Animals and plants of New Zealand - the unique nature of the country. The real reason there are no snakes in ireland are there snakes in new zealand

New Zealand is considered one of the most beautiful and safest countries on earth. There are a large number of green hills, beautiful fields that have no edge, clean rivers and clear lakes, clean air, excellent ecology.

On the territory of this country, snakes are not found both in nature and in entertainment, as well as in scientific centers. In this state, such reptiles are prohibited by law. It is forbidden to keep them, breed them for any purpose. And if you find a snake somewhere and do not inform the authorities, you face a fine.

The Ministry of Industry provided the authorities with data according to which there are no snakes in the country at all. We are talking specifically about terrestrial species, while there are still marine species in the waters of this state. These reptiles do not appear on land and are extremely rare near the New Zealand coast. Their bites are poisonous, but these animals are very small in size and when bitten by their poison will not be able to penetrate human skin, so they are not at all dangerous to humans.

Perhaps in New Zealand, snakes are banned by the authorities because they would definitely destroy the main state symbol - a wingless bird called "kiwi". This would eventually lead to the complete extinction of the species, because these birds live only here and you will not meet them anywhere else. By the way, the word kiwi is also called the inhabitants of the country, which for them is not offensive at all.

It is precisely because there are no snakes, large predators, mosquitoes and dangerous spiders here that this state is considered the most favorable and safe for tourists.

What is the reason for the absence of snakes in New Zealand?

Previously, it was assumed that these reptiles did not exist in this state at all. But in the 2000s, researchers and archaeologists discovered the remains of snakes. Thanks to this discovery, it was proved that 20-23 million years ago these reptiles still lived here, but for some reason they still died out.

One of the reasons for the complete extinction of snakes is the ice age in the country. It is believed that land snakes died out due to a severe cold snap at this time and did not start up again due to the fact that the islands are geographically isolated from each other.

However, they could well appear, for example, from Australia, where a large number of them are found. But thanks to the tough attitude of New Zealand policy towards these reptiles, they have little chance of resuming their habitat here.

Snakes are found on all continents of the Earth except Antarctica, so their complete absence on the island of Ireland seems strange. What is the reason for ignoring the reptiles of this region?

First, Ireland is an island separated from Great Britain by a strait 80 kilometers wide. Such a distance for snakes living on land cannot be overcome. But why then do snakes live in Great Britain, which is also an island and is separated from the mainland by a fairly wide English Channel?

The reason for such a strange resettlement of snakes should be sought in the geological history of our planet. Throughout its existence, the Earth goes through ice ages - repeated stages lasting several million years, when, due to a sharp cooling of the climate, a significant increase in ice sheets occurs. The last ice age (an integral part of the ice age) began on the planet about 110,000 years ago and ended about 10,000 years ago. Most of northern Europe, bound by permafrost, was finally freed from the ice that covered the British Isles.

Primitive tribes and animals began to migrate to the islands. But not all creatures could penetrate deep into the islands, where the cold climate continued to persist. Among them were snakes, which at first settled only in the south of Great Britain. The remaining glaciers continued to melt, gradually flooding the land road between Ireland and the UK. Thus was formed the North Strait between the two islands. Great Britain, however, remained connected with the mainland for another 2,000 years, until it became cut off from it by the strait that we call the English Channel.

Recommended

It turns out that the snakes simply did not have enough time to populate Ireland, which at that time was still too cold for them for most reptiles. The snakes still managed to populate Great Britain, gradually moving deeper into the island along with climate warming.

For those who are not satisfied with the scientific explanation for the absence of snakes in Ireland, there is a beautiful legend. It tells that the island was saved from snakes by the Christian discoverer Saint Patrick, who gathered all the reptiles on Mount Crow and ordered them to jump into the water. Only one old kite disobeyed and remained on the mountain. Then Patrick had to resort to cunning and argue with the snake that he would not be able to fit into a nearby wooden chest. The snake, wanting to prove Patrick wrong, climbed into the box, which the man immediately closed and threw into the sea. So Saint Patrick rid Ireland of snakes.

