During a jungle survival program February 20, 2013 taught by Royal Thai Special Forces in Sannapit, Thailand, U.S. Marines learned to catch cobras and drink their fresh blood, not to mention eat forest insects and pull the heads off of chicken. The training was part of Operation Cobra Gold 13, the 32nd edition of international military exercises hosted by the Thai. According to a U.S. Marines press release, Cobra Gold is the largest exercise of its kind in Asia and incorporates troops from five other nations in addition to the U.S. and Thailand. The Daily Mail reports that the Marines were invited to experience the local custom of drinking cobra blood after being taught to catch and kill cobras in the wild. As CNN notes, Cobra blood is believed to be a panacea and aphrodiasic in parts of Southeast Asia. In Jakarta, vendors can earn over $100 a night selling shots of cobra blood mixed with liquor. (Photo by Pornchai Kittiwongsakul/AFP Photo)

Firefighters use flashlights to search for survivors among the rubble of collapsed buildings after a landslide hit an industrial park in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, China December 20, 2015. (Photo by Tyrone Siu/Reuters)

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier struggles with his glasses and face mask as he attends a press conference after visiting the Salzburg Festival in Salzburg, Austria, Saturday, August 22, 2020. (Photo by Kerstin Joensson/AP Photo)

Camels graze in front of a spacecraft tracking station ahead of the Soyuz MS-10 upcoming launch at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, October 9, 2018. (Photo by Shamil Zhumatov/Reuters)

A hot air balloon competition called “Grudziadzkie Zawody Balonowe” is held in Lisie Katy, central-northern Poland, 14 May 2021. The compe​tition is held for the eighteenth time. (Photo by Tytus Zmijewski/EPA/EFE)

A Turkey-backed Syrian fighter fires a rocket-propelled grenade as he takes part in a military exercise in the countryside of the northwestern city of Afrin, in rebel-held part of Aleppo province, on May 31, 2022. (Photo by Rami al Sayed/AFP Photo)

Before sunrise there is a “Turneresque” sky over the abbey at the picturesque Wiltshire, England market town of Malmesbury on June 11, 2023. (Photo by Terry Mathews/Alamy Live News)

A green jumping spider (Lyssomanes viridis), in a forested area of Cerro de la Muerte, in San Jose, Costa Rica, 20 May 2025. International Day for Biological Diversity is celebrated every 22 May around the world. (Photo by Jeffrey Arguedas/EPA/EFE)