Bushmaster: Raymond Ditmars and the Hunt for the World's Largest Viper

by Dan Eatherley

The amazing story of one man’s obsession with an enigmatic and deadly reptile.

Raymond Ditmars (1876–1942), the first curator of reptiles at New York’s famous Bronx Zoo, brought cold-blooded animals to public attention as never before. Through wildly successful books and movies, he inspired a generation of zoologists with his fascination for snakes, insects, and other misunderstood creatures.

Ditmars was among the most celebrated naturalists in America. His reptile-collecting trips for the zoo spawned newspaper headlines across the world. Although a serpent lover, he was all too aware of the devastating effects of snakebites and was instrumental in the development of antivenom. His films and writings brought him fame, but he remained a devoted zoo employee, doing what he loved caring for animals.

Bushmaster tells the story of this remarkable man and what became an obsession with the mysterious bushmaster of the South American rainforest. Measuring up to thirteen feet in length, this is the world’s largest viper, and its scientific name, Lachesis muta , translates as “silent fate.” Despite numerous expeditions to jungles from Honduras to Brazil, Ditmars could never capture a bushmaster for himself.

Now, British author Dan Eatherley follows in Ditmars’s footsteps, revisiting his early haunts in the United States and South America. He attempts to do what Ditmars himself failed to to find a bushmaster in the wild. But eighty years later, will Dan have any more luck? Through the author’s own quest, Bushmaster reveals the life of a pioneer herpetologist, wildlife filmmaker, and zoo curator.

Genres: Nonfiction, Biography, Nature, History, Natural History

320 pages, Hardcover

First published May 5, 2015

About the author

Dan Eatherley is a writer, filmmaker, and environmental consultant. He has made natural history documentaries for the BBC, National Geographic, and the Discovery Channel, and worked as an assistant producer on two landmark BBC series hosted by David Attenborough. He has also published more than one hundred popular science and environmental articles. He currently resides in Exeter, England. His new book, entitled Invasive Aliens, explores the past, present and future of non-native plants, animals and other organisms in Britain’s countryside


An extract from Invasive Aliens:

Taking a stroll through Hampstead Heath one chilly autumnal morning, I was struck by just how much around me wasn’t ‘natural’ in the sense of representing native British fauna and flora.

The most obvious example was the resident flock of a hundred or so rose-ringed parakeets with their frequent shrill calls. Then there were the grey squirrels, mandarin ducks, Canada geese, alpine newts and marsh frogs, to say nothing of the crayfish and carp in the ponds or the horse chestnuts, rhododendrons and laurels growing amidst the native oak trees.

I could have gone to pretty much any park in Britain and seen the same things, and far more besides. And it’s not just parks: our rivers, lakes and streams; our forests and farmland; our estuaries and coastal waters; our homes and gardens; even our own bodies; all host a wealth of introduced species.

Reviews

[Eric_W · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm terribly glad I was not a sibling nor especially a parent to someone like Ray who would bring home rattlesnakes and other little creatures until he had a veritable reptile house in his room. Did they ever escape. Yes. But he knew how to get the back. Eventually he made such a name for himself he was given charge of the new Bronx Zoo around the turn of the 20th century. 

The attempt to keep a bushmaster in captivity for any length of time is an interesting story by itself. (BTW, it was not uncommon for venomous reptiles to be shipped to him from all over the world, not a box I would like to open inadvertently, and sometimes they did indeed escape in the terminals.) The common method of capturing venomous reptiles was to pin them with a forked stick behind the head or noosing them with a strong wire. Bushmasters are extremely fragile and this technique would damage their spines and neck. They then refused (or couldn't) eat and would wither away in captivity in spite of forced feedings. Their normal habitat in Trinidad was also being overrun and they were being decimated by the mongoose which had been introduced to the island in an attempt to control the rat population. Once the technique for capturing them was changed, the bushmaster was successful in captivity and they have since even been able to breed them. 

