Snake Men

A wry and thought-provoking tale about the defiant, eccentric figures obsessed with Australia’s deadliest reptiles.

Raymond Hoser is known as the Snakeman, a moniker he has zealously defended. As a day job, Hoser runs a business in Melbourne that offers several services. One service is snake removal, a common trade in Australia. Another is snake shows, most often performed at children’s birthday parties. But by the 2010s, Hoser had become famous around the world for an entirely different activity: his work as a taxonomist, a namer of new species. In a decade-long spree, Hoser had named thousands of new creatures, including more snakes than any other scientist. To some, Hoser’s accomplishments were a scientific triumph. But others have accused Hoser of what they call “taxonomic vandalism,” the results of which, they argue, could alter the very course of life on Earth.

Snake Men recounts this outrageous and humorous story, tracing the surprising intersection between taxonomists, the sober and serious class of scientists who have for centuries cooperated in a global effort to understand the order of life, and Raymond Hoser and other snake men. The results—chaotic, mischievous, the stuff of legends—hint at the rebellious impulse that lies coiled somewhere deep inside us all.