Steve's Herpetological Blog

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

Zoology

#StevesLibrary: Winged Obsession

There aren’t many books out there on the illegal wildlife trade, which is a shame as it is an interesting and often overlooked area of conservation. Some of you may remember back to last summer when I read Stolen Worlds,…

#StevesLibrary: The Soul of an Octopus

It isn’t often that you read a book that makes you revaluate the relationship between humans and animals, as much as The Soul of an Octopus did. I’m not going to lie, for a while I had a fear of…

#StevesLibrary: The Naming of the Shrew

There are many things that you learn during the course of a zoology degree, and the subsequent years regarding the scientific naming of animals and plants. These include such facts as the binomial system of taxonomy that we use today…

#StevesLibrary: The Drunken Forest

I had to end 2021 on a positive note, and so I chose to read The Drunken Forest by Gerald Durrell, for the simple fact that Durrell’s writing is always something that helps fill you with optimism and hope. Durrell…

#StevesLibrary: Our Place

The book ‘ve just finished reading is one that took a little longer to get through than I had hoped, but it is quite densely packed with a whole host of interesting and relevant information. Our Place by Mark Cocker…

#SteveReviews: Animal

Given the recent trend for nature documentaries to be rammed full of false jeopardy and anthropomorphism, it was nice to find that Animal a new series from Netflix bucks this trend. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I…

#SteveReviews: The Mating Game

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past month or so, you’re probably aware of another new series that aired on BBC One narrated by Sir David Attenborough. This series is titled The Mating Game and as you…

#StevesLibrary: I, Mammal

My reading tendencies lead to me reading books on all kinds of topics, depending on what I decide to pick up off of the shelf at that moment time. Sometimes I pick a book on a topic, with which I…

#StevesLibrary: The Brilliant Abyss

This may be one of the newest books I’ve reviewed in a while, as The Brilliant Abyss was published only earlier on this year. I was lucky enough to pick up my copy second-hand in a charity shop, which I…

#SciFri: The potential for damage from the JNCC 7th Quinquennial Review

Something happened this week but it’s taken a few days to sink in. There was news from the Amphibian and Reptile Groups UK (ARG UK), that the Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) was recommending the removal of protections to species…