Raymond Hoser declared Australia's
most respected herpetologist by USA and UK herpetological societies in
1992 and 1997.
In 1992 a group from the League of Florida Herpetological Societies
did a poll and decided Australia's most respected herpetologist was Raymond
Hoser, whom they then invited to give a talk at the largest reptile expo
in the USA that same year. Raymond Hoser took up the offer, going in 1993,
timing the trip with the release of the new book Smuggled: The Underground
Trade in Australia's Wildlife, which was a huge hit in both the USA
and Australia.
A similar assessment by a UK group came up with a similar result in 1997,
with another invitation to address a symposium (this time in the UK).
More recently (in 2002) a group of herpetologists in Queensland were asked
to rank Australia's most respected living herpetologist, using several
accepted criteria and listing top contenders from one to ten. This was
a measurable test to decide Australia's most respected living herpetologist.
Included were the following categories:
- Most definitive and original scientific papers published.
- Most widely cited and referred to publications.
- Most major and noteworthy discoveries in terms of Australian herpetology.
- Best educator in terms of talks, snake shows or similar.
- Best media presenter or profile.
- Most respected keeper or breeder of captive reptiles.
- Most innovations in terms of keeping reptiles that have been adopted
since by others as standard.
- Most "firsts" in terms of reptiles, be it keeping, breeding,
new species, and other "new" things.
- Best reptile photographer as measured by published photos of quality
that are judged.
- Number of prominent species discovered, scientifically described or named.
- Best and most useful reptile books.
- Contribution to the conservation of Australia's reptiles.
The scores (10 for best, to 1 for the last of the ten nominated in each
category) were then added for each category against the names of herpetologists
ranked and the winner decided. The clear leader was Raymond Hoser, who
won some categories outright (including the last) and scored highly in
all.
This was a stark contrast to almost all others in the list who tended to
rank highly (and sometimes top) individual categories, but failed to rank
in all or most others which was the main reason why Raymond Hoser won the
title so uniequivicolly.
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