America's Snake. The Rise and Fall of the Timber Rattlesnake.

Levin, Ted.

ISBN 10: 022604064X / ISBN 13: 9780226040646

Published by The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL, 2016

About this Item

Octavo, red cloth/orange boards, xxvi, 481 pp. Illustrations. Light edge wear on cover and dust jacket. Small red ink dot on bottom edge of a few pages.

Seller Inventory # 14567

Bibliographic Details

• Title: America's Snake. The Rise and Fall of the Timber Rattlesnake.
• Publisher: The University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL
• Publication Date: 2016
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 022604064X
• ISBN 13: 9780226040646
• Binding: hardcover
• Illustrator: Alexandra Westrich
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: very good

About this title

Synopsis

There’s no sound quite like it, or as viscerally terrifying: the ominous rattle of the timber rattlesnake. It’s a chilling shorthand for imminent danger, and a reminder of the countless ways that nature can suddenly snuff us out.
 
Yet most of us have never seen a timber rattler. Though they’re found in thirty-one states, and near many major cities, in contemporary America timber rattlesnakes are creatures mostly of imagination and innate fear.
 
Ted Levin aims to change that with America’s Snake, a portrait of the timber rattlesnake, its place in America’s pantheon of creatures and in our own frontier history—and of the heroic efforts to protect it against habitat loss, climate change, and the human tendency to kill what we fear. Taking us from labs where the secrets of the snake’s evolutionary history are being unlocked to far-flung habitats whose locations are fiercely protected by biologists and dedicated amateur herpetologists alike, Levin paints a picture of a fascinating creature: peaceable, social, long-lived, and, despite our phobias, not inclined to bite. The timber rattler emerges here as emblematic of America and also, unfortunately, of the complicated, painful struggles involved in protecting and preserving the natural world.
 
A wonderful mix of natural history, travel writing, and exemplary journalism, America’s Snake is loaded with remarkable characters—none more so than the snake at its heart: frightening, perhaps; endangered, certainly; and unquestionably unforgettable.

About the Author

A former Bronx Zoo zoologist, Ted Levin is the author of Blood Brook: A Naturalist’s Home Ground, Backtracking: The Way of the Naturalist, and Liquid Land: A Journey through the Everglades, which won the Burroughs Medal in 2004. He has written for Sports Illustrated, Audubon, National Wildlife, National Geographic Traveler, and other publications.