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Secrets of Snakes: The Science Beyond the Myths
Snakes inspire extreme reactions. Love or hate these limbless reptiles, almost everyone is fascinated by them. Although snakes are widespread and frequently encountered, they may be more misunderstood than any other group of animals. From giant rattlesnakes to mating dances, there are dozens of myths and misconceptions about snakes. In Secrets of Snakes: The Science beyond the Myths, wildlife biologist David Steen tackles the most frequently asked questions and clears up prevailing myths.
In a conversational style with a bit of humor, Steen presents the relevant biology and natural history of snakes, making the latest scientific research accessible to a general audience. When addressing myths about snakes, he explains how researchers use the scientific method to explain which parts of the myth are biologically plausible and which are not.
Steen also takes a close look at conventional wisdom and common advice about snakes. For example, people are told they can distinguish coralsnakes from non-venomous mimics by remembering the rhyme, “red on black, friend of Jack, red on yellow, kill a fellow,” but this tip is only relevant to coralsnakes and two mimics living in the southeastern United States, and it does not always work with other species or in other countries.
Enhanced by more than 100 stunning color photographs and three original drawings, Secrets of Snakes: The Science beyond the Myths encourages readers to learn about the snakes around them and introduces them to how scientists use the scientific method and critical thinking to learn about the natural world.
Number Sixty-one: W. L. Moody Jr. Natural History Series
In a conversational style with a bit of humor, Steen presents the relevant biology and natural history of snakes, making the latest scientific research accessible to a general audience. When addressing myths about snakes, he explains how researchers use the scientific method to explain which parts of the myth are biologically plausible and which are not.
Steen also takes a close look at conventional wisdom and common advice about snakes. For example, people are told they can distinguish coralsnakes from non-venomous mimics by remembering the rhyme, “red on black, friend of Jack, red on yellow, kill a fellow,” but this tip is only relevant to coralsnakes and two mimics living in the southeastern United States, and it does not always work with other species or in other countries.
Enhanced by more than 100 stunning color photographs and three original drawings, Secrets of Snakes: The Science beyond the Myths encourages readers to learn about the snakes around them and introduces them to how scientists use the scientific method and critical thinking to learn about the natural world.
Number Sixty-one: W. L. Moody Jr. Natural History Series
184 pages, Paperback
Published September 23, 2019
12 people are currently reading
180 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
November 1, 2019
The heart of my work as Executive Director of Advocates for Snake Preservation is education using stories to illustrate cool snake behavior and busting myths and misconceptions when answering questions about snakes. Although they tend to change over the years, at any given time people have the same questions:
"Are rattlesnakes rattling less?"
"Are babies more dangerous than adults?"
"How do you tell good snakes from bad snakes?"
David Steen also spends much of his time answering snake questions and clearly wrote Secrets of Snakes to tackle the most common ones (each of the above examples has its own chapter). This is the perfect book for someone interested in learning more about snakes. Although not designed for experts, even I learned some new things about snakes (they can be territorial!). This is a quick and enjoyable read, science-based, but not at all dense. Here are some highlights:
Part 1, Identifying Snakes, debunks the many rules you've probably heard for identifying venomous snakes and shares how biologists identify and name animals. In this section, Steen pondered whether anyone has ever been bitten by a venomous snake for relying on the head rule. Actually, yeah, I got a story about that.
A few years ago I was giving a snake talk to a group that had come across a snake earlier in the day that they couldn't identify. As they were scrolling through through their phones looking for a photo, they described what sounded like a familiar species to me. They also explained that they had spotted the snake crossing the road in front of their car and had picked him up and moved him out of the road. Bill, the guy who moved the snake, had gotten bit, but not to worry -- the snake didn't have a triangular head, so definitely wasn't dangerous. Also, where's Bill?
Turned out Bill was in the hospital. As I suspected from their description and confirmed in their photos, Bill had been bitten by a Ridge-nosed Rattlesnake. Like all the small rattlesnakes that live in the mountains of the southwest United States, Ridge-nosed Rattlesnakes don't have very wide, triangular heads. A painful way to learn about a cool exception to that rule.
