Snake Island - Ilha de Queimada Grande
Off-limits and full of venomous pit vipers, its nickname is frighteningly apt
Category Anomalous Islands, Fascinating Fauna
Off the shore of Brazil, almost due south of the heart of São Paulo, is a Ilha de Queimada Grande. The island is untouched by human developers, and for very good reason. Researchers estimate that on the island live between one and five snakes per square meter.
That figure might not be so terrible if the snakes were, say, 2 inches long and nonvenomous. The snakes on Queimada Grande, however, are a unique species of pit viper, the golden lancehead. The lancehead genus of snakes is responsible for 90% of Brazilian snakebite-related fatalities. The golden lanceheads that occupy Snake Island grow to well over half a meter long, and they possess a powerful fast-acting poison that melts the flesh around their bites. Golden lanceheads are so dangerous that, with the exception of some scientific outfits, the Brazilian Navy has expressly forbidden anyone from landing on the island.
Locals in the coastal towns near Queimada Grande love to recount two grisly tales of death on the island. In one, a fisherman unwittingly wanders onto the island to pick bananas. Naturally, he is bitten. He manages to return to his boat, where he promptly succumbs to the snake's venom. He is found some time later on the boat deck in a great pool of blood.
The other story is of the final lighthouse operator and his family. One night, a handful of snakes enter through a window and attack the man, his wife, and their three children. In a desperate gambit to escape, they flee towards their boat, but they are bitten by snakes on branches overhead.
Marcelo Duarte, a biologist who has visited Snake Island over twenty times, says that the locals' claim of one to five snakes per square meter is an exaggeration, though perhaps not by much. One snake per square meter is more like it. Not that that should ease one's mind: At one snake per meter, you're never more than three feet away from death.
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- Hours Off-limits without special permits
- Address Sao Paulo, Brazil
Presently, reaching the island legally requires the cooperation of the Brazilian Navy. A particularly daring tourist could hypothetically travel to Peruíbe or Itanhaém (approx. 1.5-2.5 hours from downtown São Paulo) and convince a local with a boat to approach the island, but doing so is dangerous and illegal. Golden lanceheads can legally be seen at the Butantã Institute in São Paulo if one asks politely.
Comments
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Anonymous
November 8, 2009
I agree with the Congress statement...hehehe...those snakes would never be hungry again, and half of them would be fatally poisoned... -
Anonymous
November 8, 2009
Can we send members of the U.S. Congress here for a short vacation?
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Anonymous
August 28, 2009
To the last anonymous poster, it might interest you to watch this BBC/Discovery Channel video on the island. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ikz7x5NRM2c
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Anonymous
August 27, 2009
Well, this is just bullshit. At one snake per square meter, what is supposed to feed those snakes? A mouse would only make it three feet right?
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Anonymous
August 21, 2009
Don't you mean that its nickname is <em>frighteningly asp? ;-)
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