![]() ![]() ![]() Their only challenge: they also had no ground level prey. The snakes that ended up stranded on Ilha da Queimada Grande had no ground level predators, allowing them to reproduce rapidly. But according to another local tale, the last lighthouse keeper, along with his entire family, died when a cadre of snakes slithered into his home through the windows.Īlthough some claim the snakes were put on the island by pirates hoping to protect their gold, in reality, the island's dense population of snakes evolved over thousands of years-without human intervention. Around 11,000 years ago, sea levels rose enough to isolate Ilha da Queimada Grande from mainland Brazil, causing the species of snakes that lived on the island-thought to most likely be jararaca snakes-to evolve on a different path than their mainland brethren. These vipers' venom can kill a person in under an hour, and numerous local legends tell of the horrible fates that awaited those who wandered onto the shores of "Snake Island." Rumor has it a hapless fisherman landed onto the island in search of bananas-only to be discovered days later in his boat, dead in a pool of blood, with snake bites on his body. From 1909 to the 1920s, a few people did live on the island, in order to run its lighthouse. Ilha da Queimada Grande, located about 90 miles off the São Paulo coast, seems like another one of those beautiful places-at first glance. Almost every Brazilian knows about the island, but most would never dream of going there-it's infested with between 2,000 and 4,000 golden lancehead vipers, one of the deadliest snakes in the entire world. From Iguazu Falls to Lençóis Maranhenses National Park, there are some breathtakingly beautiful places in Brazil.
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