Inquiry: JENNIE ERIN SMITH: Stolen World

JENNIE ERIN SMITH is a free-lance science reporter and a frequent reviewer on natural history for the Times Literary Supplement. Her new book, STOLEN WORLD: A TALE OF REPTILES, SMUGGLERS AND SKULLDUGGERY is a wild and woolly look at the secret world of snake and lizard smugglers. These “snake” men scour the earth of the rarest of the rare specimens, capture numbers of them, smuggle them out of every corner of the globe and then sell them to obsessive collectors for thousands of dollars all the while trying to evade government agents hot on their trail. To make matters worse, the nations zoos were often the beneficiaries of these endangered ill-gotten gains. Tune in tonight for a very unusual and unexpectedly entertaining tale of the men who plunder the precious biodiversity of the planet for fame and profit.