Customer Reviews

Guide and Reference to the Snakes of Western North America (North of Mexico) and Hawaii (Guide & Reference)

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

 

 

I am an aspiring herpetologist, but am not huge on snakes and prior to this book did not own a dedicated snake book. All I had snake-wise was Stebbins' A Field Guide to Western Reptiles and Amphibians (Peterson Field Guide) and St. John's Reptiles of the Northwest. So based on the recommendation of californiaherps.com, I picked up this book in the three-book "Guide and Reference to the ____ of Western North America (North of Mexico) and Hawaii" series of R.D. and Patricia P. Bartlett. I'm glad I did.

The book contains species accounts, photos, and range maps for 147 snake species that occur in the western United States (defined in this book as the region from the Pacific Ocean to the eastern borders of New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana), in Hawaii, in Alaska, and in western Canada. The introduction is fairly dispensable and mainly goes over general snake biology, from feeding habits to reproduction to even tips for pet enthusiasts. If you are familiar with snakes there probably isn't much you won't already know, but if you are new to snakes it's a pretty good crash course in basic snake biology and some of the differences between snake types.

Snakes are organized into eight chapters: 1) Slender Blind Snakes, Family Leptotyphlopidae; 2) Blind Snakes, Family Typhlopidae; 3) Boas, Family Boidae: Rosy and Rubber Boas, Family Ericinae; 4) Advanced Snakes, Family Colubridae: Racers, Sand Snakes, Rat Snakes, Ring-necked Snakes, Hog-nosed Snakes, and Relatives; 5) Advanced Snakes, Subfamily Natricinae: Water Snakes, Garter Snakes, Brown Snakes, and Relatives; 6) Coral Snakes, Family Elapidae; 7) Sea Snakes, Family Hydrophiidae; and 8) Vipers: Pit Vipers, Family Viperidae. A multiple-page list following the Table of Contents breaks these down into smaller groups and tells you where each snake fits in. One gripe I have with the Bartletts' organization is that they do not number their species list by page numbers (the eight chapters DO have page numbers, just not the long species list). Instead, they number it by the number of the snake, 1 - 147. While this is still useful and better than nothing, it's slower than just using page numbers since if you are flipping through the book you have to be on the first page of a snake to see what number it is, whereas you can always just look at the page number at the top. I understand the species list is not intended to be a second table of contents; however, by nature it effectively is one since it lists all the species. It's a small complaint, and they do list page numbers in the Index at the end at least. The beginning of each chapter contains a short description of that Family or Subfamily, from one to several pages. This tells you the basic distinguishing factors of this group of snakes along with their general biology. Some of these introductions also contain short personal accounts of the authors' experiences with a species or multiple species from this Family or Subfamily. They are interesting and it's nice to read about the authors' personal herping adventures. Note that these short descriptions are also within the chapters where, for example, a new genus is presented, in which case the description would be of that genus of snakes.

Now on to the species accounts. Both common and scientific names follow those suggested by the publication "Scientific and Standard English Names of Amphibians and Reptiles of North America North of Mexico, with Comments Regarding Confidence in Our Understanding." Thus, where a certain species has begun to split the scientific community as to which genera it belongs to, they keep the traditional genera to avoid any contention or confusion while the name change is still being debated. The authors point this out when it occurs. The individual species accounts contain several types of information: abundance/range, habitat, size, identifying features, and similar snakes; some also contain comments and subspecies information if applicable. Some of the species also have the authors' personal vignettes mentioned above. Abundance/range is supplemented with a full-color easy to read range map for each species which very clearly distinguishes subspecies when applicable. The size section is a little more helpful than something like Stebbins, as it doesn't just give the basic length range, but generally will tell you the longest-known length of that species as well. The identifying features are detailed and easy to follow. Each species has at least one photo and from what I could tell, the subspecies also have photos, along with their own accounts (although not as extensive as the accounts for the main species). Where snakes have different color phases, such as the California kingsnake, photos are presented of the different phases. The photos take up about 40% of the page length and go all the way across the page width; they are clear and easy to see distinguishing markings. In most cases the head and tail are clearly visible along with the rest of the body, but for some species the photo is only a closeup of the head region. Species accounts are generally a page or two, although some, like the California mountain kingsnake, are longer (that one is seven pages with numerous photos of the color phases). What I would have really liked to see is more time spent talking about the natural and life histories of the species. Knowing more of their daily and annual habits and information about their life stages would have really been great, but that kind of species-specific information isn't as detailed as it could be, unfortunately, which is why in the title I referred to it as more of an identification guide, not necessarily a guide for learning a whole lot about the animals themselves. Conservation status is mentioned where applicable for protected species and subspecies, although I found that this is not always entirely accurate. For example, Alameda whipsnake is listed as being a CA state threatened species, but not a federal threatened species, which was determined in 1997 and is still current as of January 2011. From what I could tell, though, it looked like the statuses on the protected species were generally correct and this appears to just be an oversight.

The remaining pages after the species accounts end consist of a glossary, acknowledgements, a bibliography, and an index, which as I mentioned does go by page number instead of the unusual species number that the species list goes by. One thing that would have been nice is a checklist for each state. You can go off of the range maps if you want, but having one central list to tell you what snakes are in what state, rather than having to thumb through each map, would have been helpful for those who like to check off the animals they encounter.

Overall this is a very useful comprehensive guide to the 147 snake species and subspecies of western North America (north of Mexico). The individual species accounts are better organized and contain more detailed information than Stebbins, so if you like me do not have a dedicated snake book, this is a good choice for your library.