Sea Turtles to Sidewinders: A Guide to the Most Fascinating Reptiles and Amphibians of the West

Charles Hood is a poet and naturalist. The author of over twenty books, he has been a factory worker, a ski instructor, a dishwasher, and a nature guide in Africa. Nature study has taken him across all fifty of the US states and to eighty countries, from New Guinea to Borneo to the South Pole. Along the way he has been lost in a whiteout in the Himalayas, contracted (and survived) bubonic plague, and published more than seven hundred photographs. His titles with Timber Press include Wild LA, a field guide to reptiles and amphibians, and a guide to the best roadside hikes in California. Jane Goodall wrote the foreword to his book Wild Sonoma, and his essay collection, A Salad Only the Devil Would Eat, was named the Nonfiction Book of the Year by the editors of Foreword book review. He lives in the Mojave Desert with two kayaks, two mountain bikes, two dogs, and five thousand books.
 

Born in the San Francisco Bay Area, biologist Erin Westeen has been fascinated with herps since first spotting western fence lizards in her childhood backyard. She has done extensive fieldwork across western North America and the Neotropics and is currently a PhD candidate at UC Berkeley, where she studies spiny lizards. When not in the field, you can find her in one of the many natural history museums where she has been lucky enough to work.


José Gabriel Martínez-Fonseca is a Nicaraguan biologist and wildlife photographer who has been working with amphibians, reptiles, and mammals for over 12 years. Fascinated by snakes long before he caught his first at the age of 11, he later co-authored a Field Guide to the Amphibians and Reptiles of Nicaragua. He is currently a PhD student at Northern Arizona University, where he studies habitat fragmentation in the Neotropics and enjoys photographing as many species of amphibians and reptiles as possible.