You stand on the rocky shore watching a dinghy return to the ship anchored a few miles off
the coast. You’ve just been dropped off on a deceptively beautiful deserted island in
the middle of the South Atlantic Ocean. As your last hope of escape disappears over the horizon,
you swallow your fear and turn your attention to figuring out how
you’re going to survive the night on Snake Island - the most dangerous place on earth.
Being accepted into the Brazilian Navy has been your life’s biggest achievement,
and you are proud to be serving your country. Shortly after arriving at your first posting
in Sao Paulo, you’re told to report to the docks first thing tomorrow morning for a very special
mission. This will be your first official mission with the Navy, and you can hardly sleep for the
excitement. Finally, morning arrives, and you’re one of the first to board the ship.
As others arrive, you’re surprised to find that your group includes not only Navy sailors,
but scientists and even...a doctor? What kind of mission is this?
As the ship makes its way through the harbour and heads for the open ocean,
you muster up the courage to ask another sailor where exactly you’re headed.
“You don’t know?” he says with a laugh. “Well,
Rookie, you’re in for a treat. We’re on our way to Snake Island.”
Snake Island!? It can’t be true. You grew up in a small coastal town near Sao Paulo,
so of course you’re all too familiar with Snake Island, the most dangerous place on earth.
Snake Island is a remote island in the South Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Brazil,
about 93 miles from downtown Sao Paulo. At one time, there was an attempt to tame the island
and turn it into a banana plantation, which is how it got its official name, Ilha da Queimada Grande,
which means “Slash and Burn Island”. Unspriringingly to anyone who knows
the island’s history, the project was abandoned, and the island has been
untouched by humans ever since, except for a few Navy sailors and, apparently, some scientists.
The locals refuse to go near Snake Island, and they have plenty of stories and legends about it,
none of which are very reassuring right now. Local legend has it that a pirate placed
venomous snakes on the island to protect their buried treasure, and in the centuries since the
deadly snakes have completely taken over the island. You’ll never forget the story about
the lost fisherman who landed on Snake Island. Starving, he went to shore in search of bananas,
only to be bitten numerous times by snakes. He somehow made it back to his boat, but it was too
late - he was found days later adrift, lying in the bottom of his boat in a pool of his own blood.
You shiver at the memory of these childhood horror stories, and turn to your new friend.
“I thought no humans were allowed on Snake Island,” you say.
“Of course not,” he replies. “It’s far too dangerous for civilians. But we’re the Navy.
We take care of the island and its lighthouse during our annual mission to Snake Island.”
After a long, choppy 8 hour journey, you finally get your first glimpse of the
mythical island. From the safety of the boat the island looks like a tropical paradise.
The dramatic rocky shorelines, the temperate subtropical climate,
and the lush rainforests almost make you forget how deadly it is...almost.
The ship anchors a few miles off the coast and the celebratory atmosphere feels
unnervingly like a group of people who know that this might be their last night on earth.
Trying to distract yourself, you get to chatting with one of the scientists on board
and find out why on earth they would willingly take part in such a dangerous mission.
It’s her first trip to Snake Island, too, but unlike you, she seems...excited!?
She explains how difficult it is to study snakes in the wild, and that Snake Island
presents a rare opportunity for biologists to study so many specimens in one place.
The snakes on Snake Island, the Golden Lancehead Pit Vipers, are unique to the island and can’t
be found anywhere else on earth. The Golden Lancehead is closely related to the Jaracara,
a mainland snake that’s responsible for up to 90% of all fatal snake bites in Brazil,
so studying the Lancehead can give us important clues about how to reduce these deaths.
Scientists believe that Snake Island was once connected to the mainland,
but that when sea levels rose around 11,000 years ago, the Island was isolated and the
snakes living there evolved separately from their cousins on the mainland.
Hmm. So much for that pirate legend...
The next morning, after donning a thick pair of socks and some knee-high leather boots,
you find yourself in a small dinghy headed towards the island. With no beaches,
the boat has to land on the rocky shore and you have to scramble out of the boat and up the slick,
jagged rocks to land safely on Snake Island. After watching the dinghy disappear, you look around
and take in the island for the first time - and realize that the lighthouse that’s the focus of
your mission is located in the very center of the island. You’ll have to trek through snake-infested
bush and climb a mountain to get to it, all while carrying heavy lights, batteries and other gear.
Great… Thankfully, the snakes are at their least active during the hottest part of the day,
so you guess you should be thankful to be hiking in the blistering heat.
The group starts out, heading single-file along a narrow, overgrown path through the dense bush and
into the heart of the island. The lead person is carrying an industrial weed wacker to clear
the path, but even still it’s slow going. Within only 5 minutes of setting out, you
hear a shout from up ahead - “Snake!”. Everyone freezes in place as they try to spot the deadly
living land-mine. Then, you see it…It takes you a minute, since the snake’s pale yellow scale
pattern helps it to blend in with the island’s rocks, branches and dried vegetation, but once you
see it you’re transfixed. You can’t stop staring at it’s elongated, pointed head, and it’s uncanny
eyes seem to track your every movement. At just 20 centimeters long, it’s only a small specimen -
typical Lanceheads average around 70 centimeters long, but they have been known to grow to as long
as 118 centimeters - but it’s small size doesn’t make it any less deadly. After carefully checking
the area for other snakes, your group carries on, giving the snake a wide berth as you pass.
You turn to your new buddy, who’s just behind you, and ask him how long the Navy has been
taking care of this lighthouse. He tells you that the lighthouse has been automated since the 1920s,
after the tragic death of the last lighthouse keeper and his family. He goes on to tell you
how the snakes crawled into the lighthouse through the windows and attacked the lighthouse keeper’s
5 year old child. They panicked and made a run for their boat, only to be attacked
and bitten by countless more snakes hiding in the trees along the way. They all died.
