3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Keep Records; Don't Keep The Herp, January 21, 2004
This review is from: Snake Lovers' Lifelist and Journal (Hardcover)
If you're a bird watcher, you know about "lifelists" - otherwise, ask a birder. With the publication of this book, herpers have their own equivalent, which more-or-less gives you about 250 blank pages so you can write down the date, location, habitat, weather, size/sex, and remarks about the sighting of each of 438 known Genus and species of snake in the U.S. and Canada. Personally, however, the book reminds me more of a stamp album from my days as a child, where blank spaces were provided where the stamps could be pasted. For each snake, only the Genus and species are stated, along with a note about the endangered, threatened, or protected status of the snake; and for those which are protected in form or another, the note is provided "Do Not Collect Protected Species".
Also included with the book is a very handsome section of 92 color illustrations - basically printed 3 per page - and 11-pages of discussion focusing mainly on conservation concerns and suggestions about how to fill in the book's species records. And finally, the book closes with a silly, miniscule glossary containing 43 rudimentary terms - many of which have little or nothing to do with snakes (e.g. nocturnal, siren, etc.), 16 selected "general" references (the most current of which are twelve years old as of the time of this review), and 106 "regional" references (many of which were included because they covered endangered, threatened and other protected species and were published mainly by various State wildlife departments and only incidentally cover snakes) and mailing lists of -
- 130 domestic herp societies (many of which are of doubtful validity or which have nothing to do with snakes),
- 41 internationally-based herp societies (again, including such organizations as the British Dendrobatid (Poison Arrow Frog) Group, British Association of Tortoise Keepers, National Association of Private Animal Keepers, etc. - all of which arguably have little or nothing to do with snakes),
- 26 U.S. and 2 Canadian universities, albeit with no information about whether or not they have substantial collections of snakes, how many specimens are on deposit, how large their course offerings, enrollments, or herp faculty is, or anything else of any value, and
-30 U.S. State Game and Fish or Wildlife departments which can provide the "regional" references cited above.
I very much respect and approve of the obvious sincerity of Scott's conservation ethic and his stated purpose in writing this book, hoping to encourage Americans to appreciate the value of our wilderness and its inhabitants before it's too late and these animals are extirpated. I agree with Scott that it is far better that interested herpers keep a life list and record their finds rather than collect them from the wild or kill them, and I salute Scott for presenting this view.
This superbly well-intentioned book is available at Amazon.com as a used book in good or like-new condition for as little as $3 or $4 dollars! Amazing. And you can even buy it on-line as a new book for as little as $6 or $7!! (At the time of this writing, over 130 copies are available for sale on Amazon.com for a variety of prices ranging from as little as $2.50, used, depending on condition.) I don't think I would fork over the publisher's full list price of $19.95 for this book even if I didn't already have a copy; but I would run - not walk - to get it for the prices stated above even if only for the beautiful pictures and the value of having the snake list for the U.S. and Canada. As an amateur herpetologist, I feel that I and fellow herpetologists owe the University of Texas Press a debt of gratitude for publishing this book, and Chris Scott likewise is to be commended for authoring it.
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