Why are there no snakes in Ireland, and is it possible to bring them there

Snakes live on all continents except cold Antarctica, where harsh climatic conditions would not allow them to survive. However, these reptiles are not found on many islands, such as Greenland, Hawaii, New Zealand or Ireland. The secret of the latter we will reveal today. Despite the fact that the neighboring island, Great Britain, is full of snakes of various species, in Ireland you will not meet a single representative of these creatures - they simply do not exist here and did not exist in principle. And this despite the fact that the islands are nearby, have a similar climate, flora and fauna.

The answer to the question of why there are no snakes in Ireland lies in the geological past of our planet. If you look at the ice ages, it turns out that this island separated from the mainland during the early melting of the ice massifs. Although it was still connected to the mainland by glaciers, it was too cold for cold-blooded snakes. Britain, in turn, remained connected with the mainland for about two thousand years. During this time, the local climate became milder, so that the snakes managed to move to the British island from the mainland. But they already had no opportunity to move from here to Ireland - the islands were divided by sea waters.

For someone’s sake of curiosity, another logical question may arise: if Ireland now has a climate quite favorable for the life of snakes, can they be brought there? However, the answer will be no. The island has its own well-established ecosystem, and releasing new species into it can be extremely dangerous. This is fraught with a serious imbalance of the local food chains and even the destruction of entire species of other creatures.