The discussion on snake aggression in chapter 17 is fantastic; I'd like to submit it in response to every article (and there are many) titled "snake attacks _____." In chapter 10 you learn why the number of snakes you see in your neighborhood does not equal the number of snakes living in or near your neighborhood. Snakes are pros at hiding from their predators (including us) and are difficult to find even when you're looking for them. They do not magically appear, but have likely always been around and this is one reason why it doesn't make sense to kill or relocate them.
In the last few years the most common thing I'm asked about is if rattlesnakes are rattling less (though it's stated as fact as often as a question). In my area the cause is most often attributed to humans rather than hogs but the clear and thorough discussion in chapter 18 applies to both theories. In short:
there is no evidence that this is happening;
no studies have investigated this question; and
it is an unlikely scenario.
You can read the blog post that inspired the chapter here.
Chapters 22 and 23 discuss why moving or killing unwanted snakes in your yard doesn't make sense for you or the snakes. Because we're all relying on the same research, these chapters echo what our Living With Snakes website covers.
The overall attitude of this book is refreshing. Scientists are often perceived to discount non-expert stories and questions with condescending certainty. But, as Steen states in the book, "science moves slowly and we are always learning new things." So when we hear something that seems wrong, responding that it is "not consistent with what we know now" or "not documented yet" is not only kinder, but also more accurate. That was probably my biggest takeaway from the book and what I will strive to remember when I'm answering questions about snakes.
"Are rattlesnakes rattling less?"
"Are babies more dangerous than adults?"
"How do you tell good snakes from bad snakes?"
David Steen also spends much of his time answering snake questions and clearly wrote Secrets of Snakes to tackle the most common ones (each of the above examples has its own chapter). This is the perfect book for someone interested in learning more about snakes. Although not designed for experts, even I learned some new things about snakes (they can be territorial!). This is a quick and enjoyable read, science-based, but not at all dense. Here are some highlights:
"Nature is too complicated and messy for reliable shortcuts"
Part 1, Identifying Snakes, debunks the many rules you've probably heard for identifying venomous snakes and shares how biologists identify and name animals. In this section, Steen pondered whether anyone has ever been bitten by a venomous snake for relying on the head rule. Actually, yeah, I got a story about that.
A few years ago I was giving a snake talk to a group that had come across a snake earlier in the day that they couldn't identify. As they were scrolling through through their phones looking for a photo, they described what sounded like a familiar species to me. They also explained that they had spotted the snake crossing the road in front of their car and had picked him up and moved him out of the road. Bill, the guy who moved the snake, had gotten bit, but not to worry -- the snake didn't have a triangular head, so definitely wasn't dangerous. Also, where's Bill?
Turned out Bill was in the hospital. As I suspected from their description and confirmed in their photos, Bill had been bitten by a Ridge-nosed Rattlesnake. Like all the small rattlesnakes that live in the mountains of the southwest United States, Ridge-nosed Rattlesnakes don't have very wide, triangular heads. A painful way to learn about a cool exception to that rule.
"We can never know how many quiet and peaceful snakes we walk by."
The discussion on snake aggression in chapter 17 is fantastic; I'd like to submit it in response to every article (and there are many) titled "snake attacks _____." In chapter 10 you learn why the number of snakes you see in your neighborhood does not equal the number of snakes living in or near your neighborhood. Snakes are pros at hiding from their predators (including us) and are difficult to find even when you're looking for them. They do not magically appear, but have likely always been around and this is one reason why it doesn't make sense to kill or relocate them.
"Are rattlesnakes rattling less?"
In the last few years the most common thing I'm asked about is if rattlesnakes are rattling less (though it's stated as fact as often as a question). In my area the cause is most often attributed to humans rather than hogs but the clear and thorough discussion in chapter 18 applies to both theories. In short:
there is no evidence that this is happening;
no studies have investigated this question; and
it is an unlikely scenario.
