HANNAH BEECH, LAUREN DeCICCA2026年11月4日 Lauren DeCicca for The New York TimesOnce you see a snake in Bangkok, the snakiest capital in the world, you see snakes everywhere. Loops of electrical wire look like snakes. Gas pump hoses look like snakes. Vines, green and vibrant, look like snakes.曼谷堪称世界上最容易撞见蛇的首都，一旦看到一条蛇，你就会觉得到处都是蛇。盘绕的电线看起来像蛇。加油泵的软管看起来像蛇。那些翠绿鲜活的藤蔓看起来也像蛇。There are also, as Pinyo Pukpinyo knows, a lot of actual snakes. In Bangkok each year, about 30,000 snakes are caught by fire and rescue personnel. On an average half-day shift, Mr. Pinyo, the top snake catcher in Thailand’s capital, wrangles more than 20 snakes, the reptiles secreted in sewers, curled in flowerpots and toilets, enmeshed in recycling, and pressed against branches ready to snack on geckoes and tree shrews.当然，正如宾约·普克宾约所知，这里还有很多真正的蛇。在曼谷，每年约有3万条蛇被消防和救援人员捕获。在平均半天的轮班中，泰国首都的头号捕蛇人宾约要对付20多条蛇。这些爬行动物藏在下水道里，蜷缩在花盆和马桶里，缠在回收物中，或者贴在树枝上，随时准备捕食壁虎和树鼩。He catches cobras, pythons, kraits and pit vipers. Those are the scary snakes. Harmless species, at least to humans, include tree snakes, rat snakes, kukris and sunbeams.他捕捉眼镜蛇、蟒蛇、金环蛇和蝮蛇。这些都是可怕的蛇。而无害的物种——至少对人类而言——包括树蛇、鼠蛇、库克里蛇和太阳蛇。Mr. Pinyo, 56, who joined Bangkok’s fire department at 18 only to discover that firefighters here do a lot more snake catching than firefighting, wants one thing known above all else: He does not kill the snakes he catches.56岁的宾约于18岁加入曼谷消防局，结果发现这里的消防员抓蛇的时间远多于灭火。他最想让人知道的一件事是：他不会杀死自己抓到的蛇。在宾约于其临时消防站主持的训练演习中，一条眼镜蛇被放出后在地面上蜿蜒爬行。临时消防站早晨的点名。“我原本想像电影里那样抓坏人，而不是抓蛇，”接受过警察培训的宾约说。Part of it is his Buddhist faith. But mostly it’s that it’s not the snakes’ fault that we humans have spread our urban jungle into actual jungle. It’s not the snakes’ fault that Bangkok floods during the monsoons, drowning their cozy habitats and forcing them to swim past malls and condominiums.部分原因是他的佛教信仰。但主要是因为，人类把都市的丛林扩张到了真正的丛林之中，这不是蛇的错。曼谷季风期间洪水泛滥，淹没了蛇类舒适的栖息地，迫使它们游过商场和公寓楼，这也不是蛇的错。“They deserve to return to nature,” Mr. Pinyo said. “They only bite when they’re forced to defend themselves.”“它们应该回到大自然，”宾约说。“它们只有在被迫自卫时才会咬人。”This principled ban on snake extermination has left Mr. Pinyo with a problem, one that has multiplied in the months since his Bang Khen fire station in northeastern Bangkok, now under renovation, moved to a few prefab structures squeezed under an elevated monorail.这个不杀死蛇的原则给宾约带来了一个问题。而且，自从他所在的曼谷东北部班肯消防站（目前正在翻新）搬迁至高架单轨铁路下方几处狭窄的预制板建筑以来，这一难题在过去几个月里愈来愈严重。Mr. Pinyo has way too many snakes.宾约手头的蛇太多了。