In August 2019, Chen Yuanhui looked at a young snake in a cage. He was in a room in the Mangshan mountains. Something dark came at his head. Chen jumped back. It was a snake. The snake came out of its cage. Later Chen wrote on the internet that he did not die this time.
Snakes bit Chen more than twenty times. Nine bites came from one kind of snake: the Mangshan pit viper. Two bites nearly killed him. Chen is 77 years old now. In the small restaurants near the mountain, people call him Snake Doctor.
It started in 1984. Chen was a doctor for snake bites. A forest worker came to him. A snake bit the man. The man said the snake was yellow and green, with a white tail. People here called it the little green dragon.
Chen knew many snakes. He did not know this one. So he looked for it for five years. On his free days he walked in the mountains. He saw bears. He lost his way. He did not stop.
In 1989 a worker caught 23 of these snakes. Chen’s family had money for a new refrigerator. Chen did not tell his wife. He took the money and bought the snakes.
Chen took a snake to the animal scientist Zhao Ermi in Chengdu. In 1990 the two men wrote about the new snake. They gave it a name: the Mangshan pit viper.
The snake comes out at night. It is very big. It moves its white tail like a little worm, and small animals come near. Then it eats them.
In 2003 a young snake bit Chen’s left hand. First he took photographs of the snake. Then he went down the mountain. He was very ill for three days. He lived, but he lost half a finger.
Chen makes baby snakes at home. In 2022 he had 160 baby snakes. He put all of them in the mountain.