Authors:Scott A Weinstein, Daniel E Keyler, Julian White, and D. A. Warrell. Review by Justin Smith
Rear-fanged snakes have always been in the background of the hobby. Never really reaching the amount of popularity as most pythons, boas, and colubrids means the amount of information about a lot of the obscure, lesser-known species is fairly minimal. I’ve had a particular interest in some of these species for a long time now but was even more excited when I stumbled across a book that focuses on this group. Venomous” Bites from Non-Venomous Snakes: A Critical Analysis of Risk and Management of “Colubrid” Snake Bites by Scott A Weinstein, Daniel E Keyler, Julian White, and D. A. Warrell is easily one of the most interesting books I’ve ever read!
Boiga, Philodryas, Heterodon, and Hydrodynastys are some of the popular captives in the world of opisthoglyphous snakes. This book covers various genera and specific species where medically significant bites were reported that hadn’t been documented previously. These accounts vary from Boomslangs to Western Hognoses and rank their medical significance on hazard level. The first part of this book does a great job of outlining and explaining how vague the term “rear-fanged” is. They discuss dentition and glandular structure with plenty of examples from both common and uncommon species, explaining how different the rear-fanged species are as a whole.
After this, the book goes into the detail of certain genera, medical symptoms typical of that group, and the medical significance of that group. The later sections of the book talk about unique bites from species that have historically caused very few medical issues in the past. The authors go on to explain the other possible explanations for such extraordinarily odd outcomes of these suspected bites.
I will say that this book is a little on the drier side with a lot of medical terminology I was unfamiliar with. Thanks to google my questions and definitions were answered and I learned even more from this book. All in all this book was a wealth of information and a stark reminder that even though some species are considered “harmless” they can also have a medical significance to varying degrees. I can’t recommend this book enough to anyone with an interest in rear-fanged colubrids. If you can find a copy, buy it!
