Wow! eBook
Snake Men: Rebels, Reptiles, and the Race to Name Earth's Creatures
Author(s): Zach St. George (Author)
- Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
- Publication Date: July 7, 2026
- Language: English
- Print length: 272 pages
- ISBN-10: 1324021683
- ISBN-13: 9781324021681
Book Description
A wry and thought-provoking tale about the defiant, eccentric figures obsessed with Australia’s deadliest reptiles.
Raymond Hoser is known as the Snakeman, a moniker he has zealously defended. As a day job, Hoser runs a business in Melbourne that offers several services. One service is snake removal, a common trade in Australia. Another is snake shows, most often performed at children’s birthday parties. But by the 2010s, Hoser had become famous around the world for an entirely different activity: his work as a taxonomist, a namer of new species. In a decade-long spree, Hoser had named thousands of new creatures, including more snakes than any other scientist. To some, Hoser’s accomplishments were a scientific triumph. But others have accused Hoser of what they call “taxonomic vandalism,” the results of which, they argue, could alter the very course of life on Earth.
Snake Men recounts this outrageous and humorous story, tracing the surprising intersection between taxonomists, the sober and serious class of scientists who have for centuries cooperated in a global effort to understand the order of life, and Raymond Hoser and other snake men. The results―chaotic, mischievous, the stuff of legends―hint at the rebellious impulse that lies coiled somewhere deep inside us all.
Editorial Reviews
Review
― Natural History
“
Snake Men traces a sinuous route through dangerous and utterly engrossing territory. The indelible obsessions of Raymond Hoser, the snake in the taxonomic garden, occupy the book, but they’re wrapped around a core story about the names of living things. Zach St. George shows us, in sparkling prose, how these language matters have shaped the ways we talk, think, argue, agree, and disagree about the natural world in all its glorious and messy contours.”― Daniel Lewis, Daily Kos
“[
Snake Men] features long-running battles between cranky misfits, all desperate to prove that their names for different types of Australian snakes are the right ones. They’re the kind of people who go looking for snakes just so they can go looking for a fight.”― Mark Mason, The Mail on Sunday
“[
Snake Men] takes a wry look at the eccentric people who’ve been naming Australia’s deadliest reptiles, and the surprising conflict between “snake men” and traditional taxonomists.””― Liz Greene, Nautilus
“Snake lovers will revel in this singular, off-beat read.”
―
“A lively . . . exploration of Australia’s reptile underworld.”
―
“Slithering through the murky spaces between history and mythology . . . Zach St. George’s meticulously researched book amounts to detective work, as he uncovers a whole cast of snake maniacs, including some who allegedly practice ‘taxonomic vandalism,’ an outlandish kind of crime whose victim is our shared understanding.
Snake Men is a madcap delight!”― Bernd Brunner, author of Bears: A Brief History and Extreme North: A Cultural History
“
Snake Men traces a sinuous route through dangerous and utterly engrossing territory. The indelible obsessions of Raymond Hoser, the snake in the taxonomic garden, occupy the book, but they’re wrapped around a core story about the names of living things. Zach St. George shows us, in sparkling prose, how these language matters have shaped the ways we talk, think, argue, agree, and disagree about the natural world in all its glorious and messy contours.”― Daniel Lewis, Huntington Library, author of Twelve Trees
About the Author
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