Nick Garcia Tellez, age 10, of Gallup, N.M., for his question:
WHY ARE THERE NO SNAKES IN IRELAND?
No doubt you have heard the age old story that the Irish hero, St. Patrick, banished all snakes from the Emerald Isle. This is indeed a noble tale, but scientists do not accept it. However, their explanation is far more fascinating than the grand old legend of St. Patrick.
It is true that there are no snakes in Ireland. What's more, no fossil remains of ancient snakes have been found there, which means that no snakes were present when St. Patrick arrived on the scene. Scientists blame this snakeless situation on the ice ages that crept over Europe during the past million years or so.
Before this Pleistocene Period of geological history, it seems that both Ireland and England were joined by dry land to the continent of Europe. Then this region was buried alive under massive glaciers. The plants were frozen and crushed; the birds took flight, and the four footed beasties ran as far south as they could. But snakes and other helpless creatures must have been trapped and crushed by the cruel ice.
Meantime, the enormous glaciers froze a lot of water that rightfully belonged in the oceans. The seas sank perhaps 200 or 300 feet below their present level. Finally, the global climate grew warmer and the last of the great glaciers began to melt. As they departed, many animals returned home from the south.
However, all that melting ice was pouring into the oceans and the sea level began to rise. The rising waters flooded in to separate England and Ireland from the continent of Europe. Already a few snakes had crawled back to England. But they never had a chance to cross the water and travel to the Emerald Isle. Actually, the snakes were banned from Ireland by rising waters from melting glaciers.
This explanation is logical, and there is plenty of evidence to back it up. However, some people claim that when snakes are taken to Ireland they cannot survive in the wild. Even the scientists are not positive why this is so which still leaves us with a small mystery.
Snakes cannot abide the cold, which is why none survives in polar regions. However, there are no native snakes in Bermuda, Hawaii or New Zealand, where the weather is nice and warm. Like Ireland, these islands are surrounded by stretches of salty sea water, which land snakes cannot cross.