Customer Reviews

A Field Guide to Texas Snakes (Texas Monthly Field Guide Series)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am not a "herpetologist" - - I don't like snakes, but I am trying to tolerate the beneficial types. It was about dusk a few weeks ago when I stepped inside my storage shed to close the door. My first reaction was, "I don't remember leaving a hose on the floor." I flipped on the light and about two feet from me was the meanest biggest snake I ever saw (actually, it was only about 42" long). Was it deadly? - - I guess so 'cause it nearly gave me a heart attack! After that experience, I knew I needed a fairly complete book on Texas' snakes in my library, so I purchased the above book. It has over sixty pages of full color pictures (that's over 120 snakes) with a commentary on each one as to its type, size, general location, habits, food preference, etc. I took a picture of the snake in my barn - - and when the book arrived, there it was in living color - - "Texas Rat Snake." Harmless....and beneficial. The key to a great book on snakes for the common layman, in my opinion, is clear, colorful pictures. I remember checking the public library for such a book as this 10-15 years ago, and couldn't find one. So, I reinterate, for everyday identification of Texas' snakes, you'd be hard pressed to beat this book!

A great book. A fantastic book. It's slightly larger than what one might expect for a field guide, but the difference is put to good use. Not only are the excellent photographs printed at such high resolution that you expect to see these scaled beauties slithering off the pages, but the accompanying text is so easy to read that you might find it to be a page-turner that ranks with some pretty good novels. This book is crammed with really useful or, at the very least, interesting info -- like the relative potencies of venoms from different snakes. (You might be surprised...) A detailed discussion of the mechanisms associated with different snake venoms and what might be done to counter them is really fascinating. The text for each species is accompanied by a distribution map; that text includes information on whether the snake in question is venomous, its behavior, reproduction, abundance, size, etc. I can't say enough good stuff about this book. If you live in a state adjacent to Texas and Mr. Tennant hasn't written a book about your snake population, it would well be worth getting this one. He also wrote the "Field Guide to Snakes of Florida," so you guys in Florida are lucky, too! This book made me want to head out at night to the local megapuddles that form near my house south of Houston to see what might be after those little frogs that seem to appear out of nowhere in the spring. Now, that might seem to be a little strange, but if you've read this book, you probably know what I mean.
Come to think of it, I'd like to give this one 7 stars...

This field guide on snakes is excellent. The pictures of each snake are clear and you can identify them easily when you see them in the wild (or in you're house). The organization of this book splits up into two sections venomous and nonvenomous which allows a very quick way to tell if you should be anywhere near the snake. The infromation on each type is plentiful and everything you need to know is included. There are maps of where to find each type and whether they are endangered or protected in the state of Texas. A system is given in the beginning of the book for how to easily determine a snake and also what to do if you happen to be bit by a venomous type. The only thing I would like to see in the next revision is the striking distance of each snake which isn't given in this book.

Very thorough research, orderly referenced example pictures, and easy to use.

We have snakes. Lots of them. But rather than "kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out", as my husband prefers, I take this book with me during ourdoor activities and literally look up the snake I'm looking at. The photos are extremely helpful, limited only by my own perceptual problems---for example, Texas brown snakes look like rat snakes look like copperheads to me, even in the pictures. But the majority of the snakes in Texas and in the book do NOT deserve to die...life imprisonment, maybe...this is a very comforting book to own.

A usefull guide to have around the house when you live around wildlife. My house backs up to a creak and some woods area. We get many creatures around the house during the year. I know that proper identification of snakes is very important as we do not want to kill any of them but want to know when we are in danger. The snake population around my house is very important as we would have lots of rodents if not for the snakes.

The book is very detailed, the graphics are true to life in color. Even the enviroment where the reptiles were photographed is common to their habitit. The procedure for identification is darn near fool proof if followed carefully.
I do feel that the price was very high through the dealer that sent it The price on the bar code is $21.95 I paid $60.00 something. If you need it get it, worth it suggest you shop around. Don H. Eustace Texas

I've been looking for one of these for a while. The book offers the best compromise between being thorough and brief. It has excellent illustrations and make it easy to identify most of the more common, and even some rare, Texas snakes. A good resource to make adolescents aware of this important part Texas nature.

I came to this site to buy this book, but after seeing the prices I called a local non-discount book store (the one with Star Bucks in it) and bought it new for $24.95. What's with the inflated prices for a used paperback? Makes no sense to me.

This field guide is thorough with excellent photographs of representative species as well as useful information on classification, abundance, behavior and species with which a given snake might be mistaken. There are also useful and easy to interpret distribution maps.

No field guide is perfect, however. I live right on the Rio Grande in South Texas. There is an agricultural canal passing through my property. The distribution maps in this field guide indicate that the only species of water snake in my area is the diamondback watersnake. Indeed, the canal is filled with diamondback watersnakes and, until a couple of days ago, that is the only kind of 'watersnake' I've seen there. Yes, I've seen a few garter snakes and Indigo snakes swimming in the canal but no other species. Anyway, I spotted a snake in the canal that wasn't any of these preceding species. I saw it at a range of 25 feet. It floated high and kept its head about an inch above the water. It was black with narrow yellow transverse stripes. It was about four feet long and, although fairly heavy bodied, was perhaps a little more gracile than cottonmouths I've encountered in Louisiana [and I've encountered a lot of them]. Still, its a possibility, but, because of distance, I couldn't tell if the head had the characteristic cottonmouth lateral dark stripe.

This field guide's map indicates that the blotched watersnake--which this snake somewhat resembled--shouldn't be in my area, either, although, according to the map, they should occur about 75 miles north. Anyway, if anyone out there has an idea, comment on this post.