Venomous River: Changing Climate, Imperiled Forests, and a Scientist's Race to Find New Species in the Congo

Join herpetologist Eli Greenbaum on his race to identify a multitude of unidentified species in the Congo, a volatile African region overcome with population pressure, military oppression, and climate change. These are the backdrop challenges to the science pursued by Dr. Greenbuam in this timely work worthy of Darwin.

Venomous River chronicles a field scientist’s search for new species in the Congo Basin, one of the world’s great crucibles of biodiversity, in the face of climate change. Although tropical forests cover less than 10 percent of Earth’s land surface, they are home to about two-thirds of the planet’s terrestrial biodiversity. Unfortunately, a ballooning human population has severely damaged half of the planet’s pristine ecosystems and the biodiversity they contained, leading to an unfolding sixth mass extinction.

In Joseph Conrad’s famous 1899 novella Heart of Darkness, he described the Congo River as “a great snake.” More than a century later, herpetologist, evolutionary biologist, and seasoned expedition leader Eli Greenbaum set out to find the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (Congo for short) incredible diversity of serpents in the flesh, along with the country’s rarest frogs, lizards, crocodiles, and turtles, which live in and along Africa’s second-largest river. For a biologist, an expedition into the heart of the Congo is a priceless gift, with its incredible species, known and unknown, lurking around every bend in the river. But the Congo is also a place of endemic political instability, widespread corruption, human suffering, and extraordinary danger. These, as much as the challenges of the natural world, confront any scientist doing field work in the Congo.

Venomous River is the harrowing story of a biodiversity scientist’s successful quest to discover several new amphibian and reptile species in the remotest heart of Africa, a wilderness where he encounters friendly peoples, a cook who is revealed to be a dangerous killer, highly venomous snakes and scorpions, deadly tropical diseases, and troubling echoes of the Congo’s colonial history.

About the Author :
Eli Greenbaum is a professor of biological sciences and the director of Biodiversity Collections at the University of Texas at El Paso. He is a world expert on the amphibian and reptile fauna in Central Africa and has published over 125 studies in peer-reviewed scientific journals and books. His work has been covered by CNN, Newsweek, The Washington Post, NBC News, National Geographic Daily News, Africa Geographic Magazine, Reptiles Magazine, and The Huffington Post. He is the author of Emerald Labyrinth: A Scientist’s Adventures in the Jungles of the Congo, a Forbes magazine “Top 10 Science Book” of the year.

Review :

“Venomous River weaves together thrilling expedition tales with profound insights about conservation, offering a rare glimpse into one of our planet’s most crucial yet imperiled ecosystems. Herpetologist Eli Greenbaum journeys deep into one of Earth’s remotest and most dangerous regions, searching for new species of amphibians and reptiles while confronting deadly snakes, mysterious diseases, and a cook with a dark past. Along the way, he witnesses both the incredible biodiversity of the Congo Basin and the urgent threats it faces from deforestation, poaching, and climate change.” - Neil Shubin, author of Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body

“The author accomplishes something that was rare in the more popular genre of biologists writing about their search for species, namely a fully contextual account where projects are situated in diverse sets of experiences. In this account, people, culture, and history are not just a backdrop but are actually integrated into the research process." - N. Thomas Håkansson, adjunct professor of anthropology, University of Kentucky

“A riveting story of herpetological adventure in one of the most dangerous places in the world; Eli and his Congolese team brave diseases, deadly snakes, and armed men in their search for herpetological ground truth.” - Steve Spawls, author of A Field Guide to East African Reptiles