Mystery of giant king cobra

Horrifying "meetings"

In early March 2025, Mr. Lam Van Tuan, an employee at checkpoint 21-100, U Minh Ha National Park, took us to the area of ​​ancient banyan trees in the middle of the primeval forest. This place used to be the checkpoint area for the force on duty to prevent and fight forest fires during the dry season. The unit's comrades often called it "monkey checkpoint" because there were many monkeys living in this area.

Mr. Tuan recounted that more than 20 years ago, at the end of January, the beginning of February, the water at the foot of the cajuput forest began to dry up, the vines on the cajuput trunks gradually withered, signaling the coming of a severe dry season. At around 9 pm, the team members were preparing to go to bed when they suddenly heard a loud noise mixed with the shrill screams of a weasel or monkey under the banyan tree on the other side of the canal. Suspecting something was wrong, a team member quickly ran out to shine a flashlight to observe. After a while of shining the flashlight, Mr. Vo Van Teng, the first person to see it, ran in trembling, recounting: “What kind of animal is it? It’s very big, its head is as big as a thermos, its two red eyes are as big as a thumb, its body is as big as a banana tree, it’s chasing its prey. It looks like a snake, very big.”

Mr. Lam Van Tuan, an employee at checkpoint 21-100, U Minh Ha National Park, recounted the story of encountering a king cobra about 20 years ago.

Hearing that, the whole team ran out to check and saw the snake raising its head about 3-4 meters above the ground, chasing its prey. The whole team panicked and quickly turned off their flashlights and ran into the hut to hide because they were afraid that the snake would see the light and crawl after them, causing danger. After that, the whole team quickly used their icom radio to call the station leader, then received orders from the leader to go to the hut, about 2 km away, which was solidly built, to sleep safely. The next morning, the whole team returned to the post to continue their mission as usual.

“More than a week later, one morning, a member of the post was standing under a temporary bridge (to make it easier for the brothers to scoop up water from the canal for daily use) fishing for snakehead fish, when suddenly he heard rustling sounds in the reeds. He immediately dropped his fishing line and ran into the hut, saying: “It’s coming again, guys. The king cobra is very big, its body is as big as a house pillar, its color is gray, chasing its prey”. After that, I continued to report the incident to my superiors, but no one in the leadership believed it and thought the whole team was making up stories,” Tuan continued.

The creepy stories about giant king cobras in U Minh Ha are still mysteriously passed down by local people and forest rangers.

“About a month later, Mr. Nguyen Quang Cua (Chin Cua), then the head of the Ca Mau Forest Protection Department, and a motorbike driver named Hoa went to inspect the actual drought situation of the forest. When the car reached the middle of the forest, Mr. Chin suddenly saw something lying on the road ahead. As he got closer, Mr. Chin discovered that it was a snake crawling across the road. Seeing that, Mr. Hoa stopped the car suddenly and turned around to run away, not daring to look back. From then on, the unit leaders no longer said that the forest rangers of my station were making up stories,” Mr. Tuan added.

Traces of the "forest god"

Stories about giant king cobras that once appeared in U Minh Ha National Park are still deeply ingrained in the minds of many people, including many who have had the chance to "meet" them.

Mr. Nguyen Tan Truyen, Head of the Department of Ecotourism and EnvironmentalEducation , U Minh Ha National Park, recounted: “In the dry season of 2014, Mr. Ngo Van Khang, a forest ranger, and his colleagues were patrolling the forest at noon when they suddenly saw a large king cobra crawling across the road. Frightened by the giant king cobra he had just seen, Mr. Khang ran straight to report. My colleagues and I rode our motorbikes to the exact location Mr. Khang had indicated. I checked and recorded the exact crawling marks of a large body left on the soft ground and broken reeds, spread out to both sides about 20 cm. Not far away, there were many pieces of snake feces as big as an adult's thigh.”

What Mr. Truyen regrets most is that he has not had the chance to meet the “forest god” yet. “Forest god” is what Mr. Truyen calls the giant clouded cobra in the U Minh forest, because according to him, many old people in the past named this large cobra species clouded cobra, because they move quickly, like “going through the clouds and returning with the wind”.

Since the first time he saw the "forest god's mark" more than 11 years ago, Mr. Truyen and a forest worker here have always collected and hunted for documents and images of giant king cobras in U Minh forest.

“Many people have encountered giant king cobras living in the U Minh Ha forest, but I have never had the chance to meet one even once. I believe that the stories about giant king cobras are real, not myths,” Mr. Truyen affirmed./.

Trung Dinh - Lam Tuan

Source: https://baocamau.vn/bi-an-ran-ho-may-khong-lo-a38887.html