Snakemaster
Wildlife Adventures with the World?s Most Dangerous Reptiles
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4.5 • 2 Ratings
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
Known as the original “Snakemaster” from his various television shows, Austin Stevens is one of the most famous herpetologists in the world. From his show Austin Stevens: Snakemaster on Animal Planet to his many appearances in the media, Stevens is known as an incredibly smart, yet incredibly insane animal lover.
In Snakemaster, Austin Stevens tells incredible stories of his many run-ins with dangerous animals and reptiles. From wrestling with a reticulated python to panicking after being bitten by the infamous Gaboon viper, Stevens brings you into his world of wildlife and tells the story of how a boy from Pretoria, South Africa, became one of the most widely known herpetologists in the world.
With incredible photographs taken by Stevens himself, you’ll be able to place yourself in his world—from the deserts of Africa to the jungles of Borneo. Sharing incredible stories of his love of animals and nature, this one-of-a-kind collection of stories will make you laugh, cry, and shiver with fear!
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
TV personality and veteran herpetologist Stevens's (The Last Snake Man) latest is a collection of career anecdotes that will likely send shivers up the spine of even the most snake-friendly reader. Opening with a harrowing tale of surviving a puff adder bite that almost cost him his finger, Stevens takes readers on an informative and adrenaline-charged look at a number of lethal snakes and other reptilian predators. Surprisingly, Stevens's most exciting stories don't come from deep within the wild but from his stints as a documentarian and a herpetological curator at an animal park where he often performed for the public, such as his near death run-in with a Gaboon viper and 107-day, glass-enclosed sit-in spent with 36 highly venomous snakes, including cobras and black mambas. These accounts, particularly a scene in which a clumsy cameraman almost brings the stunt to a deadly end (a recurring theme, as a cameraman makes a similar mistake in Germany, releasing four angry black mambas during filming), make for white-knuckle reading. Though he pauses for digressions on various snake venoms, snake bite remedies, and how he landed a show on the Discovery Channel, it's those close encounters that'll keep readers on the edge of their seat and often looking under it. Photos.
