The world has many new and interesting lands. But not always and everywhere people can set foot to explore or visit.
Ilha da Queimada Grande Island – Snake Island is one such place. This Brazilian island, located in the South Atlantic Ocean, is currently considered the most dangerous place in the world, so much so that it is completely forbidden for humans to approach.
This beautiful island is one of the deadliest in the world. (photo: atlaobscura)
Iiha da Queimada Grande is a 45-hectare island, isolated in the South Atlantic Ocean, 35km off the coast of Sao Paulo.
Previously, this island was called "Chay Island" because fishermen tried to occupy the coast by burning forests and driving wild animals into the deep forest, but with the presence of countless poisonous snakes, this place better known as “Snake Island”. The climate here is very mild, no different from the neighboring island of Nimer.
This island has many types of vegetation and its topography is also very diverse. According to the researchers, the island's area is covered with tropical rainforest, while the remaining areas are barren rocks and bare grasslands. This imbalance comes from human deforestation in the past, which is now evident in every corner of the island.
Yellow-headed vipers live only on the Brazilian snake island. (Photo: exotictravel)
This island is famous for being the only habitat of the world's most venomous yellow-headed viper. Although the yellow-headed viper is an endangered species in other parts of the world, there are so many species of these snakes on the island that there are one to five yellow-headed vipers per square meter. This type of snake when grown up can be more than half a meter long and the venom is 5 times stronger than that of land snakes, because they only eat birds instead of mammals.
In addition to the yellow-headed viper, Snake Island is also home to about 400,000 other snakes, all of which are classified as venomous or extremely venomous. Explaining this terrifying diversity, one theory is that 11,000 years ago snakes were trapped on the island when the sea level rose, engulfing the land connecting the island to the mainland.
The population of this species is facing disease and genetic variations that come from inbreeding. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species confirms that the yellow spear-headed viper is critically endangered due to their low overall numbers. It is also included in the list of threatened species in Brazil.
A bite from a yellow-headed viper can kill an adult by causing painful swelling, vomiting, bruising, internal bleeding, kidney failure, brain hemorrhage, and leading to severe muscle necrosis only after 2 hours.
Yellow-headed viper venom has the ability to destroy and melt the human body.
The reason, scientists conclude that the yellow-headed viper is capable of destroying and dissolving the body of humans and other animals is because their venom contains hemotoxins that corrode meat and tissues.
This type of venom not only "sends" the victim to death quickly, but also makes it easier for the yellow-headed tiger to swallow its prey.
Venom, isolation and swarms of venomous snakes everywhere have made Ilha da Queimada Grande the most terrifying "graveyard" in the world!
In addition to the yellow-headed viper, many other dangerous snakes also live here.
Brazilians often tell tourists two stories about people dying from snakes on the island.
The main character in the first story is a fisherman. During one of his trips to the sea, he visited the island to pick fruit and a snake bit him. The fisherman hurried back to the boat. But a few days later, people found him dead on a floating boat lying in a pool of blood.
The second story is about the lighthouse keeper and his family. On the only island there is a lighthouse and almost no people live. There is a legend that the last inhabitant of the island was the keeper of the lighthouse. One night, hundreds of snakes slithered through the window and attacked his family, forcing them to escape to a boat at sea. However, snakes more than half a meter long hung themselves from the branches, biting the whole family, causing them to die in pain.
Scientists are studying a yellow-headed viper.
Because of the overcrowded presence of this deadly animal, the Brazilian Navy banned anyone from entering the island except the scientists and the lighthouse keepers.
Since 2010, the famous travel site Listverse has chosen this island as the most terrible tourist destination in the world, ranking above both the radioactive contaminated Chernobyl area and the mud volcanoes in Azerbaijan.
Although the island has a lot of tourism potential, because of the high density of venomous snakes, the Brazilian government has closed the place. Each year, only the Brazilian Navy and researchers selected by the Chico Mendes Biodiversity Conservation Institute, the Brazilian federal conservation unit, are allowed to set foot on the island for research. Of course, they must also be equipped with special protective equipment and have high expertise, not only that, but they are also accompanied by doctors - who are always in a state of readiness to treat snakebite cases.
However, some poachers still venture to come here because this snake is sold for a very high price on the black market, about 30,000 USD (660 million VND).
In 2019, Tara Brown, an Australian female tourist, decided to go to Snake Island despite strong objections from everyone.
As a lover of adventure, she agreed to participate in the program "60 minutues" (Australia) to Snake Island. The group took 6 months to get permission to come here.
Tara Brown took a photo with snakes while visiting the island.
Though she doesn't like snakes, Tara reassures herself that everything will be fine. The film crew was equipped with equipment such as ambulances, defibrillators and experienced medical staff.
The female tourist said that on average, every three steps, she encounters five extremely poisonous yellow snakes. Sometimes, she approached the sleeping snakes, their safest state, to take pictures, but still felt stressed, scared. The trip is not an ideal vacation, but helps Tara expand her knowledge about snakes and the world's "most poisonous" island.
