Bibliomania!

Reptile Biodiversity

Edited by Roy W. McDiarmid, Mercedes S. Foster, Craig Guyer, J. Whitfield Gibbons, and Neil Chernoff

From tiny, burrowing lizards to rainforest canopy-dwellers and giant crocodiles, reptile populations everywhere are changing. Yet government and conservation groups are often forced to make important decisions about reptile conservation and management based on inadequate or incomplete data. With contributions from nearly seventy specialists, this volume offers a comprehensive guide to the best methods for carrying out standardized quantitative and qualitative surveys of reptiles, while maximizing comparability of data between sites, across habitats and taxa, and over time. The contributors discuss each method, provide detailed protocols for its implementation, and suggest ways to analyze the data, making this volume an essential resource for monitoring and inventorying reptile abundance, population status, and biodiversity. 

Reptile Biodiversity covers topics including: terrestrial, marine, and aquatic reptiles; equipment recommendations and limitations; ethics of monitoring and inventory activities; statistical procedures; designing sampling programs; and using PDAs in the field

Chapter 1. Studying Reptile Diversity

Chapter 2. Reptile Diversity and Natural History: an Overview
Chapter 3. Study Design and Sampling

The Value of Long-term Monitoring
Know Your Organisms 
Using Geographical Information Systems to Design Reptile Surveys
Precautions for Quantitative Reptile Field Studies

Chapter 4. Dealing with Associated Data

Climate Data and Seasonality
Describing Microhabitats
Diversity, Distribution Maps, and Atlas Production
Automated Data Acquisition
Handheld Computers for Digital Data Collection
Databases, Metadata, and Integrated Data Management
Data Quality Assurance and Quality Control
Chapter 5. Finding and Capturing Reptiles
Detecting, Counting, and Sampling Squamates

Funnel Traps, Pitfall Traps, and Drift Fences
Specialized Trapping of Snakes over Large Areas
Finding, Counting, and Catching Crocodiles
Collaboration with Local People for Sampling Reptiles

Chapter 6. Voucher Specimens

Chapter 7. Preparing Reptiles as Scientific Specimens

Preparing Scientific Specimens

Collecting and Preserving Embryos

Collecting and Preserving Parasites during Reptile Biodiversity Surveys

Collecting and Preserving Tissues for Biochemical Analysis

Chapter 8. Dealing with Live Reptiles

Ethical Considerations in Working with Reptiles

Handling Live Reptiles: Leave Your Ego at the Door

Anesthesia in Reptiles

Standard Data from Live Specimens
Chapter 9. Marking Reptiles

Chapter 10. Determining Age, sex, and Reproductive Condition

Chapter 11. Techniques for Difficult-to-Sample Habitats
Rock-dwelling reptiles
Snake Hibernacula and Communal Denning
Arboreal Reptiles: Tree-trunk and Canopy-dwelling Species
Swamp-dwelling Crocodilians
Detecting and Capturing Turtles In Freshwater Habitats
Alternative Methods For Sampling Freshwater Turtles and Squamates
Sampling Marine And Estuarial Reptiles
Chapter 12. Statistical Properties of Techniques and Validation
Chapter 13. Standard Techniques for Inventory and Monitoring
Selecting a Technique
Complete Species Inventories
Road Riding
Visual Encounter Surveys
Quadrat Sampling
Permanent Plots with Mark-recapture
Transect Surveys, including Line Distance
Pitfall-Trap Surveys
Sampling with Artificial Cover
Reptile Sign and Camera Traps
Nest and Track Surveys
Aerial Surveys for Marine Turtles
Chapter 14. Parametric Analysis of Reptilian Biodiversity Data
Chapter 15. Population Size and Demographics
Relative Abundance in Snakes: A Case Study
Chapter 16. Studying and Monitoring Exploited Species
Chapter 13. Reptile Biodiversity: Where Do We Go From Here
Appendix I. Selected Institutions with Significant Collections of Reptiles
Appendix II. Websites of Interest

Literature Cited

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Venomous Reptiles of the United States and Canada

By Carl H. Ernst and Evelyn M. Ernst

Carl and Evelyn Ernst have completely revised their landmark referenceVenomous Reptiles of North America to present the most comprehensive review of these animals in years. 