He is not sure how many, but it’s more than 200. Or it could be 300. It’s definitely 70 cobras. At least. In his concrete cavern of a fire station, the sun blocked by the Skytrain’s tracks, nearly every tub, every water bottle, every sack, every plastic container that might otherwise hold shoes or bedsheets, is home to a snake, sometimes multiple snakes. Some of the pythons measure 15 feet long.他不确定有多少，但超过200条。也可能是300条。其中肯定有70条眼镜蛇。至少。在他那个宛如混凝土洞穴般的消防站里，太阳被轻轨轨道挡住，几乎每个桶、每个水瓶、每个袋子、每个原本可能用来装鞋子或床单的塑料容器，里面都住着一条蛇，有时是好几条。有些蟒蛇长约4.5米。宾约正用手指轻敲一个木箱，试图引诱一条眼镜王蛇出来。宾约不确定自己到底养了多少条蛇，但肯定超过200条。也可能有300条。其中肯定至少有70条眼镜蛇。Every few months, Mr. Pinyo drives out of Bangkok and unloads a horror movie tangle of snakes in a national park or forest. Then he starts again, catching and collecting snakes until it’s time for another rural pilgrimage.每隔几个月，宾约就开车驶出曼谷，在国家公园或森林里卸下一堆恐怖电影中那般缠绕的蛇。然后他又开始抓蛇、收集蛇，直到下一次踏上乡间朝圣之旅。Feeding all of these snakes costs about $300 a month, money that comes out of Mr. Pinyo’s pocket. His wife and daughter do not like snakes. His father, who died this year, was so upset by all of the venomous snakes that he refused to visit Mr. Pinyo when he was hospitalized with the inevitable snakebite. But snakes, Mr. Pinyo says, chose him. It is his karma.喂养所有这些蛇每月花费约300美元，这笔钱全是宾约自己掏腰包。他的妻子和女儿不喜欢蛇。他今年去世的父亲生前对这么多毒蛇感觉心烦意乱，以至于宾约因为不可避免的蛇咬伤住院时，父亲拒绝去看他。但宾约说，是蛇选择了他。这是他的业力。“My father used to say that I’m stubborn, like a cobra,” Mr. Pinyo said. “Maybe it’s true. I had to learn everything myself and stick to it because no one taught me how to catch snakes.”“父亲曾说我很固执，就像眼镜蛇一样，”宾约说。“也许是真的。我必须自己摸索一切并坚持下去，因为没有人教我怎么抓蛇。”Mr. Pinyo’s father, a hotel limousine driver, wanted his son to land a stable government job, and Mr. Pinyo passed the police examination. But a chronic shortage of firefighters meant he was assigned to that career instead. His starting base salary was less than $100 a month. (He now makes about $1,500.) He admits he was terrified when dispatched, without any training, to catch his first python, armed only with a stick with a hook at the end.宾约的父亲是一名酒店豪华轿车司机，他希望儿子找到一份稳定的政府工作，宾约也通过了警察考试。但由于消防员长期短缺，他最终被分配到了消防部门。最初，他的起薪每月不到100美元。（他现在的月薪大约是1500美元。）他承认，当他在没有任何培训的情况下，第一次被派去抓一条蟒蛇时，只带着一根末端带钩的棍子，当时他吓坏了。“I wanted to catch bad guys like in the movies, not catch snakes,” he told me.“我原本是想像电影里那样抓坏人，而不是抓蛇，”他告诉我。He learned fast on the job. He studied books like “The Manual of Practical Management of Snake Bites and Animal Toxin Injury.” Along the way, he discovered that as much as he liked divining the personalities of snakes — the way a cobra mimics a human’s movement or the way a baby python practices its bite — what he really enjoyed was the reaction of humans newly relieved of snakes in their homes or offices.他在工作中学习得很快。他研读《蛇咬伤和动物毒素损伤实用管理手册》等书籍。