This is the island of cobras, the paradisiac (and terrifying) Brazilian place where you can find a snake every few steps

A challenge to begin with. Think about the last place on the face of the Earth where you would like to see yourself. It is not worth telling me about your office, the Sunday dinner with the in-laws or the meeting with commercials that you have scheduled for Monday at the very first hour. No; the worst, really.

Ready? Well, unless you are the most vocational of herpetologists, it is quite likely that the place you have in mind, horrible and dangerous as it may be, resembles a placid walk through the Swiss Alps – roll ‘La Casa de la Pradera’— if you compare it with Ilha de Queimada Grande, a paradise island located just over 30 kilometers from the coast of São Paulo, in Brazil.

With that name with a Caipirinha flavor and the aroma of Copacabana sand, you may not believe it, but the thing is sure to be clear if I tell you what its nickname is: the island of cobras.

A paradise … with trap

Located just 35 kilometers from Praia Brava, in the middle of the Atlantic, Ilha de Queimada Grande is a tropical dream seen in the distance and a real hell with scales as soon as one walks through its wooded areas. Despite its small size of 43 hectares, it has become the home of the Bothrops insularis, a species of viper often known as “golden spear head” and that stands out for its size, up to 70 cm – although it is known of specimens of more than 120 – and poison, which among other niceties causes necrosis, bleeding, and kidney failure.

We mean “home” in the fullest sense of the word. The Bothrops insularis is an endemic species of Ilha de Queimada, where –free from natural predators, at least for its adult and larger specimens – has managed to expand to its heart’s content. How many? Media like National Geographic The Smithsonian Magazine estimates suggest that, at least in the most populated areas, up to one snake per m2 can be found.

One study prepared in 2002 by ecologists from the University of São Paulo concluded that about 2,100 snakes lived on the island. After dividing the island into 26 plots, his most optimistic data yielded more than 2,300 specimens, with a density about 55 snakes per hectare. For reference, the researchers recall that the Gloydius shedaoensis reaches a concentration of 200 individuals per hectare on the island of Shedao, China and that, “In suitable habitats”, even the mark of one copy per square meter can be reached.

Concentration of Bothrops insularis is intense enough on the Atlantic island to have earned the nickname of Snake Island (island of snakes) and that the Government of Brazil has vetoed it from visits. In case the prohibition and the poster that appears in its sandbanks were not enough, they run through São Paulo legends about the islet, worthy of the best times of the ‘Nightmares’ program, which speak of visitors and even an entire family devastated by snakes.

The truth is Since the 1920s, the Faro of Ilha de Queimada Grande has been automated and only the members of the Brazilian army who are in charge of setting it up from time to time pass through there – at least with permission and in a controlled manner. To this day, in fact, the Brazilian authorities have declared the island as Relevant Area of ​​Ecological Interest.

Unfortunately, there is another class of expeditions that venture onto the island with less civic intentions: those formed by poachers who go deep into its forests to hunt for specimens that are on the market. they reach $ 30,000. The powerful venom of the snake would also be highly valued in the pharmaceutical industry.

The truth and despite how dangerous the bite of the Bothrops insularis, is that the 2002 University of São Paulo study alert of a decline in the island’s snake population. “We have the impression that B. insularis decreased in the last 12 years and we have evidence of illegal extraction of snakes from the island”, The experts warned. Hunting would not be the only cause of the decline of the colony. Other sources also point to inbreeding, the effect of deforestation on the birds they feed on or disease. In his day scientific literature came to speak of a population of between 2,000 and 4,000 specimens.

But … How have so many snakes been able to concentrate on an isolated islet?

The most widespread theory assures that about 11,000 years ago sea ​​level rose enough as if to isolate Ilha de Queimada Grande from the mainland. Free of large predators to control their numbers, the snakes spread wide. Its powerful poison would also help them hunt migratory birds that were resting on the island. Of course there are more fanciful versions, like the one that claims they were released by pirates who wanted to protect their treasures.

Whether they are related to corsairs or not, whether the legends that speak of entire families of fareras succumbed to poison are true, the truth is that, despite its name with echoes of Bossa Nova, Ilha de Queimada Grande doesn’t seem like the best vacation destination.

Cover image Wikimedia (Nayeryouakim)