A Life for Reptiles and Amphibians is composed by 55 interviews with herpetologists from all continents. They vary greatly in age, experience, specialization and interests, giving us a representative cross-section of the extremely differentiated world of herpetology. The interviews have in common that they are composed of 18 questions. These questions want to explore the lives of the interviewed, their jobs, and their activities in both the past and the present, the studies they have conducted, how their enthusiasm for herps was born [e.g. an early photo showing Yehudah Werner in 1946], the difficulties they have encountered on their way and much more. They also have the goal of inducing the interviewee to tell us about their field trips, to provide young people wanting to become herpetologists with some advice, and to discover what is their idea of herpetology as well as what they think of herpetoculture.
The second part of the interview is personalized for each herpetologist: a certain number of questions, ranging from half a dozen to more than fifteen, aims to explore in detail the studies and the lives of the interviewees, as well as tap into their knowledge and experience to clarify some aspects of and methods used in herpetology that usually raise doubts and questions in young people aspiring to become herp researchers. These questions are designed on the basis of the curriculum vitae of the individual herpetologists, their published papers and books, and their discoveries.
Apart from the 55 contributors to this volume, many more herpetologists are shown on various photos from field trips in which they participated.
Interviewees: Kraig Adler (USA), Ross A. Alford (USA/Australia), Natalia B. Ananjeva (Russia), Franco Andreone (Italy), Mark Auliya (Germany), Sherif Baha El Din (Egypt), Sergé Bogaerts (The Netherlands), Wolfgang Böhme (Germany), William R. Branch (UK/South Africa), Donald G. Broadley (UK/Zimbabwe), Massimo Capula (Italy), Miguel Angel Carretero (Spain), Lawan Chanhome (Thailand), Alan Channing (UK/South Africa), Fabio Germán Cupul-Magaña (Mexico), Alain Dubois (France), Gerardo García-Herrero (Spain/UK), Varad Giri ((India), Richard Griffiths (UK) , Harold Heatwole (USA), Ivan Ineich (France), Sergius L. Kuzmin (Russia), Axel Kwet (Germany), Michael Lannoo (USA), Benedetto Lanza (Italy), Edgar Lehr (Germany/USA), Stefan Lötters (Germany), Iñigo Martinez-Solano González (Spain), Masafumi Matsui (Japan), Vincenzo Mercurio (Italy/Germany), Russell A. Mittermeier (USA), Christian Neumann (Germany), Göran Nilson (Sweden), Annemarie Ohler (Austria/France), Nikolay Orlov (Russia), Mark O'Shea (UK), Valentín Pérez-Mellado (Spain), Daniel Pincheira-Donoso (Chile/UK), Anders Rhodin (Sweden/USA), Mark-Oliver Rödel (Germany), Sergei Ryabov (Russia), Andreas Schlüter (Germany), Richard Shine (Australia), Ruchira Somaweera (Sri Lanka/ Australia), Miguel Trefaut Rodrigues (Portugal/Brazil), Peter Uetz (Germany/USA), Miguel Vences (Germany), Nicolas Vidal (France), Gernot Vogel (Germany), David B. Wake (USA), Yehudah Werner (Israel), Wolfgang Wüster (Germany/UK), Xu Xing (China), Zhao Ermi (China), Ziegler Thomas (Germany).
