A terrifying video has been circulating in which a man in Thailand—seen laughing as he attempts to capture a roughly 5-meter-long python—is suddenly struck back by the snake, resulting in profuse bleeding and, reportedly, his death. However, there are also claims that he survived, so the true outcome remains unclear.
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Videos of Dubious Authenticity and Thailand’s Snake-Catching Culture
There are no sources showing when and where this video was taken, and the original article itself states, “There are reports that the victim was saved, but the truth is unknown.” Since we cannot confirm this, we will not conclude here whether the video is true or false, but rather look at the structural background that makes it easy for humans to come into contact with giant pythons in Thailand. Bangkok’s fire department receives more than 100 calls for snake intrusions every day, which continues to be more than calls for fires (about 1 to 2 calls per day). In Bangkok as a whole, there were 37,000 reports of snake intrusions in 2018, and the fire department receives over 3,000 capture requests a year. Firefighter Pinyo Pukpinho, who goes to the scene on behalf of citizens, has captured about 10,000 pythons over the past 16 years, 70% of which are non-venomous pythons, and he is said to have the skill to stuff pythons up to 5 meters long into bags with his bare hands.
So encounters with giant pythons are not uncommon in Thailand, and catching them is an established, trained profession. However, it doesn’t always go smoothly. In Thailand’s Sukhothai province, it was reported that a man died after fighting with a 3-meter-long python that he kept at home, showing that dealing with a python with bare hands can be risky, even for trained people.
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