Ditmars was instrumental in promoting and developing the use of antivenin (antivenom is also correct) here and in other countries. He recognized the importance of having treatment available for his workers in the Reptile House where "accidents" were a job hazard. The Bushmaster is no slouch when it comes to venom. Eatherley visited Dean Ripa who operates a serpentarium and has successfully bred bushmasters. He has been bitten several times, likening the experience to "being set on fire, stabbed with a dagger, and then beaten with a sharp, hard stick. You can't move after a few minutes and don't want to either." It took 15 vials of antivenin to "put him right." (Basically, he had "received enough venom to drop a cow.") Eatherley's trip to Trinidad in search of a bushmaster is but one highlight of many. 

Some great lines, too. You'll learn new words like "hemepenes" (they don't call it the King Cobra for nothing.) Very informative and interesting book.

I also highly recommend Taking Up Serpents: Snake Handlers of Eastern Kentucky. (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...)

[Philbeert · Rating 5 out of 5]

The type of non-fiction you hope to stumble across: flowing prose, well researched history, sufficient pictures & a great subject.

Thanks Lady for a great find!

[Joshua Buhs · Rating 2 out of 5]

Banal.

Eatherley, a maker of documentaries, became interested in Raymond Ditmars, an early 20th century naturalist and progenitor of nature-showmen such as Marlin Perkins. He decided to write a biography on him, but clearly did not have enough material, and so had to pad it out, in poorly conceived ways.

What's especially frustrating is there were stories to be told here, an interesting one, but the book remains superficial. Eatherley caught the snake by the tail, but didn't know what to do with it.

The book is told in three different voices. The first is of Eatherely, and his search. This tactic of interjecting the author himself (or herself) in the story used to be more common--literary journalism has gotten better--and, in my experience, seems to be favored by documentarians. The problem is, it's not very interesting and doesn't really contribute anything. Eatherley has to pump up the melodrama (he was "astounded" that he'd never heard of Ditmars, who is a very obscure figure) and even at that, don't really care about Eatherley leafing through books (except that it shows his research was limited) or his job situation.

The second voice is the most poorly conceived. Eatherley begins a number of chapters with a fictionalized--one might say re-enacted--episode from Ditmars's life. Without sourcing, it's impossible to know how much of this is Eatherley's imaginings, how much is rooted in fact. (I think of Julia Blackburn's experiments in "Daisy Bates in the Desert," which used fiction to overcome conflicting sources, and this book is nowhere near as sophisticated.)

The rest of the book is a proper biography, thought Eatherley doesn't know what he wants to say about Ditmars. He was fascinated by reptiles. It's not clear why, though. He liked bushmasters, the snake, but it's not clear they were as central to his life as Eatherly makes them out to be. He was involved in zoological work, which poised him on the edge of the nature-faker debate but Eatherly only ever mentions that some saw him as showman, some as naturalist, without coming to any conclusions. He made films of animals, which contributed to this problem, but Eatherly shows no sign if having read about this tradition among naturalists, no interest in exploring it. (Where's Donna Haraway? Where's Gregg Mittman?) There's a strong imperialist streak--like other herpetologists, Ditmars saw the Caribbean as the American bathtub, and collecting was allied with exploitative corporations (United Fruit, especially), but this is mentioned again without exploration.

I could not help but think of William Leach's "Butterfly People," which could have provided such an interesting model for this book. Again and again Eatherly mentions the network of collectors and other herpetological showmen, but leaves them aside, mostly, for Ditmars. Leach explored his network of butterfly people and found in it a story about the American sublime--the beauty of nature.

What would Eatherly have found had he traced out this network of reptile people An American encounter with--what? A different kind of sublime, beauty and grandeur, but also fear. It could have been a fascinating story.

[Bill Leach · Rating 3 out of 5]

Essentially a biography of Raymond Ditmars, this book concentrates on his major activities as a curator at the Bronx Zoo maintaining their snake collection. Ditmars was particularly skilful in maintaining snakes, although a number of important specimens died due to parasites that were present at the time of capture. In later years, these abilities led to Ditmars being given responsibility for other animal collections including the mammals and insects.