You can read the blog post that inspired the chapter here.
"Killing them one by one is not a long-term solution to sharing your land with rattlesnakes; it's just an isolated and dangerous activity repeated over and over."
Chapters 22 and 23 discuss why moving or killing unwanted snakes in your yard doesn't make sense for you or the snakes. Because we're all relying on the same research, these chapters echo what our Living With Snakes website covers.
"Science is a process. We are always learning new information about the natural world around us."
The overall attitude of this book is refreshing. Scientists are often perceived to discount non-expert stories and questions with condescending certainty. But, as Steen states in the book, "science moves slowly and we are always learning new things." So when we hear something that seems wrong, responding that it is "not consistent with what we know now" or "not documented yet" is not only kinder, but also more accurate. That was probably my biggest takeaway from the book and what I will strive to remember when I'm answering questions about snakes.
December 14, 2019
Firstly: Abundant and stunning, high quality pictures—the book is worth it just for these. I also did learn things and found the book highly readable, finishing it in one cozy sitting.
However, it was not quite what I expected or wanted. It is essentially a collection of essays about misconceptions regarding American snakes, which I suppose is what the title advertises. However, I thought it would at least go into the basics of snake anatomy, mating behavior, life spans, etc, and it does not. There is one small paragraph about how snake jaws work, but it's not accompanied by any illustrations, which would have been enormously helpful.
Despite it being advertised as science communication intended for the general public, much of the book assumes a knowledge of snakes that I just did not possess. For example, I was frustrated while reading about various species of snakes and not being told whether or not they were venomous; I wondered why Steen didn't just mention it quickly, maybe in parentheses, after each snake species was brought up, because it was often relevant. The reason Steen never stated which snakes are venomous became clear in a later chapter, when he said he gets frustrated by people asking whether a snake is venomous because "most people in the United Stakes pretty much already know." He names them in rapid succession: rattlesnake, cottonmouth, copperhead, coralsnake.
Who are most people? I believe Steen imagines the wrong audience. I grew up in urban areas in the northeast. If you had asked me, before I read this book, which snakes species in the U.S. are venomous, I would have guessed zero. If you had asked me where rattlesnakes live, I might have guessed Australia. I have never seen a snake outside of zoos; I have thought about snakes basically not at all until very recently. I never heard of cottonmouths or copperheads or coralsnakes before opening this book.
Perhaps this explains why I was put off by Steen's overall tone throughout the book. Instead of coming from a place of passion and joy, he seems determined to win some imagined Twitter battle with anonymous idiots (he is known primarily from Twitter). It was actually very annoying to read about a bunch of myths I had never heard of and why they are wrong. It reminded me of when my least favorite high school teachers would walk into their classrooms on the first day of school and say, "I know you all hate math, but you're just going to have to toughen up this school year." I found that presumption both wrong and condescending; I'm not sure why Steen thinks people would pick up this book if they wanted anything other than to enjoy learning about snakes. He has an axe to grind that made his tone feel both accusatory and irrelevant to me.
There are definitely ways to write about under-loved organisms that elicit passion and joy from the reader. Robin Wall Kimmerer's Gathering Moss celebrates the least-loved plants of the world; Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson's Extraordinary Insects makes a great case for not swatting every arthropod you come across; Lynne Kelly's Spiders: Learning to Love Them will teach you to do just that. Unfortunately, Steen was so focused on the negative that the photographs were all that really warmed me up to snakes in this book.
Finally, a lot of the facts just didn't mean anything to me as someone lacking that foundational knowledge about snakes. A lot of it was, "Many people call X snake and Y snake by Z name, but this is wrong." The endless quips over snake names I had never heard of before were not enlightening to a person who had never been previously misinformed. Rather funnily, at one point Steen writes, "I pick my battles, and they rarely involve semantics." Hmm.
Do I sound very harsh? These are mostly just notes for myself as I think about, as a teacher, what successfully strikes joy in a learner and what does not. Some of this book worked for me; some of it did not.
