Catching Pythons in Bali's Cave of Nightmares!

Added: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]Really? Yeah, we are rolling. All right, I'm going  into the cave. Max is going to follow me. Let's go catch a python. Absolute insanity. See, it's  like locked in there. I'm literally walking in a mountain of bat species right now. This is the  craziest situation I think I've ever been in with mammals before. I'm going to walk down and try  to find the cave. No idea what's going to happen, but if we can find a reticulated python today,  it would be pretty fantastic. These coastlines are no joke here in the Indian Ocean. The waves  are massive and turbulent. The idea of falling into there, not an idea I want to mess with.  Holy cow, that's a lot of bats. Oh wow. I don't think finding bats is going to be a problem.  Careful, guys. This looks really slippery.

[00:00:53]There's so many bats. Oh, and it stinks.

[00:00:58]Definitely getting out of  bandana. That smells proper.

[00:01:06]You see a python? Max might  already see a python. Oh, yeah. It is a python. That's a retic.  All right. Currently eating a bat.

[00:01:31]Well, definitely not going to catch that  snake. Never ever ever disturb an animal when it's made a catch. That's a big  no no. But I'm going to venture back further into here and see if there's any  snakes down lower. You can actually feel all the wind from their wings. It's  like being in a cyclone of bats.

[00:01:52]Thousands and thousands and thousands of them.  That's crazy. I mean, there's just so much poop.

[00:02:03]Oh, there's roaches everywhere.  The ground is literally moving with roaches. Cannot fathom how  many roaches are inside of here.

[00:02:15]It is insane. The craziest thing I've ever  walked into. Absolute insanity in here.

[00:02:26]Almost at a loss for words. This is so  crazy. The sound from all of the wings. Yeah.

[00:02:35]But it's on a bigger snake. Okay, we caught a  python that is just hanging out and not eating anything and it should be catchable. We'll catch  that snake in a second. I'm going to venture back further in while you guys get this snake eating  back. Pretty cool behavior to see a python, a reticulated python, not a real big one, taking  an opportunity like this to come into a cave to feast on bats. I mean, this is an endless bat  buffet line. There's no question about that.

[00:03:12]Got hit in the side of the head by a bat.  Guess his echo-location's a little off.

[00:03:17]There's a python. I see a good size one.

[00:03:26]Going to need a steak hook to catch that snake.

[00:03:32]See him down in the corner over there?

[00:03:38]Let's go for this. He's big. You can  get that coil. Get that back coil out.

[00:03:46]fun. Come on. Get my coil. Come on.  Grab it. Grab it. Grab it. Grab it.

[00:03:56]Ah, he's going deeper. Or maybe  just turn around. I think I can still get him. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.  He can't go further. Further? No, I can't. If I can just get his tail out this  way. Oh, yeah. He's going to come up like this. So gross. He's so big. I can't get the  hook around him. I see his head. He's huge.

[00:04:23]He's really light back there.  Hold on. I'm not going to give up.

[00:04:34]All right. You got to sail.

[00:04:48]Come on, buddy. Come on. Almost.

[00:05:10]I'm losing out. I don't think I'm going  to get him. At least we got to plan B.

[00:05:20]Oh man, I am gross. That one probably close  to 12 ft in length. It was absolutely massive.

[00:05:31]Let's get the small one. No matter where in the  world I am, I need to be able to power my gear.

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[00:07:25]I'm just absolutely covered. So, the  circumference of the snake was so big, this couldn't hold it. So, it was easily this  big around. And the last thing I want to do is possibly hurt the animal. So, just kind of had to  give in at that point and say, you know what? We live to search another day. Nobody was injured. I  might have some new form of disease from rolling around in all that back guano, but we gave it a  really solid effort. And the good news is that you're still going to see a python in this episode  because we have one right on the mouth of the cave that is hopefully going to be very easy to catch  cuz just on a little tiny rock ledge sleeping.

[00:08:17]Got it. Or I'm going down or I get  bitten. All right, follow me, guys.

[00:08:28]All right, calm down, buddy. Calm down. Calm down.  Woo! Wow! Still a pretty decent sized snake. It's actually a lot bigger than I thought it was when  I got it off the ledge. It just goes to show you that when these animals are coiled up, they can  be very deceiving as to how big they actually are.

