It’s been mentioned that the missionary raised dozens of individuals from the useless, for instance, and even banished all of Eire’s snakes into the ocean following a 40-day quick. Sadly, and maybe unsurprisingly, the science doesn’t fairly again up this latter declare.

Whereas it’s true that the Irish don’t have any snakes to cope with, St. Patrick can’t take the credit score. Actually, nobody can — as a result of there’s no proof within the fossil report that the slithering serpents ever lived there in any respect.

Why Are There No Snakes in Eire?

Loads of islands have them, after all. Ilha da Queimada Grande, or “Snake Island,” situated some 90 miles off the São Paulo coast, has as many as one snake per sq. meter. So why did they by no means make it to the Emerald Isle?

Researchers level to the newest ice age.

Blame the Ice Age

Throughout this final glacial interval, spanning between about 120,000 and 10,000 years in the past, each Eire and the island of Nice Britain have been far too chilly for snakes and different reptiles. After the ice retreated, two land bridges have been revealed: one connecting Eire to Britain, and the opposite connecting Britain to the remainder of Europe.

Round this time, various new species, together with three completely different snake species, colonized Britain. However as melting glaciers brought on sea ranges to rise additional, the land hyperlink to Eire grew to become impassable — some 2,000 years earlier than surrounding seas lower off the bridge to Britain.

The prevailing principle is that snakes merely didn’t have sufficient time to make the final stint of the journey to the Emerald Isle. To at the present time, the island has solely a single native terrestrial reptile: the frequent or viviparous lizard, which will need to have arrived someday prior to now 10,000 years, following the tip of the ice age.

The place Else Are There No Snakes?

You is perhaps shocked to be taught Eire is in good firm. The key islands of New Zealand, Iceland, Greenland, Hawaii and Antarctica are all serpent-free as effectively — and subsequently nice trip locations for these of us with ophidiophobia.

Threat of Invasion

Many of those governments ban the import and possession of snakes to make sure they keep that manner (even pet lizards and turtles are unlawful in Iceland). In spite of everything, invasive snakes have been identified to wreak havoc on island ecosystems; look no additional than Guam, the place the invasive brown tree snake is notorious for killing native lizards and birds.

However reptile fanatics can rejoice as a result of no such legal guidelines exist in Eire. 

Actually, pet snakes have been thought-about a standing image there as just lately because the early 2000s. They’re additionally present in zoos, together with the Nationwide Reptile Zoo in Kilkenny Metropolis, the nation’s solely reptile zoo.

It’s because there’s little concern that deserted or runaway snakes will grow to be invasive there. As a result of the creatures are cold-blooded and unable to maintain themselves heat, they depend on warmth from the solar — one thing that’s too uncommon to maintain a wholesome snake inhabitants within the Emerald Isle.

In different phrases, there’s no want for a modern-day, snake-slaying St. Patrick … for now, at the least.

Learn Extra: 10 of the World’s Deadliest Snakes