Be that as it may, in fact, the absence of snakes is typical not only for Ireland, but also for such large islands as New Zealand, Hawaii, Iceland and Greenland. But this is not always beneficial for the territory. A snake accidentally released into the wild (such as a snake that escaped from a zoo or pet store) can become an invasive species and cause irreparable damage to the environment by wiping out native species. Such a picture is observed on the island of Guam, where snakes were absent until recently. But the brown boiga accidentally introduced into the ecosystem, able to climb trees perfectly, multiplied and became a real disaster for local birds, almost completely exterminating the population of birds.

If you hate snakes and want to avoid them at all costs, you should definitely go to New Zealand. After all, snakes are simply prohibited there (so much so that even their very existence is illegal).

This means not only that you will never find a snake in the New Zealand wild (even if you do, it will soon be mercilessly destroyed). It is also not allowed to have snakes as pets there. They are not allowed to be kept in zoos, research facilities or anywhere else. In this case, the owner of the snake will not get off with a small fine - just ask Nathan Bush about it.

Bush bought a pet snake in 2011. When she was discovered, he was brought to trial and sentenced to four months in prison. That's how serious New Zealand is about snakes. In essence, if a New Zealander simply finds out about the existence of a snake in his country, he is required by law to report it to the authorities in order to help keep the country completely free of these reptiles.

Snakes are completely absent, at least on land in New Zealand. Fighting their sea brethren, as you know, is a little more difficult. Land snake species are not allowed in the country for the reason that none of them are native to the New Zealand islands.

New Zealand is famous for many things, including as the “land of the hobbits” (it was in this country that the filming of the film “The Lord of the Rings” took place). And, as it turns out, there you can meet a hissing Gollum rather than a real snake. This is simply amazing, given the proximity to southern Australia - home to some of the most dangerous snakes in the world.

New Zealand is one of the few territories in the world where there are no snakes at all. In addition to her, these are Greenland, Antarctica and partially the Hawaiian Islands. So, if you are afraid of crawling reptiles, now you know where you should go on vacation!

Almost everyone fears or dislikes snakes. There are three types of people: 1% love snakes (pick up, play with, wind up at home), 94% would like to stay away from them. And there are 5% who are afraid of snakes more than anything. Everyone has such a friend: nod at any string - oh, snake! And that's it, he is already squealing and running away in horror. It's easier to die like that than to stay in a room with snakes. But how much do we know about snakes? Most people know next to nothing - let's fix that.

In fact, snakes kill people all the time.

Do you think it is very rare and exotic - death from a snakebite? It depends where you live. If you live in India, the bad news is that more than 80,000 people are bitten by vipers and cobras every year, and 10,000 of them die. This is the most dangerous region in terms of snake activity and aggressiveness. It is clear that somewhere in Vermont the chances of meeting a snake are much less, but we beg you - watch your steps, wherever you are.

Is there a place on earth without snakes?

The general rule is: the colder, the fewer snakes. Almost safe in the Arctic Circle and in Antarctica, but you won’t run into it on vacation. Few snakes in Iceland, Ireland and New Zealand. Some countries are full of snakes, but generally most are not venomous. It is important for you to know that the snakes themselves do not want to meet you at all, they avoid people with all their might. In fact, there is another great way to avoid snakes: stay at home.

Vessey's Snake, Maine's Pet

One of the places where there are no poisonous snakes is the US state of Maine. But they have a snake known as Wessie (consonant with Nessie, the Loch Ness monster). They say she is as long as a huge truck and her head is the size of a soccer ball. Of course, fear has big eyes. The press reported: "A snake was seen in a park area feasting on a large mammal - probably a beaver." What a great place, right in the park, next to the playgrounds, truck sized snakes eat beavers! This is where you need to go on vacation - adventures are guaranteed.

Don't mess with the black mamba

If you've seen Tarantino's Kill Bill, you probably remember the black mamba as the most dangerous snake. Most herpentologist experts agree: the black mamba is the most dangerous snake in the world. Why is the mamba the symbol of horror? What's so scary about her? In addition to strong poison, the black mamba is damn fast and fast, reaching speeds of over 11 km / h over short distances. But that's not the point. Her open mouth is black on the inside, and to many she looks like a coffin, which is instantly terrifying. Mamba lives in Africa, so walk there with double caution.