However, it was not quite what I expected or wanted. It is essentially a collection of essays about misconceptions regarding American snakes, which I suppose is what the title advertises. However, I thought it would at least go into the basics of snake anatomy, mating behavior, life spans, etc, and it does not. There is one small paragraph about how snake jaws work, but it's not accompanied by any illustrations, which would have been enormously helpful.
Despite it being advertised as science communication intended for the general public, much of the book assumes a knowledge of snakes that I just did not possess. For example, I was frustrated while reading about various species of snakes and not being told whether or not they were venomous; I wondered why Steen didn't just mention it quickly, maybe in parentheses, after each snake species was brought up, because it was often relevant. The reason Steen never stated which snakes are venomous became clear in a later chapter, when he said he gets frustrated by people asking whether a snake is venomous because "most people in the United Stakes pretty much already know." He names them in rapid succession: rattlesnake, cottonmouth, copperhead, coralsnake.
Who are most people? I believe Steen imagines the wrong audience. I grew up in urban areas in the northeast. If you had asked me, before I read this book, which snakes species in the U.S. are venomous, I would have guessed zero. If you had asked me where rattlesnakes live, I might have guessed Australia. I have never seen a snake outside of zoos; I have thought about snakes basically not at all until very recently. I never heard of cottonmouths or copperheads or coralsnakes before opening this book.
Perhaps this explains why I was put off by Steen's overall tone throughout the book. Instead of coming from a place of passion and joy, he seems determined to win some imagined Twitter battle with anonymous idiots (he is known primarily from Twitter). It was actually very annoying to read about a bunch of myths I had never heard of and why they are wrong. It reminded me of when my least favorite high school teachers would walk into their classrooms on the first day of school and say, "I know you all hate math, but you're just going to have to toughen up this school year." I found that presumption both wrong and condescending; I'm not sure why Steen thinks people would pick up this book if they wanted anything other than to enjoy learning about snakes. He has an axe to grind that made his tone feel both accusatory and irrelevant to me.
There are definitely ways to write about under-loved organisms that elicit passion and joy from the reader. Robin Wall Kimmerer's Gathering Moss celebrates the least-loved plants of the world; Anne Sverdrup-Thygeson's Extraordinary Insects makes a great case for not swatting every arthropod you come across; Lynne Kelly's Spiders: Learning to Love Them will teach you to do just that. Unfortunately, Steen was so focused on the negative that the photographs were all that really warmed me up to snakes in this book.
Finally, a lot of the facts just didn't mean anything to me as someone lacking that foundational knowledge about snakes. A lot of it was, "Many people call X snake and Y snake by Z name, but this is wrong." The endless quips over snake names I had never heard of before were not enlightening to a person who had never been previously misinformed. Rather funnily, at one point Steen writes, "I pick my battles, and they rarely involve semantics." Hmm.
Do I sound very harsh? These are mostly just notes for myself as I think about, as a teacher, what successfully strikes joy in a learner and what does not. Some of this book worked for me; some of it did not.
February 17, 2021
First, the good: This book is clearly written, easy to read, extremely informative and features brilliant and beautiful color photos of a variety of snakes. The author, David A. Steen, is as much fun to read on the printed page as he is on Twitter, where he is "@AlongsideWild," and gives advice on how to live alongside wild creatures.
The book is structured as a series of essays in which Steen takes on and debunks a variety of myths and misconceptions about snakes and explains why we generally don't know as much about snakes as we think we do. For instance, all my life I've heard that young rattlers have more potent venom than fully grown ones, and that's just not true. I've also always heard the caution about cottonmouths dropping out of a tree into your canoe, which he exposes as completely untrue.
And over and over he emphasizes how secretive snakes are, so that if you've seen one in your yard and you're freaking out, you should know that there are probably a dozen you don't see, and they want nothing to do with you, so calm down.
