About and Inspiration
My name is Kevin Messenger, I'm from North Carolina, USA, and I'm currently living in Nanjing, China. I've been coming to HK nearly every year since 2011, often times to visit friends, look for snakes, and in the early days, to act as a visa run for my Chinese visa back when I was a grad student. During my grad school days, I was frustrated with the lack of English reference books regarding the herps of China and came to realise the last significant work in this regard was nearly a hundred years ago, a publication from 1935 (The Reptiles of China, by Clifford Pope), which is still useful today - but is obviously outdated. So this was my primary inspiration to "update" such a reference book.
However, one significant difference between now and the 1930s is our access to photography, which aside from herpetology, is probably my second love in life. As a result, I wanted this book to be as beautiful as it is informative. This first volume in re-imagining The Reptiles of China is 776 pages long, filled with over 1500 images, and weighs nearly 4 kg! It is a massive reference book, but the information inside is hard to beat.
The book covers 131 species of venomous snakes from China and a few that come very close to the border but not yet found within the country.
Favourite thing to do or see in Hong Kong
My favourite thing to do in Hong Kong is to go look for snakes. Every time I come to Hong Kong, that is my main goal and interest. Of course I have Adam's excellent book, The Snakes of Hong Kong, which provides a checklist at the end, and there are still 6 species of snakes that I have yet to find in Hong Kong.
Favourite Snake!
Gaboon viper is my favourite snake, ever since I was a kid. They are incredibly beautiful, they have a very unique pattern, and they hold the world record for the longest fangs. I've never found one in the wild, they live in Africa, but I've seen many in books and collections.
