“Every link in the evolutionary chain is still present,” she says. Each of the dozens of islands and islets that make up the Pityusic islands has a different population and, on many of them, the lizards’ colouration is unique and exclusive to that island. It’s not just that they’re eating the lizards it’s that they’re pushing them out of their habitat.”Ĭirer says the lizards are an important species, whose biological value is on a par with that of the finches Charles Darwin found on the Galápagos islands. “It would be a very quick extinction for the lizards. “If they’ve managed to colonise half the island in 20 years, then the snakes are likely to spread around the rest of the island in less than 20 more years,” says Cirer. The snakes have adapted quickly to their new environment and its menu – lizards make up 56% of their diet and are now threatened by the newcomers’ voracious appetite. Photograph: Patricia Escriche/The Guardianīeautiful as the non-native trees are, they have served as Trojan horses for the ophidian onslaught, their cracks and hollows perfect compartments for laying eggs and hibernating. They now threaten the island’s native species. In fact doing just basic research on the Tiger snakes shows they have been separated on various islands long enough to create very genetically distinct populations such as the Chappell Island Tiger Snake, the King Island Tiger Snake and the populations of the Peninsula Tiger Snake such as those on Roxby Island are much smaller than other populations.Horseshoe whipsnakes came to Ibiza in olive trees imported from the Spanish mainland. ![]() It is also very possible that the snakes simply were transported by water or swam to these islands, but in my opinion this would be much more likely thousands and thousands of years ago than in the last 150 years simply due to the fact that populations of Tiger snakes are found on most if not all of the coastal islands that are adjacent to their mainland counterpart population. It is very possible much of the snake migration to islands took place either during the last Glacial Maximum when sea levels were 130-150 meters lower than today creating land bridges to Tasmania and many other coastal islands or during a much earlier time during the Quaternary glaciation in which land bridges were present. I am by no means a Biologist but I am a Geologist and have a pretty good knowledge of what we understand to be the Earths History. It is very possible that the population of snakes was lower during those periods of human inhabitation or the snakes were simply not mentioned because it wasn't seen as out of the ordinary and the whaler's and prison administrators were not interested enough in the snakes to think it was notable and even if they did their notes or verbal references would very likely be lost to time. To me, the most likely answer is that the snakes have been there for thousands of years, from what I have read the island was a whaling station and a penal colony. So the mystery remains how did the snakes manage to get to Carnac Island? It's possible they swam the 3.5KM from Garden Island however this is still a huge distance through open ocean Tiger snakes are good swimmers and when swimming in creeks and dams you always need to keep an eye out for them. However this doesn't make sense as there were once people living on the island and there was no mention of large numbers of snakes in historical records. The second theory is that it wasn't always an island and that the rising sea levels marooned the snakes there. Unless he was trying to punish the snakes. Tiger Snakes are native so could be released anywhere. Seems a bit of a weird place to let them go. There's an urban legend that a snake handler named Lindsay Rocky Vane released 40 snakes on the island in the 1900's after his wife and friend were both bitten and died. They don't naturally live on islands in the middle of the ocean and there's a few theories on how the snakes got there. Now for the mystery, how did the snakes manage to get to this tiny island in the middle of the ocean. The snakes have no predators on the island and lots of food so they continue to breed and grow in numbers. Not that you'd want to anyway, Carnac island is home to over 400 Tiger snakes one of the most deadly snakes in the world. ![]() Beautiful place you can see a pictures of it at this link.Īs it's a class A nature reserve it's illegal to walk on the island. The island is about 10km from the mainland and the next closest island is 3.5km.Ĭarnac island is a launch pad for male sea lions travelling up to the coast to breeding grounds in Jurien Bay. Here's an interesting non-murder mystery.Ĭarnac island is a small island off the coast of Perth, Western Australia.
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