Overview
The author of California Snakes and How to Find Them invites budding reptile enthusiasts into a wonderland of lizards. ""This guide joyfully celebrates the beauty and quirkiness of our native lizards."" -John Muir Laws Lizards: they are cute, endearing, and mind-bogglingly diverse, and yet they are so easy to overlook among California's natural abundance. Start watching them, though, and a wonderland of lizard life appears. In California Lizards and How to Find Them, lizard lover Emily Taylor profiles over 60 native and introduced species, from California's iconic Western Fence Lizard to the adorable Desert Iguana to the chonky Ringed Wall Gecko. With her expert knowledge and joyous, laugh-out-loud writing, Taylor provides tips for finding, watching, and responsibly catching lizards. She offers absorbing insights on lizard evolution, and she explains the toll of invasive lizard species on California's ecosystems. Featuring more than 100 full-color photographs, and designed for easy use in everyday life, this is the ideal guide for budding reptile enthusiasts and longtime naturalists alike.
Full Product Details
Author: Emily Taylor
Publisher: Heyday Books
Imprint: Heyday Books
ISBN: 9781597146715
ISBN 10: 1597146714
Pages: 208
Publication Date: 05 June 2025
Audience:
General/trade
,
General
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: Available To Order
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Reviews
"Praise for California Snakes and How to Find Them by Emily Taylor (2024): ""I've loved snakes since childhood and am thrilled to now have this gorgeous book as my companion to finding snakes wherever a walk on the wild side takes me."" —Amy Tan, author of The Joy Luck Club and The Backyard Bird Chronicles ""For anyone who loves snakes, or who wants to love them, Emily Taylor's California Snakes and How to Find Them is packed with facts in reader- friendly prose by one of the world’s leading snake biologists and conservationists. The utility and emotional impact of this book are further enhanced by some of the most evocative photographs of snakes I've ever seen, spanning technically perfect closeups of heads to stunning images of individuals in their species-typical habitats. California Snakes sets a new high bar for nature education, and I look forward to future volumes about other animal groups."" —Harry W. Greene, author of Snakes: The Evolution of Mystery in Nature and Tracks and Shadows: Field Biology as Art ""Emily Taylor's enthusiasm and love for snakes shine through every sentence of California Snakes and How to Find Them. Her engaging personal stories, authoritative information, and spectacular photographs will charm snake-lovers and future snake-lovers alike. See you in the field, armed with persistence, luck, and knowledge. Happy herping!"" —Marty Crump, author of Eye of Newt and Toe of Frog, Adder's Fork and Lizard’s Leg: The Lore and Mythology of Amphibians and Reptiles"
Author Information
Emily Taylor is a professor of biological sciences at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, where she conducts research on the physiology, ecology, and conservation biology of lizards and snakes. Taylor is founder of the community science initiative Project RattleCam (rattlecam.org) and owner of Central Coast Snake Services (centralcoastsnakeservices.com). Her first book, California Snakes and How to Find Them, was published by Heyday in 2024. She lives in Atascadero with her husband, Steve, and their menagerie of rescue animals, including Pax the dog, Baby the boa constrictor, Aperol Spritz the bearded dragon, and rattlesnakes Buzz and Snakeholio. Follow her at @snakeymama.
