mystery of snake island

 This Brazilian Island Has So Many Snakes, Humans Aren’t Allowed.

No humans are allowed on Snake Island and with good reason. There's about one deadly snake per square foot on it. The mysterious island is known as Ilha da Queimada Grande, and it is in fact so dangerous to set foot there that Brazil has made it illegal for anyone to visit. The danger on the island comes in the form of the golden lancehead snakes – a species of pit viper and one of the deadliest serpents in the world.

This Brazilian Island Has So Many Snakes, Humans Aren’t Allowed

About 25 miles off the coast of Brazil, there is an island where no local would ever dare tread. Reportedly, the snake venom has a bad reputation of killing a person in just 60 minutes! Like any unusual place, this island too has a story. Days later, his dead body was found on the island, cold as a stone with snake bites all over it.

Although the poor, starved fishermen fell prey to island snakes, some brave souls still dared to live on the island between 1909 and 1920s to facilitate in operating the island lighthouse. While it may appear like any other island in the South Atlantic, it is home to (guess what?) 4,000 Golden Lancehead Vipers, a snake species known for its fatal venom.

The golden lanceheads found on the island are much deadlier than their mainland cousins.

Apparently, since the island is infested with poisonous snakes, it has earned the moniker, Snake Island. Snake Island used to be part of Brazil’s mainland, but when sea levels rose over 10,000 years ago, it separated the landmass and turned it into an island.

The animals that wound up isolated on Queimada Grande evolved differently from those on the mainland over the course of millennia, the golden lanceheads in particular. A bite from their golden relatives, whose venom is up to five times more potent, is less likely to actually happen due to their island isolation. As they say, the remoter the island, the more peace you are to find. In Brazil, unknown to many, exists an island that has a bad reputation for its hissing, slithering residents.

The Brazilian Navy stumbles upon one of the island’s residents during a routine visit to the lighthouse.

Known as Ilha da Queimada Grande, the secret island in Brazil is situated 90 miles from the alluring São Paulo coast. As Nicolas Cage once said, “Every great story seems to begin with a snake.”

However, such an encounter is far more likely to be lethal if it does happen.

There are no fatality statistics of the golden lanceheads (since the only area they inhabit is cut off from the public), however someone bitten by a regular lancehead faces a seven percent chance of death if untreated. However, it is not always so. Today, the navy periodically visits the lighthouse for upkeep and makes sure no adventurers are wandering too close to the island.

Another local legend claims that the snakes were originally introduced by pirates seeking to protect buried treasure on the island.

A lancehead on Snake Island prepares to attack.

In reality, the vipers’ presence is the result of rising sea levels – a less exciting origin story than paranoid pirates to be sure, but still interesting.
. Unfortunately, a modern legend states that one day, an entire brigade of blood-thirsty snakes barged into the house through the windows and killed the lighthouse keeper and his family.

Wonder who brought these creepy crawlies to this island? It could be some pirate, who brought them to the land in order to keep their hidden loot from being discovered, which was mostly gold. The lanceheads are so venomous that a human bitten by one could be dead within an hour.

Snake Island is uninhabited now, but people used to live there for a short period up to until the late 1920s when, according to legend, the local lighthouse keeper and his family were killed by vipers that slithered in through the windows. While, it is unknown whether or not he knew about the venomous residents, he surely didn’t know the fate that awaited him. Since the island vipers had no prey but birds, they evolved to have extra-potent venom so that they could almost immediately kill any bird. It is surrounded by a good number of islands that are perfect for a relaxing vacation. Local birds are too savvy to be caught by the many predators that inhabit Ilha da Queimada Grande and the snakes instead rely on birds who visit the island to rest as food.

Researchers believe the lanceheads’ venom could be useful in fighting certain diseases.

Lancehead snakes, which are the golden lanceheads’ mainland cousins, are responsible for 90 percent of all snake bites in Brazil. Treatment does not even guarantee a lancehead bite victim will be saved: there is still a 3 percent mortality rate.

It’s hard to imagine why anyone would want to visit a place where a painful death lurks every few feet.

However, the vipers’ deadly venom has shown potential in helping to combat heart problems, leading to something of a black market demand for the venom. Yet, some scientists/researchers are crazy enough to take the risk. The danger on the island comes in the form of the golden lancehead snakes – a species of pit viper and one of the deadliest serpents in the world.

The lanceheads can grow to be over a foot-and-a-half long and it’s estimated that there are between 2,000 and 4,000 snakes on the island, which unsurprisingly is known as Snake Island. For some lawbreakers, the lure of the money is incentive enough to risk almost certain death on Ilha da Queimada Grande.
Once, a fisherman entered the island hunting for food such as bananas. Legend has it that the last fisherman who strayed too close to its shores was found days later adrift in his own boat, lifeless in a pool of blood.

20 Shuddering Things About Snake Island That’ll Make 

The mysterious island is known as Ilha da Queimada Grande, and it is in fact so dangerous to set foot there that Brazil has made it illegal for anyone to visit. Eventually, nature took its course and the snakes reproduced in hundreds and thousands.

The whole story about the island may stir the adventure streak in some; know that it is now against the law to visit this island. Brazil as a holiday destination is an escape into the wild—the more unique part of nature.