This is Snake Island,
one of the most
deadly places in the world.
It has snakes on your left
and snakes on your right,
giant cockroaches coming from behind
and nothing but open
ocean in front of you.
Welcome to your home for the next week.
33 km (20 mi) off
the coast of Brazil,
is a place so dangerous
it's forbidden to visitors.
lha da Queimada Grande offers
430,000 m2 (106 acres)
of tropical paradise.
There's just one catch.
There's at least one snake
per m2 (1.2 sq yard).
And a whopping 4,000 of them
are golden lancehead pit vipers,
one of the deadliest
species of snake in the world.
“Ha ha ha, son of a CENSORED.”
Scared yet?
Well look alive
because you'll be here on Snake Island
for seven days.
It's Monday and you're feeling confident.
Things are looking good
until you realize
that simply getting onto
the island will be a problem.
Rocks surround Snake Island.
So on top of being dangerous
to swim around,
there's a serious chance
of trashing your boat.
In late February 2019,
a small fishing boat was
caught in a storm
and began sinking
in the worst place possible,
Snake Island.
Four of the six men
decided to swim to shore.
The other two chose to stay on the boat.
Yeah. They decided to drown
over swimming to Snake Island.
The four castaways
managed to survive on the island
for three days.
They drank rainwater
and ate bananas
they found on the forest's edge.
The key word is edge.
One rule
kept them alive for those three days.
Nobody goes into the woods.
Luckily for the survivors,
they spotted a boat near the island
and quickly hitched a ride.
As for you, you've got six more days.
It's Tuesday.
You stayed clear of the forest
and haven't seen any lethal vipers yet.
But they're not the only threat
on Snake Island.
You've got to worry
about other non-venomous snakes,
locusts
and giant cockroaches
that cover the island.
Even on the beach,
you should regularly check
for these critters
and try to avoid them the best you can.
But come Wednesday night,
you're getting hungry.
Like, really hungry.
The cockroaches
could save you from starving
if you have a strong enough stomach.
Don't worry.
They're safe to eat.
A good source of protein
and provide essential amino acids.
Look, you've already chosen
to spend a week here.
A cockroach dinner
is not the worst decision
you've ever made.
Wednesday morning and it's
time to deal with those vipers.
You're going into the forest.
First, try to find a stick.
It will help you fight the snakes off
and prevent them from biting you.
But if one does get past you,
get ready for a world of hurt.
Since the golden lancehead
pit vipers on the island
evolved away from the mainland,
they developed a venom
up to five times stronger
than a regular lancehead viper’s.
By Thursday,
the snakes are getting more aggressive.
Their potent venom causes
severe physical complications.
You can look forward to kidney failure,
brain hemorrhaging
and intestinal bleeding.
Also, if you're starting to feel like
your skin is melting, that's the venom
killing your muscle tissue.
You might need some help with this one.
On Friday, you remember something.
The only people allowed to visit
Snake Island are biologists,
researchers
and the Brazilian navy.
And that's only
if they have a government-required
doctor with them.
No doctor, no snakes.
If a golden lancehead bites you,
you have a 7% chance of dying.
Being treated by a doctor
can reduce those chances to 3%.
You, uh, you brought a doctor, right?
You have to make it through the weekend.
You've eaten cockroaches
and fought off snakes
without a doctor to save you.
What else can this island throw at you?
Well, pirates, apparently.
Wildlife smugglers,
also known as biopirates,
have frequently stopped on the island
to trap and sell the snakes.
On illegal markets,
a single golden lancehead
pit viper is worth up to $30,000.
Since this is the only place they exist,
the golden lanceheads are listed
as endangered
on the International Union
for Conservation of Nature's Red List.
To survive your last hours on the island,
just simply avoid the pirates
and stay out of their way.
Your week on Snake Island
is finally over,
but you're not out of the snake
infested woods yet,
and an anaconda has its eyes on you.
This is going to sound crazy,
but you need to put your hand
inside the snakes mouth.
Want to know why?
Find out here on How to Survive.