# Why are there no snakes now in Ireland? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 2, 2009, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-no-snakes-now-in-ireland/501741 "2009-07-02T20:58:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2009, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-no-snakes-now-in-ireland/501741/41 "2009-07-05T23:05:32Z")
My Staff Report [If St. Patrick didn’t chase the snakes out of Ireland, what did?](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2192/if-st-patrick-didnt-chase-the-snakes-out-of-ireland-what-did) has some additional information. To paraphrase the article: The British Isles have a very impoverished reptile and amphibian fauna in general. Only three species of snakes were able to reach Great Britain–the grass snake, smooth snake, and adder, it has only three lizard species, one frog, two toads, and three newts. Ireland does even worse, with no snakes, one lizard, one frog, one toad, and one newt, all of them species that also occur in Great Britain. And the frog may have been introduced by humans. ---
**Author:** ![Jerseyman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/bbce88/32.png) [@Jerseyman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jerseyman)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2009, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-no-snakes-now-in-ireland/501741/42 "2009-07-05T23:34:45Z")
Too blessed cold! The Scots and Irish are more realistic about their geography than the English. What is the only date everybody remembers? 1066. What is the nearest mainland country? France. What do we think of when we think of France? St. Tropez, Nice, Cannes (all in blistering Summer - it can get get brass monkeys in winter with nothing to stop _le Mistral_ after it’s howled out of Siberia and swung round the Alps). Except, Calais is Northern France, practically Belgium and Dover is Southern England and France is a big country by European standards. England really is on the latitudes of Holland (where they used to skate on frozen canals) Germany, Denmark and Poland - not to mention Toronto (so I won’t). ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2009, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-no-snakes-now-in-ireland/501741/43 "2009-07-05T23:57:27Z")
> [@Jerseyman](#): > > Are there any lizards on the British mainland apart from slowworms? Yes - from memory, I think we have a few different species of lizard here - including the viviparous lizard, which is actually quite common here in the south. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2009, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-no-snakes-now-in-ireland/501741/44 "2009-07-06T02:10:29Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Yes - from memory, I think we have a few different species of lizard here - including the viviparous lizard, which is actually quite common here in the south. As I mentioned above, there are three. They are the Common (or Viviparous) Lizard, the Sand Lizard, and the Slow Worm. ---
**Author:** ![A\_Dodgy\_Dude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a87d85/32.png) [@A\_Dodgy\_Dude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/A_Dodgy_Dude)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2009, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-no-snakes-now-in-ireland/501741/45 "2009-07-06T19:53:02Z")
> [@Jerseyman](#): > > What is the nearest mainland country? France. What do we think of when we think of France? Monkeys eating cheese and surrendering to anyone and everyone who wanders into their field of vision? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![hibernicus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hibernicus/32/2802_2.png) [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2009, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-no-snakes-now-in-ireland/501741/46 "2009-07-06T21:34:23Z")
> [@Jerseyman](#): > > England really is on the latitudes of Holland (where they used to skate on frozen canals) Germany, Denmark and Poland - not to mention Toronto (so I won’t). Why would you mention Toronto? It’s on the same latitude as Florence. Ireland has lizards too, by the way. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-no-snakes-now-in-ireland/501741/47 "2009-07-07T03:22:29Z")
Makes you wonder what’s wrong with a country when even snakes won’t live in it 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Dublin11](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Dublin11](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dublin11)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-no-snakes-now-in-ireland/501741/48 "2009-07-07T05:55:28Z")
There are no moles in Ireland either. Maybe they became extinct because there were no snakes for them to eat. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2009, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-no-snakes-now-in-ireland/501741/49 "2009-07-07T15:19:43Z")
> [@tagos](#): > > Do you never feel the urge to actually, well you know, inform yourself about a topic before mouthing off? It was just a lame attempt at a joke, funny only to me after consuming several adult beverages. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-there-no-snakes-now-in-ireland/501741.md?page=2)