The Book of Snakes, 2nd Edition

“O’Shea provides a rich introduction to the snake world, revealing that there are just over 3,700 living snake species known today and detailing the vagaries of skin shedding, venom delivery, and snake reproduction. Each of the species featured has a page devoted to it, with a map showing its location, information on its habits, plus color photographs of the snake itself. Flicking through the book reveals the amazing diversity of snakes—tiny acid-green Vinesnakes, vibrantly striped Rainbow Snakes and the ghost-like Japanese Aodaisho.” * Wall Street Journal, on the First Edition *

Mark O’Shea MBE is a herpetologist, zoologist, author, lecturer, and television presenter. He is professor of herpetology at the University of Wolverhampton and he previously spent thirty-three years as curator of reptiles at West Midland Safari Park. He has made ten expeditions to Papua New Guinea since 1986 and between 2009 and 2014 was coleader of a team based out of Victor Valley College, California, conducting the first herpetofaunal survey of Timor-Leste. O’Shea has hosted television documentaries focused on reptiles for the Discovery Channel, the BBC, ITV, and Channel 4, including four seasons as host of the Animal Planet/Discovery Channel show O’Shea’s Big Adventure. He has participated as herpetologist on numerous tropical expeditions for the Royal Geographical Society, Oxford University, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, University of Melbourne, University of Adelaide, Operation Raleigh, Raleigh Executive, and Discovery Expeditions. He is a fellow of the Explorers’ Club of New York, Royal Geographical Society, and Linnean Society of London. O’Shea is the author of nine books, including A Guide to the Snakes of Papua New Guinea, which he is currently completely revising. In 2018 he was honored when an Asian pipesnake was named Cylindrophis osheai. He has coauthored twelve new snake species descriptions, two of which are included in this second edition. In 2020 he was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours “for services to higher education, zoology, reptile conservation and snakebite research”. He lives in Shropshire, England, twenty miles from the birthplace of Charles Darwin.

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