Steve's Herpetological Blog

An insight into the life of Steve, his research and the many books he reads

#SteveReviews: Into The Forest

First off, apologies for the patchy frequency of blog posts recently. I have only just returned to the field and I had a mad period of getting ready to get back out and chase snakes. I’ll tell you more about…

#SteveReviews: The Tigers of Scotland

One thing we’re very good at doing in the UK, is focussing on conservation of endangered species in foreign countries, particularly those that we perceive as under threat such as pandas and tigers. We neglect our native species, resulting in…

#StevesLibrary: Crow Country

As many as you can probably understand, I am very much missing my fieldsite at the moment, sent on the border between the Norfolk Brecks and Broads – it is an oasis for wildlife. I’ve been wanting to know more…

#SciFri: How to spot a predatory journal

As many of you will be aware, I like to write a publish a lot – especially short natural history notes that help to fill gaps in of our knowledge on a particular species or habitat. These tend to be…

#SteveReviews: Virunga

If the title of this moving documentary film didn’t already give it away, it’s main focus is the Virunga National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect in the beginning, like most I…

#SteveReviews: Mission Blue

Mission Blue is a documentary film that is also a partial biopic (that reminded me slightly of Jane) which follows the renowned oceanographer Sylvia Earle. I’d only previously heard her name in passing but after watching Mission Blue, I wish…

#SciFri: Colour polymorphisms in amphibians and reptiles

Field guides are a great way to identify wildlife whether it be in the field or from photographs. I have a large number of them that make up the core of my reference library for countries I’ve visited or I’m…

#SteveReviews: The Ivory Game

With the ongoing lockdown, I’ve had more time to sit down and watch more nature documentaries in Netflix. One of those is The Ivory Game which focusses on the illegal ivory trade between Africa and China. Now this isn’t new…

#StevesLibrary: Dead Zone

If I had to sum up Dead Zone: Where the Wild Things Were by Philip Lymbery in a single sentence it would be this: A truly eye-opening read as to the effects of industrialised farming on the planet. Before we…

#SciFri: Lessons from #BlackBirdersWeek

With the success of #BlackBirdersWeek on Twitter this week, I thought I’d take some time to reflect the lack of diversity within herpetology (at least from my perspective). First off, for those of you that don’t know and without going…