What is Natural History Photography? Human knowledge of natural history is ancient. Pleistocene cave artists painted images of large mammals on cave walls demonstrating they had knowledge of the life history of these animals. For early humans natural history was the knowledge they needed to survive. Today humans are out of touch with the natural world, the biosphere has been degraded by pollution, deforestation, and other human activities that have placed the entire life support system of the planet at risk. Natural history photography is one way to educate today's population about the natural world. It is more than aesthetically pleasing photographs, natural history photography raise awareness of the complex interactions in ecosystems, the incredible biodiversity of Earth, and the damage humans have done to their life support system. Natural history is the basis for modern ecology and environmental science and it holds the key for successfully conserving Earth's biodiversity, a biodiversity that is rapidly disappearing.

THE LARGEST LIVING SNAKES. The African Python, Python sebae (above), is a candidate for the longest snake. Clifford Pope author of Giant Snakes (1967) reported a letter from Charles Béart that described an African Python that was 9.81 meters (32 feet) long and was shot by his wife in 1932. The snake was said to be in a bougainvillea hedge surrounding a school in Bingerville, Ivory Coast Republic. However, details of the event are absent. Was the snake measured or was it estimated to be that size? Was the snake measured before it was skinned, or was just the skin measured. The Béart's snake has been cited as being the longest known snake by several authors. Yet many authors continue to refer to a Reticulated Python from Sulawesi that was reported to be 33 feet (10 meters). If true, this would be the length record for living snakes except that the story is questionable. The report comes from a 1946 article in Natural History Magazine by Harry C. Raven about an incident that happened in 1912. Raven writes,

"I left the schooner and went inland a short distance to camp on the mountains, which were covered with virgin jungle. The white men at the mine told me of a huge python one of their relatives had killed a few days before my arrival, and showed me a very poor photograph of it taken after it had been killed and dragged to camp. Though the print was dull, you could see a man standing on the huge body, which was about a foot thick. The civil engineer told me it was just ten meters (33 feet) long. I asked him if he he had paced off its length, but he said no, he had measured it with a surveying tape."

I seriously doubt Raven's story. It has all the classic signs of a fabrication. The snake was killed just before he arrived, the photo was poor in quality, and exactly how do you get a photo developed in a few days in 1912 Sulawesi? A 33 foot snake is likely to be much more than 12 inches in diameter. And, Raven goes on to tell about another big snake that was captured by tribal people while he was there but they ate it! Alas, he had no proof! The Raven story is not documentation for a 33 foot Reticulated Python. The longest snake documented to date was a Reticulated Python (Broghammerus reticulatus) named Colossus that lived at the Pittsburgh Zoo, it was measured at 28.5 feet (see Murphy and Henderson, 1997 Tales of Giant Snakes) and there are still people alive today who actually measured the snake.

About This Web Site
Most of the photographs displayed here are scans from 35 mm color transparencies. I specialize in herpetology, but you will eventually find stock photos here of many other natural history subjects organized by geography in the Environments section. The amphibian and reptile family lists are incomplete and contain only groups that are represented by photographs of at least one species. The nomenclature used here usually follows the arrangements found on the American Museum of Natural History’s Amphibian Species of the World list, and for the reptiles I am following The Reptile Data Base and a variety of other sources, including Pianka and Vitt's (2003) Lizards Windows to the Evolution of Diversity and McDiarmid's (1999) Snake Species of the World, Volume 1. However, there are exceptions since new molecular studies appear almost weekly, new evidence about relationships changes older views, and names change to reflect the reality of ancestral descent. Higher snake systematics follows Vidal et al. (2007) C. R. Biologies 330:182-187. Nomenclature changes are often controversial and notations on these may be placed in the captions. Identification of species can be difficult and while I have tried to insure correct identification, if it is uncertain the genus may be given followed by “sp.”

Some photographs of amphibians and reptiles were taken in public or private collections and thus I was dependent on someone else for identification. Note that the author of the species or subspecies often follows the name. If the author's name and date are in parentheses it means the species has been assigned to a different genus since it was described. This web site is a work in progress, more photos, text, and additional features will continue to be added. In many cases multiple images of subjects are available, but only one is on the web site. If you don't see what you are looking for please ask.

The Fine Print. All text and photographs are copyright © John C. Murphy.  All rights reserved worldwide. The content of this site is made available for purposes of researching images offered for license by John C. Murphy.  No image is to be copied, duplicated, modified or redistributed in whole or part without the prior written permission of JCM Natural History Photography.You are encouraged to browse the photographs and information on this site. Please understand that the photographs are NOT FREE, but they may be licensed for a negotiable fee. No image may be used, for any purpose other than temporary caching by web browsers, without prior written permission from JCM Natural History Photography. While the content of this site is deemed accurate, it is neither legally binding nor guaranteed. JCM Natural History Photography is not responsible for improper use of the material (text, images) contained in this site. The entire content of this site, as a whole and in its parts, is protected by international copyright.