Snakes are invading Ireland.
The reptiles are returning to the land where, according to legend, St. Patrick banished them 16 centuries ago.
During the era known as the Celtic Tiger from 1995 to 2008, Ireland saw rapid economic development, and many people bought exotic pets, including snakes. But with the onset of the global financial crisis in 2008, these exotic pet owners abandoned their snakes.
Oddly enough, some of the snakes are thriving in the Irish environment. A huge 15-foot python was found in an empty Dublin store, and many others have been found mostly near Dublin.
"The recession is the thing that's absolutely causing this," Kevin Cunningham told the New York Times. "It was about status. During the boom, people treated these animals as conversation starters."
Cunningham is the founder of the National Exotic Animal Sanctuary near Ballivor, Ireland, where he has converted a single-room schoolhouse into a reptile sanctuary.
Scientists believe that snakes haven't been native to Ireland since much earlier than when St. Patrick banished them in the fifth century. When the glaciers that covered the northern hemisphere melted after the ice age, Ireland was already separated from Britain and the rest of Europe by open seas. Adding to the physical isolation is the island's climate, far too chilly and damp for reptiles to live comfortably.
But Ireland's lax regulations on exotic pets are suitable for snakes, and their place as status symbols have made them popular in the country. No one knows how many snakes there are in Ireland now, because the government doesn't require the reptiles to be registered.
"If you buy a dog, you need a license, but if you buy a snake, you don't," Brendan Ryan, director of the Irish Pest Control Association, told the Times. "You have to ask yourself why it's permissible to have these animals in the country."
So far, few of the snakes found in Ireland have been venomous, so the released pets pose little risk to humans.