Ditmars carried out much collection, initially in New York state, but later in other areas of the U.S. and the tropics. His book on collecting in Trinidad, "Snakehunter's Holiday", was widely read at the time. Ditmars wrote a number of books on snakes and reptiles, being some of the best at the time. He also did much photographic and film work, producing some of the first natural history documentaries. He was famous for his presentations where he brought captive animals to show the audience.

Ditmars was particularly interested in the Bushmaster. While a notably poisonous and aggressive snake, it was also difficult to maintain in captivity. His various efforts to obtain specimens form a secondary storyline.

The author travels to the places where Ditmars worked and intersperses the biography and his own experiences. A good read.

[Nick Engler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bushmaster is an unusual biography in that it is about a herpetologist well-known in the early 20th century, sought after by the New York Times for easy to follow and on-going stories, the easy kind for a reporter, but a man who now is barely remembered outside of a few circles. Probably the only biologist that is well-known is Charles Darwin but his was another area of biology. How many general readers know what a herpetologist is? Snake people do. Ditmars can be credited with demystifying and debunking many of the myths about snakes, helping to create a system of easy availability of snake antivenins. He can also be credited with the creation of the Brooklyn Zoo and subsequently of many modern zoos as we know them, and this is the story of a man who left behind a lasting legacy of biology and conservation. It is a fascinating story if told without the suspense of biographies of better known figures. It tells stories of early biological explorations -- 20 miles on a train to go another two days on horseback to find nothing, or not the animals that were being sought. This story reminded me of a story of one of Montana's early biologists who spent a week going from Missoula, and UM, to Glacier Park. I recommend it to anyone, especially anyone interested in snakes and herpetology. Young readers will find it accessible.

[Chris Bauer · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book, but there were a few stylistic points both in writing and editing that kept it from the full 5 stars. This is still a great book that serves as a mixture of a biography of Raymond Ditmars, institutional history of the Broynx Zoo (specifically the reptile depatment), and popular contemporary natural history text all rolled into one.

[Jeremy Owen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Got me in to Studying reptiles

[Dan Eatherley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Raymond Ditmars (1876–1942), the first curator of reptiles at New York’s famous Bronx Zoo, brought cold-blooded animals to public attention as never before. Through wildly successful books and movies, he inspired a generation of zoologists with his fascination with snakes, insects, and other misunderstood creatures.

Ditmars was among the most celebrated naturalists in America. His reptile-collecting trips for the zoo spawned newspaper headlines across the world. Although a serpent lover, he was all too aware of the devastating effects of snakebites and was instrumental in the development of antivenom. His films and writings brought him fame, but he remained a devoted zoo employee, doing what he loved most: caring for animals.

Bushmaster tells the story of this remarkable man and what became an obsession with the mysterious bushmaster of the South American rainforest. Measuring up to thirteen feet in length, this is the world’s largest viper, and its scientific name, Lachesis muta, translates as “silent fate.” Despite numerous expeditions to jungles from Honduras to Brazil, Ditmars could never capture a bushmaster for himself.

Now, British author Dan Eatherley follows in Ditmars’s footsteps, revisiting his early haunts in the United States and South America. He attempts to do what Ditmars himself failed to achieve: to find a bushmaster in the wild. But eighty years later, will Dan have any more luck? Through the author’s own quest, Bushmaster reveals the life of a pioneer herpetologist, wildlife filmmaker, and zoo curator.

[David Ward · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bushmaster: Raymond Ditmars and the Hunt for the World's Largest Viper by Dan Eatherley (Arcade Publishing 2015) (597.9092). Raymond Ditmars was a legendary curator and promoter of the Bronx Zoo in the early 1900's. His special fascination was snakes; most particularly the South American viper known as the Bushmaster. This entire volume, while mildly interesting, is a paean to Raymond Ditmars, who is and remains an obscure figure. My rating: 7/10, finished 1/5/17.