The serpent's eye is devoid of eyelids?

The unblinking gaze of a cold-blooded killer... fear has big eyes, which people can't imagine! So why don't snakes blink? It turns out that it’s not at all because they don’t have eyelids. Snakes have eyelids, they just can't be seen - they are transparent and fused. The thin skin that protects the eyes, when shedding, comes off with the skin of the snake in one "stocking". So the snake's hypnotic gaze is pure myth.

Lebanese commandos are so tough they eat live snakes

During the annual ceremony, Lebanese special forces tear live snakes with their teeth. Senseless cruelty is intended to confirm their readiness to defeat the enemy with their bare hands. Yeah, that's probably true: if you can rip and eat a live snake, then you can probably do a whole bunch of super tough stuff on the battlefield. There's no time for jokes, poor snakes.

Voldemort did not accidentally call Nagini that

Nagini - a huge poisonous one, owned by Lord Voldemort. In Sanskrit and North Indian languages, naga means "king cobra" and naginii is feminine, the female cobra. In "Harry Potter" - a clear reference to the character of Kipling's fairy tale "Riki-tiki-tavi", where the king cobra was called Nagana (actually, that cobra was called "Nagimi", because Kipling has almost all the names of animals - just their names in Hindi) . In the Russian translation, the transliteration "Nagini" has taken root, it was she who entered the "Riki-Tiki-Tavi" and "Harry Potter".

What do rattlesnakes rattle?

Something, a rattle, of course! And not just like that, the rattlesnake, as it were, says: I'm here, don't step on, stay away from me! When a rattlesnake is excited, its tail vibrates and rattles the rings at the end of its tail hitting each other. The result is a harsh buzzing sound. It can be heard at a distance of 20 meters and bypass the snake side.

Fabulous boomslangs exist

The boomslang snake, the skin of which someone always tried to steal from Snape's laboratory in Harry Potter, actually exists (boomslang skin is an important ingredient in witchcraft potions, for example, it is part of the Polyjuice Potion). Its name comes from the African boomslang and means "tree snake". The green eyes of the boomeslang see perfectly, and the snakes almost always manage to avoid meeting with a person. But if they are caught, they sting. There are even a few deaths reported as a result of a boomslang bite.

Titanoboas were the largest snakes on Earth

Those with a fear of snakes probably don't need to imagine what titanoboa mastodons looked like (although they'd better not read this post at all). Titanoboa snakes have long since died out, they lived on Earth about 58 million years ago. They were huge: the length reached 15 meters, the girth of the body was about a meter, and the weight was more than a ton. Unfortunately, we are not destined to meet such beauty in reality, but there are models of giants in several museums.

Snake with a coin

The Barbados narrow-mouthed snake or "Karl's snake" is the smallest in the world. An adult baby snake is no longer than 10 centimeters. They live only on the island of Barbados in the Caribbean. Completely harmless, they don't even have teeth. Apparently, therefore, the snake is on the verge of extinction (or because the forests where they lived were cut down). And it was named by the American biologist Hedge in honor of his wife, herpentologist Carla Ann Hass, whose character history is silent.

Taipans are the most poisonous

Australian inland taipan, also called the "fierce snake". If you want to look at the taipans, they live in the central part of Australia. It is the most venomous of the land snakes, with enough venom in one bite to kill a hundred people. So, it’s probably better not to meet with them, they are very fast: at the sight of danger, they raise their heads and sting with lightning speed several times in a row. Before the invention of the antidote-antidote in 1955, 90% of their victims died from the bite of taipans.

The heart of a snake is movable inside its body.

The snake's heart is not fixed: due to the lack of a diaphragm, the snake's heart is mobile and able to move inside its torso, dodging damage when something large goes down the esophagus. So if a snake eats someone really big, its heart will just roll to the side and then come back. The circulatory system of snakes has a unique system - the blood from the snake's tail passes through the kidneys before returning to the heart. Isn't it true how wisely nature arranged everything?

