Raymond Hoser - the most experience
of all in Australia's reptiles….
While it could be argued that this is a subjective claim and in fairness to others,
is one that can perhaps be disputed, there are readily measurable criteria, which easily put Raymond Hoser on top.
Included here are published papers in peer reviewed and other journals, books and similar and then of course how frequently they are cited as definitive by others in their own publications, as well as such things as species of reptiles discovered and named, other new discoveries and the like. No one else in Australia comes close to Raymond Hoser in this regard.
For those doing a check on Snakebusters/Raymond Hoser, below is a quick rundown on Raymond Hoser's expertise in Australian
reptiles.
It's a curriculum vitae so to speak. However it is only a brief summary at that. But most importantly it is all easily verified.
If comparing Snakebusters to another reptile show outfit, just ask a few basic questions of the other. What qualifications they have. How much experience (in years)?. And note that it's easy for a person to claim many years experience, without being able to prove it.
But here's a way to get the proof. Ask for copies of journal papers and articles they've published on reptiles. That's always a good way to set a timeline on their serious reptile activity. No scientific or technical papers in recognised publications, indicates no serious or generally accepted reptile expertise at the time in question. In other words, if a person claims reptile expertise spanning, say, twenty years, but doesn't have hard copy publications going back that far, then treat the claim with the skepticism it deserves.
Be generous if you want and say you accept tabloid news clips. Try getting something more than 20 years old. You won't get that from any Snakebusters competitors, but you will from us!
Here's a brief rundown of Raymond Hoser's reptile qualifications.
He started catching and keeping reptiles at age four or five (1967) and published
his first paper on them at age 14. He's since published over 150
definitive scientific papers and articles on all manner of reptiles,
their taxonomy, captive husbandry, breeding, medicine, ecology, genetics,
venom properties and so on. You'll see the list starts from about 1980, which was when Raymond Hoser was in his teens and has been continuous since then showing a non-stop activity with reptiles over the following three decades. Yes you can even view most of these papers online (Click on this text) and with the original hard copy citations to enable you to verify them all.
Few, if any other Australian herpetologists can make such a claim. Hoser's
papers and articles are routinely cited by peers and his book "Australian
Reptiles and Frogs" is one of Australia's benchmark publications,
still regarded as a reference of choice, even though the 240 page book
came out way back in 1989.
Raymond Hoser has had hands-on direct experience with most Australian reptile
species, including all the well-known ones and the most "dangerous",
be they snakes, lizards or crocodiles.
Most types of reptiles have been kept by Raymond Hoser over the years and
keeping methods he trialled first have since become standard, although notwithstanding this, Raymond's also been quick to adopt other people's ideas when they were superior to earlier methods, and unlike a (small number of) certain others in the reptile game, Raymond has always cited other people's works and credited them when due. This again is easily verifiable by checking out the citations lists at the ends of Raymond's books and papers (click here for examples).
In terms of "firsts" no one else comes close to Raymond Hoser.
Here's just a few …
Put simply, in four decades, Raymond Hoser's been at the leading edge of
Australian herpetology, whether it's been the science of classification
and identification, the science of keeping and breeding, the practicalities
of conservation and so on.
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Herpetology papers index.
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Reptiles website/s index page.
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Smuggled.com.
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Corruption websites media release archive.
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E-Mail inquiries to Raymond
Hoser adder@smuggled.com