Hello everyone, welcome to your little helper Koharu. We often see some snakes in our lives. These snakes are basically non-venomous snakes, but many people will be afraid when they see them. How would you feel if you lived in a place where snakes were infested?
I think that picture is too beautiful to imagine, but there is such a place in the world, today I come to take you to see the world's most terrible snake island, Brazilian snake island, in Brazil there is the world's most terrible snake island, located in the coastal area of São Paulo, Brazil, the total area of the island is more than 400,000 square meters, probably because there are too many snakes, the island is uninhabited, but there is a lighthouse left on the island, I don't know if there was anyone living at the beginning, it may be because there are too many snakes to move away.
It is said that there are many snakes on Snake Island now. Less than a square meter will be a snake, they are all highly venomous snakes. There is also a snake king on Snake Island, that is, the golden retriever viper. The golden retriever viper is said to be one of the deadliest and fastest venomous snakes in the world. It is precisely because of the abundance of snakes and the high venom that the island is forbidden to land, and only those who are allowed to land on the island for scientific research and accompanied by at least one doctor are allowed to land on the island.
This may be the only island that has become off-limit for humans because of too many snakes. Of course, there will be some snakes that look scary but are actually non-venomous, including the snail snake that eats white geese, and it knows that it eats snails by listening to its name.
But imagine if you come to this island, not to mention whether these snakes are poisonous or not, so many snake entanglements will haunt you, so it is better to stay away from this island. Why are there so many snakes, so poisonous? In fact, there is an interesting legend about the origin of the poisonous snake on the island.
A group of pirates hid gold on the island and then put the most venomous snakes here to protect their wealth. But this is just a story made up by humans. In fact, the island covers an area of 430,000 square meters and left the mainland about 100,000 years ago with the movement of the earth's crust. Due to drastic changes in the geological environment, earthquakes often occur on the island, many animals go extinct, the food chain collapses, food is scarce, and carnivores kill each other and eventually become extinct.
The snake is a cold-blooded animal, with relatively little energy consumption, winter hibernation, and even gradually develop the ability to sleep in summer, so that the snake can gain a survival advantage on the island and eventually survive, which is also very natural.
Of course, snakes face the same problem, but they are much better than large animals. They don't have a great need for food. They usually eat a full meal for a year without hunger. In addition, such islands are enough to ensure that their populations are free of predators and that they can reproduce faster. Faced with limited resources, snakes have also found a way out, that is, to focus on birds.
In search of food, many snakes climb trees to hunt migratory birds that stop to rest during seasonal long-distance flights. It is well known that the predation strategy of venomous snakes is to inject venom into the prey, and then track the prey, waiting for the venom to play a role. But this move is basically ineffective for birds, because if they are not careful, the birds fly out of the island.
There are only two ways to deal with birds, either fast enough, deadly enough, or poisonous enough to kill prey before the birds fly off the island. As a result, the offspring of these venomous snakes became more and more venomous, eventually surpassing five times their land relatives, which is reasonable, otherwise they would have been permanently eliminated.
What used to be forbidden to protect people is now protecting snakes. There is a lighthouse on the Brazilian snake island, and this lighthouse has a terrible legend. It is said that in the 1920s, the lighthouse was supervised by a couple and three children. One night, several golden retrievers entered their room and attacked the man, whose wife and children were bitten to death by a golden retrievers hanging from a tree as they fled.
Since then, to protect the locals, the island has been banned from landing, and the lighthouse has been changed to fully automatic, but every once in a while professionals go up to maintain it.
Another story is that a hungry fisherman came to the island to pick bananas, accidentally bitten by a snake, and finally died on the deck. These two stories are not necessarily true, but they can reflect the fear of the locals about this snake island. When it became a forbidden land, it was true that no one dared to land for a long time.
Golden spearhead pit viper. However, this rule is being broken due to the island's unique species, the Golden Spearhead Pit viper. The golden spearhead pit viper snake became the darling of the black market. Some scientists believe that the venom of the golden spearhead pit viper has many medicinal properties, and that their rarity and gold appearance make collectors salivate.
Under this demand, the price of the pit viper on the black market could be between $10,000 and $30,000, which has led many poachers to risk their lives to land on the island to find it. Over the past 15 years, the number of golden spearhead pit vipers on the island has decreased by 50%. It is now critically endangered among the IUCN Red Endangered Species.
The decline in their species may not be so dangerous for humans, but the island is still a forbidden place for humans, but now it is more about protecting snakes. All in all, these most feared snake islands in the world are usually located at sea. Very few people live on these islands. Usually fishermen come here unintentionally to find that there are so many snakes here, do not worry about these snakes suddenly running to land.
In addition, the local birds are actually very wary of the place as well. The snakes on the island are not easy to catch. They basically live on tired migratory birds. It's hard to imagine what these snakes would go in without human involvement, and might eventually collapse into huge populations, or might have more ferocious snakes. The ecosystem of isolated islands can always surprise and surprise people.