Author(s): Shine Rick

Fauna & Biology

“My name is Rick, and I’m a snake-a-holic.” This book is a collection of amazing stories from one of the world’s leading herpetologists, Rick Shine, who has spent 50 years conducting research on snakes of many different kinds, in many different places around the world, from his home in Australia, through Asia and Europe, to North America and beyond. There’s something special about snakes; they are scarce and secretive and a bite may land you in the cemetery. Something unearthly and mysterious about a creature than can glide across the ground with no obvious means of propulsion. That never blinks its eyes. That can capture, kill and swallow prey items larger than itself. That can dispense death with a few drops of venom. That can slough away its tattered old skin to emerge resplendent and iridescent. A creature that appears magically in front of you when you least expect it, triggering a unique alarm pathway in your brain. The book offers an entertaining and thought-provoking journey through the remarkable diversity of snake lifestyles around the world. It is written from a personal perspective, although the main players are snakes, and with minor roles for a motley assortment of colleagues and students who accompanied the author on his travels. It is packed with first-hand accounts of the excitements of fieldwork in remote areas with dangerous animals and is intended to be accessible to anybody with an interest in the subject.