The unique arrangement of internal organs is not at all human

You didn’t know this for sure: unlike the paired organs of a person, located symmetrically, the internal organs of a snake are elongated, completely asymmetrical and single. Some of the snake organs used to have a pair, but in the process of evolution they lost their significance and became unpaired. Most snakes have only one lung, the second is usually rudimentary.

Deadly poisonous or slightly toxic - best not to experiment

The venom of a viper and a cobra is, of course, different from what a girlfriend can pour into your glass. Eaten poison and a poisonous snake bite somewhere in the neck are two different things, and in the second case, the action takes place many times faster. Toxic or deadly, never known for sure, individual response to poison can be unpredictable. We hope you never find out about this in real life. And remember that a snake cannot harm you if it is at a distance. Watch your step, stay away from snakes and take care of yourself!

Its uniqueness of the natural and animal world, rich in endemic plants and birds, is due to remoteness from other lands and long historical isolation for 60-80 million years.

2. About 1000 years ago, when there were no permanent residents on the islands, mammals did not live on the territory of New Zealand, except for two species of bats, as well as whales, sea lions and seals that lived in coastal waters.

3. The active formation of European settlements in the 19th century provoked the emergence of new animal species. During the settlement of New Zealand lands, dogs and rats appeared on the islands, and later Europeans brought goats, cows, pigs, cats and mice to New Zealand.

4. This has become a real test for the fauna of the islands. Rabbits, rats, ermines, ferrets and cats, which were brought for hunting, reached large sizes, because they had no natural enemies.

5. At present, New Zealand's conservation authorities closely monitor the fauna of New Zealand, and some areas have been completely rid of animals that pose a threat to the fauna and flora of the country.

New Zealand takahe bird

6. New Zealand has two types of endemic mammals that are descended from rare varieties of bats. Animals of New Zealand, which can be called the most prominent representatives of the fauna of this country: the kiwi bird, the world's largest owl parrot kakapo, one of the oldest reptiles - tuatara, the only mountain parrot kea, hatteria, European hedgehog.

7. Animals of New Zealand are also freshwater fish species, of which there are twenty-nine species. Eight of them are now on the verge of extinction.

8. Also, more than 40 species of ants live in this country.

9. For a long period of time it was believed that snakes did not live in New Zealand. But in the 2000s, a group of researchers from Australia and New Zealand discovered the remains of these reptiles. This discovery was proof that about 15-20 million years ago snakes still lived in New Zealand.

10. For what reason these animals became extinct is not known to this day. A number of scientists suggest that this happened due to the ice age. The snakes simply could not stand the cold, and since New Zealand is located at a fairly remote distance from civilization, new species of reptiles could not be brought here in time.

Kiwi bird

11. The symbol of New Zealand - kiwi - is positioned as a bird, although it cannot even fly, it lacks full-fledged wings.

12. Representatives of this kind of wingless do not have feathers, hair grows instead of them, they also have very powerful paws with which these creatures walk and run.

13. Kiwis are nocturnal animals. They developed the ability to hide in forests or bushes and to be nocturnal, which reduced the likelihood of being eaten by other animals. The main enemies of kiwi are birds - eagles and falcons.

14. They are very aggressive. By the way, kiwis do not defend themselves with their beaks, like birds, but use their sharp claws.

15. There are five types of kiwi.

Owl Parrot Kakapo

16. Kakapo is a single representative of the subfamily of owl parrots.

17. He has a very strongly developed facial plumage, so he has a resemblance to owls.

18. The feathers of a parrot are green with black stripes on the back. Kakapo has excellent wings, but due to the fact that the keel of the sternum is practically undeveloped, and the muscles are very weak, he cannot fly.

19. Previously, these endemics were widespread in New Zealand, but now they remain only in the southwestern part of the South Island. The parrot lives in forests and in areas with high humidity.

20. Kakapo is the only parrot that is predominantly nocturnal or twilight. In the daytime, it hides in burrows or crevices of rocks.

New Zealand tuatara

21. Tuatara is a unique animal of New Zealand, a descendant of dinosaurs.

22. It is protected at the legislative level, and the government is trying to prevent the extinction of the population, since there are only one hundred thousand reptiles left.

