Hello All - I recently finished the field guide The Venomous Snakes and their Mimics of Panama and Costa Rica (http://www.lamica.org/tsp_pubs.html), which is a bilingual guide geared towards local people, tourists, students, and researchers. It includes all of the venomous snakes and their main mimics with over 150 color photos to aid in ID.
The idea for the book came from the large number of bites that occur each year (averaging ~3/day!) in these countries and the number of snakes that are killed simply out of fear. It is one of our goals to get copies of the book into the remote and impoverished communities, national park visitor centers, schools, medical centers, etc. so local people can begin to learn the snakes and snakebites can be properly treated. We are looking for suggestions on potential funding sources for such. We currently are accepting donations to purchase books either via PayPal (http://www.lamica.org/teamsnakepanama.html - click on the donation button) or in the form of email gift cards from Amazon.com to teamsnakepan...@gmail.com. However, we also suspect that perhaps individuals, organizations, or businesses may be interested in donating to such an important cause. We welcome any and all suggestions on how we can get copies of the book to the people who really need them but cannot afford to buy one or who do not have the capability to receive a shipment from Amazon. Thank you! Dr. Julie M. Ray Director La MICA Biological Station US Address: Julie Ray, 12458 132nd Street, Chippewa Falls, WI 54729 Fundación Centro de Investigación Biológica El Copé, S.A. (Panama) El Cope-La Pintada. Provincia de Cocle. Republica de Panama http//www.lamica.org
