with the collared kingfisher, a patient hunter, if ever there was one. They look for clear watchtowers where they can remain almost motionless for a long time, waiting to spy on an unaware prey. Crabs, insects, amphibians or small reptiles can fall victim to its powerful beak. The amazing giant mudskippers can also be part of the kingfisher's menu. They live out of water thanks to their ability to breathe through the skin, mouth mucosa and pharynx. Seeing them moving through the mud, we can well imagine how marine life began, hundreds of millions of years ago, in order to colonize the emerged land. The mangrove swamps lead us to a family of crab-eating macaques, busy looking for the food that gives them their name. They are social animals that meet in groups governed by a strict hierarchical order. While the females, who form the stable nucleus of the herd, take care of their young, the males pacify any possible disputes and watch out for any threats. In addition to the crabs they love so much, this environment provides them with abundant and varied food, including what their cousins, the humans, irresponsibly throw into the mangroves. Another mangrove dweller who also loves crabs is the water monitor. After the Komodo dragon, it is the largest of the family of these impressive reptiles. The water monitor moves freely through the maze of roots that the mangroves sink into the mud in search of a prey. And it can be almost anyone who gets in its way. In addition to crabs, birds, amphibians, fish and small mammals, even young crocodiles should be kept away from this formidable predator. And of course, also the various species of snakes that share the mangrove with it. This is a reality. Why snake bite humans? Because accidentally we touch them. Snakes will try their best to avoid humans. Since 1997, when it became ecotourism island, the permits are no more. These educational tours of the mangrove swamp are not only useful for Osman to raise the environmental awareness of his guests. He takes advantage of them to extend this education by allowing us to witness the release of some of his guests into the mangrove swamp. The mangrove pit viper catch it and we do research for two, three months. And after we finish research today, we are going to release it back to its habitat. This one is a female. Now you can see the tail. I think it was still thinking where to go. It's a 50-50 chance to see whether it's going that way or this way. Osman changes the undefined and humid environment of the mangrove swamp to the higher elevation of Langkawi. He travels the roads that zigzag along the slopes of Gunum Raya, the highest mountain on the island, on a rescue mission. Snakes look for sun-heated asphalt to raise their body temperature, which exposes them to being crushed to death by a vehicle. An extraordinary bird lives here. The great hornbill is the largest of all the birds flying over Langkawi. As amazing as it looks are its breeding habits. The female is confined by the male into the hollow of a tree with mud and dirt. It leaves only a small hole through which it feeds its partner and chicks during their first days of life. The great hornbills share the high parts of the forest with the spectacled langurs. These small primates live in groups of just over a dozen individuals with one dominant male. Their young are born with a unique orange coat that will turn black as they grow. A red-tailed green rat snake is the first to be saved by Osman and his family from being crushed to death on a road. It is a snake that lives in trees and whose venom is not deadly. but if you come uh february march will be dry season they always have to go lower to find water and sometime and monitor lizard yeah we saw one big monitor lizard on the tree are they monitored or are they parented they are monitored the rescue team sets out again to find a good place where the snake can regain its freedom it may be a small gesture a simple act with hardly any echo but for us man and his family it justifies a life returning this snake to his home under the trees is a moment of happiness because it also symbolizes his will to be a guardian of the snakes and their fragile ecosystem we're not against development we're not against palm oil but we need something to be more sustainable this is very important yeah because if you don't think about sustainable thing at the end the one that suffer is the local people around that place yeah the younger generation and we lost our beautiful yeah greenery and to wait to grow that size to grow that size it's not five years yeah to grow this size in it more than 100 years are you willing to stay here and wait 100 years no it's better to protect yeah that's why Langkawi we are very lucky because more than 50 to 60 percent is protected area yeah and now we start to organize more activity planting tree yeah when we have people and we hope that that activity will create awareness will create love to mother nature now Langkawi is become a geopark yeah Langkawi National Global Geopark as an ecotourism island we hope that this image will make people more understand how important to preserve yeah the beautiful rainforest here the liano did die rot and it become like a big mouth yeah look at monster in Osman's car the rat snake has had a traveling companion although it's just as well that they have not seen each other because it feeds on other snakes now for it too the time is about to come for it to regain its home and freedom okay uh last week we caught a close to four meter king cobra yeah today yeah same like our principle that when we have big snake yeah we just keep for a while to do a little bit documentation and today is the day that we are going to release back the snake to mother nature and like the same concept we will find a little bit far away from the villages yeah from the village and this one is a venomous snake and for me it's a big king cobra and now allow me yeah to say bye-bye sometimes it go quite fast sometimes it relaxes the head is just the other side yeah and this king cobra is normal in the lowland and a little bit the middle part of the forest normal we can see this snake during dry season and they eat small snake and this snake they also eat monitor lizard i just want to the king cobra is the longest poisonous snake in the world it is capable of injecting a large amount of venom into its victim affecting its central nervous system a single bite could kill a human being in just 30 minutes this is the best moment in my life because king cobra is my favorite snake and i have a chance to rescue this snake when it's been trapped by the net and because if we don't come for rescue yeah our friend maybe will been i'm not sure how to say yeah people will because of the size you can see yeah maybe people will kill the snake yeah and now i feel very happy because i have a chance to release the snake back to the forest and i hope that the snake will yeah will not go back to the same place and this area the machinchang cambrian geoforest park yeah it means that the rainforest is still virgin and it supply a lot of food for the for the animal and we hope that we hope this will become the best part yeah for the snake to make sure that it can survive and we still can see the beautiful big king cobra yeah for our future generation and this is about 7.6 kilogram king cobra yeah weighing about uh weighing about 7.6 kilogram uh the length is about 12 feet four four inch and uh wow the scientific name the snake eater i just want to say bye-bye to my friend yeah okay it's not easy yeah again just try again yeah means i try to touch the head yeah if i can it is part of the things that this is what i learned from my late father he said to me very simple osma whatever you learn from mother nature it's not belongs to you it belongs to your kids you need to share with them like i share with him yeah this is something that if we have that kind of principle i think there will be harmony in our beautiful mother nature