SNAKES
There are more than 3,000 species of snakes on the planet and they’re found everywhere except in Antarctica, Iceland, Ireland, Greenland, and New Zealand. About 600 species are venomous, and only about 200 are able to kill or significantly wound a human.
Nonvenomous snakes, which range from harmless garter snakes to the not-so-harmless python, dispatch their victims by swallowing them alive or constricting them to death. Whether they kill by striking with venom or squeezing, nearly all snakes eat their food whole, in sometimes astoundingly large portions.
How Snake Hunt
Snakes also have forked tongues, which they flick in different directions to smell their surroundings. That lets them know when danger is nearby.
Snakes have several other ways to detect a snack. Openings called pit holes in front of their eyes sense the heat given off by warm-blooded prey. And bones in their lower jaws pick up vibrations from rodents and other scurrying animals. When they do capture prey, snakes can eat animals up to three times bigger than their head is wide because their lower jaws unhinge from their upper jaws. Once in a snake’s mouth, the prey is held in place by teeth that face inward, trapping it there.
Sea Snakes
Most snakes live on land, but there are about 70 species of snakes that live in the Indian and Pacific oceans. Sea snakes and their cousins, kraits, are some of the most venomous snakes that exist, but they pose little threat to humans because they’re shy, gentle, and their fangs are too short to do much damage.
VENOMOUS SNAKES
COBRA
BLACK-MAMBA
TAIPAN
KRAIT
SNAKE ISLAND: BRAZIL
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.
About 25 miles off the coast of Brazil, there is an island where no local would ever dare tread. 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. 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. 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. 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. Today, the navy periodically visits the lighthouse for upkeep and makes sure no adventurers are wandering too close to the island.
SOMETHINGS ABOUT SNAKE ISLAND THAT WE PREFERRED NOT TO KNOW
1) There Are Thousands Of Snakes
2) The Snakes Can't Swim
3) Venom Can Melt Skin
4) Snakes Have No Predators
5) There Is A 3% Chance Of Lasting
6) The Island Has A Black Market
7) Snakes Are Endangered