23. They have a lot of enemies, including themselves (male tuatars are considered cannibals, they can eat eggs and growing offspring). They are also attacked by birds and other predators.

24. In Tuatars, mortality exceeds the birth rate. It takes a long time to reproduce offspring.

25. These reptiles live up to about a hundred years. Tuatara's favorite food is insects.

Ermine

26. Ermine is a predatory animal, it has 34 sharp teeth and paws with tenacious claws. These animals are very agile and excellent at climbing trees. The stoat eats small rodents and birds.

27. The ermine was brought to New Zealand to control the rabbit population. But the animal successfully acclimatized and began to breed very intensively, which led to an increase in the population. So the ermine turned from an assistant into a pest that began to exterminate the chicks and eggs of local birds.

28. In New Zealand, they found the remains of flightless giant birds moi, exterminated more than five hundred years ago, whose height was three and a half meters.

Kangaroo New Zealand

29. There are also kangaroos here. These animals of New Zealand prefer to lead a nocturnal life and live in groups of several individuals. Many species of kangaroos are on the verge of extinction.

30. Animals in New Zealand that cannot survive on their own live in 14 national parks and hundreds of small reserves under the constant supervision of specialists. Almost all species of animals in this country are under state protection.

New Zealand giant skink

31. New Zealand lizards are skinks. There are three types of skinks: otago, suter and big skink.

32. They can often be seen on the rocks, where they bask in the sun. The number of large skinks alone, according to the Ministry of Nature Protection, is 2-3 thousand individuals.

33. Otago is a giant among endemic lizards and reaches 30 cm in length.

34. Skinks breed every year. The offspring is usually 3-6 cubs. Lizards feed on insects and fruits of plants.

35. Skinks have greenish-yellow skin with a striped pattern that provides excellent camouflage for rocky, lichen-covered environments.

New Zealand fur seal

36. New Zealand fur seal belongs to the species of eared seals. Their fur is greyish-brown in color. Males have a chic black mane.

37. These New Zealand animals live throughout the ocean, primarily on Macquarie Island. It is inhabited all year round by young males who are not yet able to reclaim their own territories.

38. At the end of the 19th century, large populations of fur seals were almost completely exterminated. Currently, animals are listed in the Red Book, there are approximately 35 thousand individuals.

39. Why won't snakes be brought to New Zealand today? Of course, if there was such a need, snakes could be brought here, at least from neighboring Australia, but the fact is that snakes are outlawed in New Zealand.

40. Breeding or keeping this reptile at home in New Zealand is strictly prohibited! Also, a fine will be imposed on those who accidentally saw a snake, but did not report it to the relevant authorities.

New Zealand sea lions

41. New Zealand sea lion has a brown-black color. Males have a mane that covers their shoulders, which makes them appear larger and more powerful. Females are much smaller than males, their coat is light gray.

42.95% of the fur seal population is found on Auckland Island. Each male defends its own territory from other males. In battles, the most enduring and strongest representative wins. There are approximately 10-15 thousand individuals of this species.

43. But still, in New Zealand there are snakes, only not terrestrial, but sea ones - the already visible sea krait and yellow-bellied bonito. These reptiles were kept alive only because they do not crawl out onto land and are practically not found off the coast of New Zealand.

44. So why are the authorities so reverent and categorical about the fact that snakes do not appear in New Zealand? And the answer is simple - the snakes would immediately destroy the main symbol of the country - the kiwi bird.

45. The most dangerous representative of the animal world of New Zealand is the feral boar.

New Zealand insect - ueta

46. ​​Ueta lives here. This huge insect, weighing more than a sparrow, resembles a huge cockroach.

47. But there are no mosquitoes in New Zealand.

48. The carnivorous snail Powelliphanta, listed in the Red Book, is also found in the country. She is able to devour worms that are not inferior to her in size.

49. Off the coast of New Zealand lives the smallest species of dolphins - Hector's Dolphin. An adult reaches 1.4 m in length, which is less than the average adult.

50. However, despite tight control, there is still a certain plus in the absence of snakes in New Zealand - the country is considered one of the safest countries in the world for nature travel.

photo from internet