I Just Found Out There's An Island Covered In Snakes, And Now I'm Wondering How I'm Ever Supposed To Sleep Again Knowing That This Place Exists
Of all of the fears and phobias out there, snakes are probably my biggest.
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So when I stumbled upon this viral TikTok featuring a Brazilian island that is so snake infested that it's illegal to visit, I was both horrified and wildly curious.
@interesting.thingsz The Last Island Is Scary 😰🏝
♬ Dârk Mâttêr - Tsezy
Turns out, Snake Island is a real place that I will be having nightmares about for the rest of my life.
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Located in Brazil, Snake Island (which is actually called Ilha de Queimada Grande) is home to the world's largest concentration of venomous snakes.
And to make matters worse, these aren't just any old venomous snakes.
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Snake Island is infested with an estimated 2,000 to 4,000 golden lancehead vipers, which are among the deadliest types of snake in the world, NBD.
It's estimated that on Snake Island, there's one snake for every square foot of land.
A golden lancehead viper's venom can kill a human in about an hour.
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So how did this Brazilian island become one of the most terrifying places on earth?
According to Smithsonian magazine, the snakes were trapped on the island about 11,000 years ago, due to rising sea levels after the last Ice Age.
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Some have claimed that pirates put the snakes on the island to protect their gold, but that has since been debunked.
Because there were no natural predators on the island, the snakes rapidly reproduced. The snakes also had no ground-level prey, which meant they would have to mark and hunt down birds, which caused their venom to evolve into an incredibly potent version that's three to five times deadlier than the average snake's venom.
In the early 1900s, a few Brazilian locals lived on the island. According to local lore, a family who was in charge of tending to the lighthouse were all killed when the snakes came through the windows of their home.
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Both tourists and Brazilian locals are forbidden from visiting Ilha de Queimada Grande.
The island is so dangerous that the only people who have ever been permitted to visit are the Brazilian Navy, who stops by once a year to maintain the island's lighthouse, and groups of biologists who study the snakes. Wildlife smugglers have been caught trying to sneak onto the island to trap the snakes to sell them. The average golden lancehead snake sells for somewhere between $10,000 and $30,000.
And in the instance of any legally sanctioned visit, a doctor has to be present at all times in case of any bites.
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While the snake population on the island has begun to decline in recent years due to disease and Brazilian officials tweaking the habitat in attempts to control the population (the golden lancehead viper is now officially classified an endangered species), I can confidently say that I will never step foot on Snake Island.
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