Golden Lancehead viper(Bothrops insularis) which is located at Aboard Brazil's snake island or Ilha de Queimada Grande, which is about 90 miles from the city of Sao Paulo. ... The snake's venom is said to be three to five times stronger than that of any mainland snake. Also, it's capable of melting 'human flesh,' and a human bitten by it can be dead within an hour.
DOMINATED LOCATION
A NEW documentary has revealed what it's like to visit Snake Island, an inhabitable place where some 4,000 deadly vipers live. The snakes on the island are golden lancehead vipers, which are considered one of the most dangerous in the world, with venom so potent it could melt flesh.
History on the island
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.
Another local legend claims that the snakes were originally introduced by pirates seeking to protect buried treasure on the island.
In reality, the vipers’ presence is the result of rising sea levels – a less exciting origin story than paranoid pirates to be sure, but still interesting. Snake Island used to be part of Brazil’s mainland, but when sea levels rose over 10,000 years ago, it separated the landmass and turned it into an island.
The animals that wound up isolated on Queimada Grande evolved differently from those on the mainland over the course of millennia, the golden lanceheads in particular. Since the island vipers had no prey but birds, they evolved to have extra-potent venom so that they could almost immediately kill any bird. Local birds are too savvy to be caught by the many predators that inhabit Ilha da Queimada Grande and the snakes instead rely on birds who visit the island to rest as food.
FATALITY RATE
The fatality rate is rated at 100%
One poisonous bite from the Golden Lancehead pit viper is enough to kill a grown man within a few hours. It's fast-acting venom will burn through flesh and cause its victim to bleed to death.
WORTH
Because of black market demand by scientists and animal collectors, wildlife smugglers, known as biopirates, have been known to visit Ilha da Queimada Grande, too. They trap the snakes and sell them through illegal channels—a single golden lanceheads can go for anywhere from $10,000 to $30,000.
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