在这个过程中，他发现，尽管他喜欢推测蛇的个性——比如眼镜蛇如何模仿人类动作，或幼蟒如何练习咬人——但他真正喜欢的，是那些家里或办公室里的蛇刚被清除时，那些人的反应。“They offer me many prayers and good wishes,” Mr. Pinyo said. “It’s better than what money can buy.”“他们给我很多祈祷和美好祝愿，”宾约说。“这比金钱能买到的任何东西更好。”一条树蛇藏在曼谷某户人家的浴室门内。宾约正在捕捉一条树蛇。他把这些蛇带回消防站，稍后会将它们放归野外。Like a doctor at a dinner party burdened with the ailments of fellow guests, Mr. Pinyo is constantly called upon for his expertise. Luckily, he is generous. I shared my snake stories. In 2019, I had put a Post-it note on the door of my home office in Bangkok, warning the boys not to bother me because I was on a call. My husband had done the same. Our younger son, then 9, rapped anyway.就像一位在晚宴上被宾客们的各种病痛所困扰的医生，宾约不断被要求提供专业知识。幸运的是，他很慷慨。我也分享了我和蛇有关的故事。2019年，我在曼谷家中办公室的门上贴了一张便利贴，警告孩子们不要打扰我，因为我正在通电话。我丈夫也贴了一张。我们当时九岁的小儿子还是敲了门。“Mama,” he said, “I’m sorry, but there’s a pit viper in the dining room.”“妈妈，”他说，“对不起，但是餐厅里有一条蝮蛇。”Our son was right: There was a snake in our living room, a flash of fluorescent green. I disregarded my husband’s Post-it note, and he grabbed a bucket and pasta tongs. The snake, though, exited onto the balcony on its own.儿子说得没错：我们客厅里有一条蛇，闪着荧光绿的光芒。我无视了丈夫的便利贴，他抓起一个桶和一把意面夹。不过，那条蛇自己退到了阳台上。在全市各地捕获的有毒蝮蛇被送至宾约的消防站。10月，响应紧急求助电话的救援人员在一位居民家中搜寻一条绿色的蛇。I showed Mr. Pinyo a photograph of my husband, armed with the tongs, ready to tackle the snake. He praised my husband’s choice of tool, but said our son had been wrong. It was not a pit viper. There was no streak of red near the tail.我给宾约看了我丈夫拿着意面夹、准备对付蛇的照片。他称赞我丈夫选择的工具，但说我们的儿子搞错了。那不是一条蝮蛇。它的尾巴附近没有红色条纹。“Only a tree snake,” he said. “No danger.”“只是一条树蛇，”他说。“没有危险。”Last month, Mr. Pinyo and his deputy snake catchers conducted a training at a Mövenpick hotel in Bangkok, the lobby carpet plush and the garden lush. Like anywhere in Bangkok, there were snakes, and everyone, from the concierge and duty manager to spa therapist and room cleaner, needed to be prepared.上个月，宾约和他的副捕蛇手们在曼谷一家瑞享酒店进行培训，酒店大堂地毯厚实柔软，花园绿意盎然。像曼谷任何地方一样，这里也有蛇，从礼宾员、值班经理到水疗师和房间清洁员，每个人都需要做好准备。The firefighters had brought 50 live snakes with them, and believable scenarios unfolded in the underground garage. Let’s say there’s a small cobra and all you have is a small water bottle.消防员带来了50条活蛇，地下车库里上演了各种逼真的演练场景。比方说，有一条小眼镜蛇，而你只有一个小水瓶。With differing levels of terror, the hotel workers caught small cobras in small water bottles. They caught medium-size cobras in medium-size water bottles. They simulated a situation in which a snake lurks in the shower and all there is to work with is a towel. (“Please don’t open your towel and scare the snake,” Mr. Pinyo joked.) The workers took turns as impromptu matadors, gently laying the towels on cobras with their hoods raised, ready to strike.