You saw that coming, but you weren’t expecting the bit about the trees. Looking ahead,
you can see that the wide open path is about to head into a section of dense forest with a canopy
of tree branches above your head. “Are there a lot of snakes in the trees?” you ask, nervously.
“Oh yes,” pipes up one of the scientists in front of you. “It’s part of what makes these snakes
so special. There are no other mammals on this island, which means that while the snakes have
no predators, there’s also no prey for them on the ground. Instead, they hunt the seabirds that rest
on the island’s trees. Most snakes strike and then sit back and wait for their victim to succumb to
their venom, but with so much competition - not to mention their prey’s wings - the Lanceheads
don’t have that luxury. So, they’ve evolved a super potent venom that will incapacitate their
prey immediately. The Lancehead’s venom is 5 times stronger than their Jaracara cousins,
and one bite can kill a person in less than an hour. The venom is so strong that it melts the
flesh around the wound, and quickly spreads throughout the body, causing kidney failure,
necrosis of the muscles, brain hemorrhaging, and intestinal bleeding. We do have antivenom with us,
but even with a quick dose, there’s still a high chance of death. So watch where you step.”
Great, just what you needed to hear before walking through the forest.
You keep your eyes peeled, your hands to yourself, and check 10 times before every
step and 100 times before you put your hands anywhere. You spot more snakes,
at least one every 5 minutes - and that’s just the ones that you see - but somehow, miraculously,
after a gruelling one and a half hours, the group makes it to the lighthouse unscathed.
You and your buddy climb to the very top of the lighthouse and
are treated to 360-degree views of the island. It’s breathtaking,
but you’re not convinced it’s worth the harrowing trip. After changing the lightbulb,
you head back down to the base of the tower and sit down to wait for your friend.
“Get up”, he says, coming down the ladder. “You’re
sitting on the batteries and we need to change them next.”
You scramble to your feet and turn to pick up a battery - and immediately freeze. There,
under the very battery your unprotected rear was just sitting on, is a tiny Lancehead
Viper. You feel like you just had a near-death experience, which, to be fair, you kind of did.
You’re so shaken by your experience at the lighthouse that you hardly have the
energy to be nervous on the walk back. That’s a bonus, because now you’re headed to an even
more remote part of the island to meet up with the scientists and make camp for the night.
As you arrive at the campsite, you experience another moment of sheer
terror - Marcelo Duarte, the lead biologist, is holding one of those deadly snakes in his
hands! As you’re mentally preparing for the worst, you realize that the snake
is trapped in some kind of tube and the scientists appear to be...measuring it?
“Don’t worry,” Marcelo says with a laugh. “I’ve come to this island more than 20 times
and I haven’t been bitten yet.” He goes on to explain what he’s doing - measuring the snake’s
length and weight, and inserting a tiny microchip under its skin to track their movement patterns.
But the most important work is the most deadly - collecting the snake’s lethal venom.
Marcelo is an expert in the pharmaceutical uses of venom,
which he believes has the potential help with heart disease, circulation issues and blood clots,
and more. Some venoms, he says, even show promise as anti-cancer drugs.
You’re surprised to learn about the uses of snake venom, but what you hear next is truly astounding.
Apparently the Golden Lancehead are considered critically endangered, and the entire island is
a protected area! You find that hard to believe, since the snakes are so numerous on the island
that you’re never more than 3 feet away from death - there are between 1 to 5 of these deadly snakes
in every square meter of the island. But the scientists explain that the snake population
has actually dropped by as much as 50% in recent years, from almost 4,000 snakes 15 years ago
down to less than 2,000 now, thanks to disease, deforestation by the Navy (oops…), and, believe
it or not, pirates. Illegal animal smugglers still raid the island and risk their lives to capture
the deadly snakes, which can fetch between 10 and 30 thousand dollars each on the black market.
After an exhausting day of being on constant high alert, you’re surprised to find your tent looking
rather inviting, even after the group finds at least 5 snakes hanging from the trees above you.
After carefully checking every nook and cranny of your tent, you zip yourself tightly inside
and pray that you’ll make it to dawn alive. By some miracle you do survive the night - and
even manage to catch some shut-eye - and the group wastes no time packing up and
heading back to the shore, watching for snakes every step of the way.
When you finally make it back to the safety of the boat, you drop to your knees and kiss the deck,
ignoring the chuckles of your fellow sailors and seasoned scientists. You can hardly believe that
you spent the night on Snake Island, the deadliest place on earth, and lived to tell the tale. As the
ship heads back to the mainland and you watch the island fade beyond the horizon, you know
that you’ve done something that only a handful of other people will ever get the chance to do, but
as exhilarating as the experience was, you’re in no rush to return to Snake Island any time soon.
Now that you know about Snake Island, if you’re brave enough - or stupid enough - to want to
visit, you could try bribing a local fisherman to approach the island...but we definitely don’t
recommend it. It’s not only incredibly dangerous, but also extremely illegal.
So unless you want to die a horrible death or rot away in a Brazilian prison,
how about seeing the snakes in captivity, instead? The Butantan Institute of Sao
Paulo’s serpentarium is home to 5 gorgeous specimens, nestled safely behind a thick wall
of glass. No need to go anywhere near Snake Island, the most dangerous place on earth.
If you liked this video, you’ll definitely want to check out our other videos,
like “Most Dangerous Places in the World”. Or, you might like this other video, instead.