Bushmaster Raymond Ditmars and the Hunt for the World's Largest Viper

Biography / Memoir

By: Dan Eatherley(Author), Desmond Morris(Foreword By)

319 pages, 16 plates with colour & b/w photos; b/w photos

Publisher: Arcade Publishing

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ISBN: 9781628727661 Paperback Jul 2017 In stock
£26.99
#236474

Price: £26.99

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About this book

Raymond Ditmars (1876–1942), the first curator of reptiles at New York's famous Bronx Zoo, brought cold-blooded animals to public attention as never before. Through wildly successful books and movies, he inspired a generation of zoologists with his fascination for snakes, insects, and other misunderstood creatures. Bushmaster tells the story of this remarkable man and what became an obsession with the mysterious bushmaster of the South American rainforest. Measuring up to thirteen feet in length, this is the world's largest viper, and its scientific name, Lachesis muta, translates as "silent fate". Despite numerous expeditions to jungles from Honduras to Brazil, Ditmars could never capture a bushmaster for himself.

The paperback edition features a foreword by Desmond Morris.