酒店员工怀着不同程度的恐惧，用小水瓶捕捉小眼镜蛇，用中号水瓶抓住中号眼镜蛇。他们模拟了一种情况：一条蛇潜伏在淋浴间，而手头的工具只有一条毛巾。（“请不要打开毛巾吓到蛇，”宾约开玩笑说。）员工们轮流充当临时斗牛士，轻轻地把毛巾盖在那些已张开蛇冠、准备攻击的眼镜蛇身上。宾约于10月在曼谷一家瑞享酒店主持了一场针对员工如何捕捉蛇类的培训。By the end, it felt perfectly natural to think that we could all be snake catchers. My colleague Muktita Suhartono had refused to touch a snake, but under Mr. Pinyo’s supervision, she coolly decanted a golden cobra into a plastic bottle, screwing on the lid after checking that the animal’s head was nowhere near the spout.到最后，我们感觉自己都能成为捕蛇人，这感觉再自然不过了。我的同事穆克蒂塔·苏哈托诺一开始拒绝碰蛇，但在宾约的指导下，她冷静地把一条金色眼镜蛇倒进塑料瓶，在确认蛇头远离瓶口后拧紧了瓶盖。Still, there’s a reason there are snake professionals. Mr. Pinyo has been hospitalized four times for near deadly snakebites, the last time for two months. He insists he can’t even remember how many times he’s been bitten in total.不过，专业捕蛇人确实有其存在的理由。宾约先生曾四次因近乎致命的蛇咬伤住院，最后一次住了两个月。他坚称自己甚至记不清总共被咬过多少次。I mentioned that my husband was bitten by a pit viper last year. After an emergency room stay, he was on crutches for weeks. Mr. Pinyo made a sympathetic noise, but then said he never seeks medical care for something as trifling as a pit viper bite. Yet a younger colleague of his became functionally paralyzed after a cobra bite during a training not so different from the one we attended.我提到我丈夫去年被蝮蛇咬过。在急诊室待了一晚后，他拄了几周拐杖。宾约发出同情的声音，但接着说，他从不因蝮蛇咬伤这样的小事寻求医疗护理。然而，他的一位年轻同事在一次培训中被眼镜蛇咬伤，导致功能性瘫痪，那次培训与我们参加的这次培训并无太大区别。宾约身上有一处疤痕，那是他被两条毒蛇咬伤留下的，其中一条是眼镜王蛇。在一场蛇类驯养演示中，一条眼镜蛇向宾约喷射毒液。One day in October, Mr. Pinyo sat on a plastic stool underneath the train tracks at the makeshift fire station. Occasionally, a sack shifted ominously. A hiss or rattle emanated from a box. Then the calls came: a snake in a pile of recycling, a snake in a hollow bathroom door, a snake at a medical clinic. We pulled up to the clinic, where young people were standing on a ramp at the entrance. They scattered when Mr. Pinyo asked if this was the place with the snake under the ramp.10月的一天，宾约坐在临时消防站铁轨下的塑料凳上。不时有麻袋发出不祥的窸窣声。或者某个盒子发出嘶嘶声或嘎嘎声。然后，电话接踵而至：回收物堆里有蛇，浴室的空心门里有蛇，医疗诊所有蛇。我们开车到诊所，一群年轻人站在入口的坡道上。宾约问这里是不是坡道下有蛇的地方时，他们四散奔逃。He pulled up the ramp to find a reticulated python twisted into a misshapen pretzel. The python went into a sack, and we drove back to the fire station, with one more snake to feed and release into the wild.他拉起坡道，发现一条网纹蟒扭成一团，如同畸形的椒盐卷饼。蟒蛇被装进袋子，我们开车回消防站，又多了一条需要喂养并放归野外的蛇。“Circle of life,” Mr. Pinyo said, his fingers forming a loose loop like a python at rest.“生命的循环，”宾约说，他的手指松松地环成一圈，就像一条静息中的蟒蛇。摄影：Lauren DeCiccaMuktita Suhartono对本文有报道贡献。Hannah Beech是《纽约时报》记者，常驻曼谷。她报道亚洲新闻超过25年，主要进行深度和调查报道。翻译：晋其角点击查看本文英文版。