Meet the man who rules over 4m-long king cobras

A KING cobra’s bite feels just like an insect bite to Roni Kurniawan, a snake handler in Riau on Indonesia’s Sumatra island.
Roni gained Internet fame in Indonesia after he posted several photos of him handling two male king cobras, which went viral on Facebook. One is a 4me-long cobra named Ice, which Tribun News reports recently bit his owner.
A Facebook user named M Iral Septiadi posted a number of videos and photos of the snake handler.
Although the bite of a king cobra can take down an adult elephant, Roni told the local media outlet: “Yeah, Ice’s bite just feels like an insect bite.”

He felt sorry for his



pet snake, who apparently came down with a flu after the incident. Ice is usually quiet and spends his time looking for fish and bustling around, says Roni.
It appears Roni is much luckier than fellow Indonesian 25-year-old Akbar Salubiro, who was found in the stomach of a 7m-long reticulated python in West Sulawesi last week.

King cobras are among the world’s most venomous snakes and mainly feast on other snakes, typically avoiding confrontation with humans.
Another king cobra made headlines in Indonesia last year when it bit and killed popular dangdut singer Irma Bule, who was performing with the snake at the time.