![]() ![]() Yellow-bellied sea snake ( Pelamis platurus) is a venomous snake found in tropical oceans all over the world except in the Atlantic Ocean. They are widespread in the tropical parts of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, including Hawaii.Ī venemous yellow bellied sea snake washed up on the beach leaves tracks in the wet sand as it tries to slither back to the ocean.Ĭurrents occasionally carry the snakes into temperate waters, but they do not mate or breed there. It is believed that people brought Brahminy blind snake to Hawaii Islands in the 1930s with the potting soil from the Philippines. All are female! They lay eggs that do not have to be fertilized in order to hatch. You might find it interesting that there are no male Brahminy blind snakes. They have no natural predators – nothing eats them. Brahminy snakes are totally harmless and non-venomous. They can be found most commonly in gardens so it is often called Flowerpot Snake. These type of snakes feed on termites and ants and lives in dark, moist places under logs, humus, and leaves. They are almost blind, cannot see fixed images but is sensitive to light. It is one of the world’s smallest snakes, never growing more than 20 cm or six inches.īrahminy blind snake (Ramphotyphlops braminus)īrahminy snake looks very much like an earthworm, black or dark brown, with head and tail looking pretty much the same. Brahminy Blind Snakeīrahminy Blind Snake ( Ramphotyphlops braminus) is a tiny black snake native to Asia and Africa but now common all over the world. Only two snakes managed to survive and spread over the islands and are now fairly common and considered almost native: Brahminy Blind Snake and Yellow-Bellied Sea Snake. Some came by accident, by hitchhiking in the cargo of planes or boats, or deliberately, by being brought to be pets, a part of someone’s snake collection. This is clearly much more difficult for land animals such as land snakes, so they came to the Hawaiian Islands in different way – they were brought by humans. Scientists from the University of California say that for example an invertebrate “successfully colonized Hawaii once every 70,000 years, a plant once in every 100,000 years, and a bird once in every million years.” So getting any new species to an isolated island like Hawaii is a very difficult and hit-and-miss process even for birds that can fly over great distances. All of them had to fly or swim to the islands or were brought by the wind like seeds. Still, Sauvage's snail eaters and golden lanceheads are kind similarly golden-colored, which means that the Sauvage's snail-eater could still make you behave irrationally and back up into a golden lancehead and get bitten anyway.Beautiful aerial view of spectacular Na Pali coast, Kauai, HawaiiĪs they have risen from the ocean, the islands were slowly populated by life – plant seeds, birds and animals. And Sauvage's snail-eaters are non-venomous and therefore mostly harmless to anything that does not have a shell and a disgusting habit of leaving a silvery slime trail everywhere it goes, so we're all super excited about that. Luckily for Snake Island's snail population, a 2005 study concluded that the island's population of Sauvage's snail-eaters were basically the same species as those found on the mainland, so unlike the golden lanceheads, there was no freakishly terrifying evolutionary trajectory blessing them with snail-killing laser beams coming out of their eyes or anything. ![]() Snake Island is home to another snake species, called Dipsas albifrons, or Sauvage's snail-eater. So do the horrible math, and then check out this list of all the other horrible things you probably really didn't want to know about Snake Island.īut golden lanceheads are not the sole slithery occupant of Snake Island. Also the island is a mere 110 acres, which by the way is less than one-fourth of a square mile. It's called that because it's home to one of the deadliest snakes in the world and oh yeah, there are literally thousands of them. Because Snake Island isn't called "Snake Island" because of the way it's shaped or because someone once saw a rainbow boa hanging from a tree or something. It's located about 90 miles off the coast of Sao Paulo, and from above it looks stunningly beautiful - it's got lush green forests, a beautiful rocky shoreline, sun, and surf - what more could an intrepid traveler want in an exotic destination? Besides, you know, the absence of actual mortal peril. It sounds kind of like the name of some dumb reality TV show (actually it sort of is thanks, Discovery Channel), but Snake Island is a real place, and that's what people actually call it, although locally it's known as Ilha de Queimada Grande. ![]()
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