[00:08:46]Now, I'm going to attempt to not be bitten in the  process of this because I'm just covered in so much bat guano. You can see the snake's actually  being pretty chill at the moment. Let me see if we can keep it that way. Ow, not so much. Just  took a bite out of my knee. Okay. Well, we're going to use the snake hook because now I've got a  knee that's been bitten and covered in back guano at the same time. All right. Oh my goodness. Yep,  he got me there. Yeah, I know. I know that you see me. You know, I'm just going to do a head grab for  the sake of this presentation because it'll be a little bit easier than just balancing him around.  Sorry, buddy. You got a little a little sand in your mouth. Let Let me uh let me dip his mouth  off in water real quick. Uh Max, can you run over to my backpack and grab my water bottle that's on  the side? Wow. The reticulated python. This is the first one that I've caught here in the Indonesian  islands. And it's absolutely beautiful. It's tough to tell, but there's a lot of iridescent in  those scales. And this is one of the largest snake species in the world. Adults can get close  to 20 ft in length. And it's one of the heaviest snakes you can possibly come across. The one that  was down nestled in the cave that I wasn't able to work out of the rocks was undoubtedly close to  12 ft in length. Especially looking at this one.

[00:10:08]This one is one, two, three, about 4 and 1/2 ft. I  would say that other one triples the size of this snake. What an awesome reptile. Uh, my entire  life, I have dreamed of catching one of these in its native range. You can see it's starting  to constrict around my arm, which is actually kind of exactly what I would love for it to do  because then I'd be a bit more in control of this situation, even though the snake seems like it's  in control. And even a snake of this size, believe it or not, could be potentially deadly if it were  to wrap around your neck. All it takes is a bit of constriction for it to tighten down on your neck,  the muscles, and all of your major blood vessels and arteries to be able to cut off circulation,  air flow, and get you to pass out. All right, if I if I let you go, I'm going to wash your mouth  out a little bit. Let's Let's see your mouth.

[00:11:00]Get that. Get that. Okay, there we go. Just had  a little sand. All this dark sand. There we go.

[00:11:08]All right. Got them cleaned up now. All right.  I'm gonna let go of your head. Don't bite me.

[00:11:14]Okay. There we go. Don't come up on my face,  though. I don't want to get bitten in the face. Wow. It's so strong. It's requiring all  the strength in my arm to keep it extended so that it's not able to get closer to my face.  All right. That's pretty good. Like that.

[00:11:34]I'm comfortable there. Are you comfortable?  Sometimes just getting an animal to calm down in a situation can be the hardest part of a  presentation, especially when you're trying to not get bitten. And the snake seems like it's  feeling a little calmer. You can see that they Okay, you were a little close to my arm there.  Now getting kind of close to my face. They've got these little sensory pits at the front of their  nose there. So, he definitely can indicate the fact that I am right in front of him. Now, these  bats, these bats, these snakes are hanging from the roof of the cave, can use their whole body  to position themselves, and then they're able to strike out and grab a hold of one of those  bats. What an awesome opportunity for these snakes to just get an easy meal continuously. It  is literally a bat buffet line inside that cave.

[00:12:26]So, you can imagine that these snakes can just  stay there, become bigger and healthier, and grow and grow and grow, even at the edge of the ocean  like this. This is not where you would normally expect to see something like a python. And it is  constricted so tightly around my arm right now.

[00:12:42]It's beginning to cut off the circulation my hand.  Oh, this is so cool. So, we saw several snakes that were eating bats. This one was just sleeping,  which made it seem like it was probably the right one to actually catch and interact with. I wish  I would have gotten the larger snake, but you have to know as a wildlife presenter and somebody  who catches animals. You can only push something so far. It causes stress for any animal to think  that it's going to be caught and possibly predated upon. So, considering this fact that it was so  big, so wedged under the rocks, I gave it my best effort. But sometimes you just have to chalk it  up and say, you know what, it's going to be easier to present a smaller snake. Honestly, handling a  12-oot snake right now, trying to keep it under control would have been next to impossible. But I  know you guys would have loved to see that snake, but lo and behold, we still managed to get one up  close for the cameras. So cool. The reticulated python. I'm Coyote Peterson. Be brave. Stay wild.  We'll see you on the next adventure. All right, buddy. Thanks for only giving me one bite. We're  going to get you back up on your cliff side.

[00:13:49]And there it goes. And I need a serious shower.