Venomous Reptiles of the United States, Canada, and Northern Mexicorepresents the latest research on these animals and includes the most extensive bibliography of literature on the subject. Anyone with an interest in venom, snakes, or herpetology in general will find a wealth of information within the pages of these impressive volumes.

Volume 1: Heloderma, Micruroides, Micurus, Pelamis, Agkistrodon, Sistrurus

Volume One of this definitive work presents dramatically improved species accounts of the venomous lizards and elapid and viperid snakes found north of Mexico's twenty-fifth parallel. Volume Two will cover the twenty-one rattlesnakes found in the United States, Canada, and, for the first time, species found only in northern Mexico. 

Volume 2: Crotalus

Volume 2 of this definitive work covers the twenty-one species of the genus Crotalus found in the United States, Canada, and, for the first time, those found in northern Mexico. 

Mixing their own research with careful data description and intriguing stories, Ernst and Ernst present the most accurate and interesting view of North America's rattlesnakes available. They provide general background information on Crotalus, including venom delivery systems, how rattles function, what rattlesnakes eat, and what eats rattlesnakes. Additionally, they offer specific and fascinating details, such as observations of rattlesnakes swimming to offshore islands, accounts of male combat bouts, possible "anting" behavior in Crotalus viridis, and the features of the Santa Catalina Island rattleless rattlesnake. Each species account includes vivid photographs, range maps, and explanations of the limits to their respective distribution.

Order: Volume 1 and Volume 2

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The book begins with a preface describing the status of living tortoises. Despite the dire descriptions, the author emphasizes that there is still hope for the long term survival of most tortoise species. The first couple of chapters define tortoises and discuss the variety of their biology and natural history. The third chapter outlines many of the threats to tortoises, such as habitat destruction, disease, and incidental killing (e.g., road kill). All along the way the author offers good examples using a variety of tortoise species and situations. The fourth chapter, entitled, "Eating Tortoises" was quite enlightening for me. I had no idea what a huge, world-wide problem the consumption of turtles is, or how massive the effect of consumption is on global tortoise populations. Giant tortoises that live on islands are the subject of chapter 5, with both the causes of their decline as well as their conservation discussed in detail. Finally, the problem of captive tortoises is discussed in chapter 6. From the desire to have the really rare tortoise to the seemingly benign desire to simply have any pet tortoise, the author covers a wide variety of issues associated with the captive trade in tortoises and its effect on wild populations. Chapter 7 offers potential solutions by highlighting some successful conservation strategies. This is followed by a final chapter of hope that people will change their ways to protect tortoises. The author also includes some useful appendices: extremes of the tortoise world; tortoises on the brink of extinction; tortoise species; and further reading.

Overall I found this book interesting and informative. I am not well versed with most of the species the author discusses, but I was working on Desert Tortoises in 1988-1989 when the western Mojave populations were emergency listed by the Fish and Wildlife Service. Here I found a couple of minor errors in the book. The author indicated that captive desert tortoises were released into the wild as a result of the emergency listing: "When tortoise owners learned that the pets they had taken from the wild years earlier were now on the endangered species list, many responded in the best-intended way possible. They put the tortoise in the car, drove him back out to the desert, and released him with a sense of having done something good in the world.... Within a few years of the initial listing of desert tortoises as threatened, biologists began to find wild tortoises that were sick."

In fact, upper respiratory disease syndrome was one of the major factors in getting the species listed, not a result of the listing. Personally, I think it is hopeful to think many people would take the time to drive back out to the desert to release their captive tortoise. I am sure it happened, both before and after the species was listed as threatened, but I am somewhat dubious that the listing had much effect on the number of tortoises released.

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