Saturday, August 10, 2013
Snake Island - Ilha de Queimada Grande
In Brazil right off the coast, and about 93 miles from Sao Pablo downtown is Ilha de Queimada. This island is completely untouched by humans and there are between one and five snakes per square meter on this island. The snakes are a pit viper, or the golden lancehead, they have 90% of a Brazilian snakebite-related fatalities which makes them very dangerous. The lanesheads grow to be about a half a meter long and the powerful poison that melts the flesh around there bites. That is why the Brazilian navy has forbidden anyone to set foot on the island, because if you do well that might just be your last breathe. A possible solution is to try and capture one of the lancehead snakes and see what their weakness is and how they will not be harmful. The matter is trying not to get bitten in the process. Maybe scientists can wear protective gear on the island and try to helicopter down and capture one. Those ideas might be crazy but over time these snakes could expand and somehow someway spread to areas where humans live and then we would all be running for our lives. It is very hard task but by capturing a lancehead could lead to all the problems being solved.
http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/snake-island-ilha-de-queimada-grande
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That sounds like a very serious problem. Your solution seems a bit dangerous. I do not think we need to risk the lives of scientists in an attempt to depopulate the island. A better solution could be dropping snake traps from the air. That way no humans would be harmed. After an allotted amount of time, the traps would be collected and relocated around the world, therefore dispersing the population. Another possible solution could be to introduce a predator to the island. The predator would hunt the snakes and would thrive because of all the prey available. This would control the overpopulation of lanceheads on the island. There is still hope for Ilha de Queimada and its inhabitants.
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