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Why Are There No Snakes In Ireland

Legend tells us of St Patrick using the power of faith to drive all of Iteland's snakes into the sea. It's an impressive image, but there is no way it could have happened.


There never were any snakes in Ireland, partly for the same reason that there are no snakes in Hawaii, Iceland, New Zealand, Greenland, or Antarctica: the Emerald Isle is, well, an island. Years ago Ireland was connected to a larger landmass, but that time was an ice age that kept the land far too chilly for cold-blooded reptiles. As the ice age ended around 10 000 years ago, glaciers melted, pouring even more cold water into the now-impassable expanse between Ireland and its neighbours.

Other animals, like wild boars, Lynx, and brown bears, managed to make it across-as did a single reptile, the common lizard, snakes however, missed their chance.

The country's serpent-free reputation has, somewhat perversely, turned snake ownership into a status symbol.

There have been numerous reports of large pet snakes escaping or being released. As of yet, no species has
managed to take hold in the wild - a small miracle in itself.



By Kate Horowitz-MentalFloss March 17,2017

Britain, which enjoyed a land bridge to mainland Europe until roughly 6,500 years ago, was colonised by three species of snake: the venomous adder, the grass snake, and the smooth snake.

Adders still have a localised distribution throughout England, Wales and Scotland on heathland habitats. There are any number of reports of people and pets being bitten by adders over the past five years in West Yorkshire for example, in locations like Halifax, Huddersfield and Wakefield.

But back to Ireland whose land link to Britain was cut some 2,000 years earlier courtesy of seas swollen by the melting glaciers.Creatures that reached Ireland before rising seas created an impassable barrier included brown bears, wild boars, and lynxes, but no snakes which are characteristically cold blooded but intensely climate sensitive,therefore very slow to colonise new territories.

Anybody in Ireland desperate for serpents to exile would probably have to settle for the slow worm, a non-native species of legless lizard [I love that description, 'roll out the barrels!'] that is often mistaken for a small snake.

The first recorded slow worm sightings occurred in the early 1970s, the species is thought to have been deliberately introduced into western Irish counties in the 1960s, according to Ireland's National Parks and Wildlife Service. Nevertheless, sightings remain rare, although one or two have been spotted hanging about the bogs of Clare in recent times.