Customer Reviews

The Illustrated Guide to Poisonous Snakes

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I bought this out of pure curiousity. The title says it all I think for anyone who is interested in Snakes. Just so that everyone understands for a snake to be poisonous you would need to eat it and then be in danger afterward, like a mushroom... Snakes are venomous. To make such a critical error should show how much effort went into this book. It's more like a pamphlet and doesn't offer any in depth information on any one family. It's just a jumble of pictures with poorly doen distribution maps.

I really hope the military is offering better training than this book to our soldiers.

This is an interesting book BUT it should be immediately pointed out that the species description of a Death Adder (Acanthopis) on page 86 is accompanied by the wrong photo of a TAIPAN (Oxyuranus) not an actual Death Adder as it should be. Similarly, the very next species account on page 88 of a Taipan is accompanied by the wrong photo of a DEATH ADDER, not an actual Taipan. It appears that the two photos were mistakenly switched! I don't own the original copy (1985?) and don't know if the same error occurs there as well (I have the 2003 edition). The two snakes look nothing alike (Taipan is very long and slender, Death Adder is short and stout) but of course they are still both lethal. Did anyone else notice the mistake?
Additionally, some of the other species' photos are somewhat blurry or lack good color, but overall I think the book is unique and therefore a great add to anyone's herpetological library because it is published by the U.S. Army and intended to educate soldiers deployed around the world about venomous snakes they may encounter. Very cool book.

Most of the pictures taken of the snakes of the Americas were blurry and faded in color. Of course, most of us take precautions against snakes in the wild. But generally speaking, this book should be revised and republished.