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Golden lancehead — printable fact sheet
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Golden lancehead
Bothrops insularis
Bothrops insularis exists on one place on Earth: Ilha da Queimada Grande, a 43-hectare rock about 30 km off Sao Paulo, Brazil, where rising seas cut the island off from the mainland roughly 11,000 years ago. Marooned with no rodents to eat, the snake reorganised itself around mi…
Did you know?
- Ilha da Queimada Grande, the only home of the Golden lancehead, is often called 'Snake Island' and is closed to the public due to the snake's deadly venom.
- Golden lanceheads eat birds almost exclusively as adults but take centipedes and lizards as juveniles, a diet switch that tracks their changing body size. Because there are no mammals to feed on, the venom evolved to be more haemorrhagic and faster-acting rather than more painful. Brazilian law bars visitors from the island, and the abandoned lighthouse there is now automated, ending the era of resident keepers whose deaths fed the island's legend.
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