Review: A Complete Guide to the Snakes of Southern Africa, by Johan Marais

 

Rating: Buy it ASAP – a bookshelf essential

What is it? Field guide

Ideal for fans of: the great outdoors, animals, or fact collectors

What makes it special? Comprehensive, fully illustrated and easy to use

Get it in South Africa from: Struik Nature, an imprint of Penguin Random House South Africa

In South Africa, it’s snake season. Summer means that hikers, nature lovers and gardeners need to be on the lookout lest they end up with a puncture wound or worse.

Thankfully, Johan Marais and Struik Nature have you covered. Whether you’re totally clueless when it comes to snakes or a full-blown herpetologist, this book is ideal for your collection. However, by the time you’ve read through this volume, you’ll go from novice to pro. Marais’ book is essentially a crash course in herpetology.  

Don’t be deceived by the unassuming cover. This book contains a literal treasure trove of snake facts. The contents are divided into five groups for ease of reference. Once you’ve established whether the snake in question is an adder/viper, cobra, mamba, venomous, non-venomous, or blind, you can really get into the nitty gritty details.

For example, I can confirm that a snake we encountered walking our dogs along the river was a harmless brown water snake.

So, thankfully, we don’t need a new walking route. 

However, as an aside, the term ‘harmless’ here is a little subjective. While the brown water snake poses no threat to me or three large dogs, not everyone is free to make that claim. After all, I can’t say the same for the poor frog that’s about to be dinner, as shown here.

But back to A Complete Guide to the Snakes of Southern Africa. Each entry features SO MUCH information. This includes a full-colour photograph (although most of the snakes have been shown from different angles. They know their good sides, and the camera loves them). Then there’s a map illustrating the animal’s geographic distribution, along with a detailed illustration of head shape. We’re not done. There’s also that all-important note on whether said snake is venomous or not (and if that’s the case, Marais has included first-aid procedure, which could literally save your life!) Finally, there’s a handy size guide –snake lengths are compared to a human arm, making the phrase ‘it was this big’ more valuable than ever.

And, as they say in the infomercials, that’s not all. Each entry has detailed notes on the snake’s markings, colour, habitat, similar species, feeding information, behaviours, scientific and common names, as well as how these critters reproduce.

Honestly, who needs Google?

This book is more than a field guide for snakes. It’s an encyclopaedia that is as easy to use as it is impressive. What’s more, it fits nicely into a backpack, so you’ll never need to be without this information.

A Complete Guide to the Snakes of Southern Africa by Johan Marais is published by Struik Nature, an imprint of Penguin Random House South Africa.