This is, though, the one problem with the book -- or rather with its title. I had hoped that Dr. Steen would fill me in on all the secrets that snakes have, but instead he admits that there's a lot we just don't know about them, and that no scientist is tackling some of these questions because nobody's paying for research into basic snake facts.
So while I like the alliterative nature of the title "Secrets of Snakes," I think it's misleading. Perhaps instead it should have been called "Myths and Misconceptions About the Snakes, Which Are All Over Your Backyard Right Now, In Fact You Almost Stepped On One"
The book is structured as a series of essays in which Steen takes on and debunks a variety of myths and misconceptions about snakes and explains why we generally don't know as much about snakes as we think we do. For instance, all my life I've heard that young rattlers have more potent venom than fully grown ones, and that's just not true. I've also always heard the caution about cottonmouths dropping out of a tree into your canoe, which he exposes as completely untrue.
And over and over he emphasizes how secretive snakes are, so that if you've seen one in your yard and you're freaking out, you should know that there are probably a dozen you don't see, and they want nothing to do with you, so calm down.
This is, though, the one problem with the book -- or rather with its title. I had hoped that Dr. Steen would fill me in on all the secrets that snakes have, but instead he admits that there's a lot we just don't know about them, and that no scientist is tackling some of these questions because nobody's paying for research into basic snake facts.
So while I like the alliterative nature of the title "Secrets of Snakes," I think it's misleading. Perhaps instead it should have been called "Myths and Misconceptions About the Snakes, Which Are All Over Your Backyard Right Now, In Fact You Almost Stepped On One"
September 28, 2019
Gorgeous pictures and an enjoyable and interesting read.
June 28, 2021
Such a great read that taught me a lot and untaught me even more.
May 24, 2020
Great primer on all the most commonly asked questions about snakes within the U.S. I know, because I see the author answering these same questions on Twitter all the time!
Overall, the book is very easy to read, and David backs up his statements with references to various scientific studies. The book is also full of attractive photos and illustrations of the subject matter - I guess that could be a plus or minus depending on your reaction to snakes, but I found that it deepened my appreciation.
It is split into three major sections: snake identification, snake myths, and getting to know snakes better. All three sections were informative and contained solid, practical information that you can use in your real-life interactions.
Overall, the book is very easy to read, and David backs up his statements with references to various scientific studies. The book is also full of attractive photos and illustrations of the subject matter - I guess that could be a plus or minus depending on your reaction to snakes, but I found that it deepened my appreciation.
It is split into three major sections: snake identification, snake myths, and getting to know snakes better. All three sections were informative and contained solid, practical information that you can use in your real-life interactions.
October 14, 2019
Snakes are fascinating and this is a great book packed with so much cool information that I never knew and beautiful pictures that make me want to go on long walks and peek under rocks and in old logs.
December 20, 2022
Recommended by a good friend who saw that my son loved reading about snakes. While this was a bit dense for him to enjoy reading with me yet, I really enjoyed reading it and busting a bunch of snake myths and misconceptions which I was then able to pass along to him.
May 29, 2025
Great photographs, very informative in clearing up some common misconceptions while being written in a reader-friendly and even occasionally comical manner. Really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to anyone curious about snakes in the US
January 1, 2020
I've always loved snakes. This was a great read full of useful and fascinating information. The beautiful pictures are a wonderful bonus.
March 30, 2020
Honestly, I wish we had something like this for New England snakes. It’s so good, but it’s highly focused on the author’s home region. I am inspired to make something like this come to life for VT!
December 8, 2020
What a great book. It was so informative and helpful. I loaned this book to my neighbors who are afraid of snakes and it helped them see snakes in a new light!
December 21, 2022
An extended session of FAQs pertaining to snakes. Steen is honest about what is known and what is not known but not a lot of surprises here for those with more than a passing interest in snakes.
January 22, 2023
Great reference book and book for understanding snakes. Takes myths and common misunderstandings and explains the facts for each one.
June 4, 2025
This is a great piece of science outreach writing. I would recommend it to any layperson curious about snakes.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews