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  • Richard Conniff

  • Reviews for Richard Conniff’s Books

    Every Creeping Thing: True Tales of Faintly Repulsive Wildlife: “Conniff is a splendid writer–fresh, clear, uncondescending, and with never a false step; one can’t resist quoting him.” (NY Times Book Review)

    The Species Seekers:  Heroes, Fools, and the Mad Pursuit of Life on Earth by Richard Conniff is “a swashbuckling romp” that “brilliantly evokes that just-before Darwin era” (BBC Focus) and “an enduring story bursting at the seams with intriguing, fantastical and disturbing anecdotes” (New Scientist). “This beautifully written book has the verve of an adventure story” (Wall St. Journal)

    Swimming with Piranhas at Feeding Time by Richard Conniff  is “Hilariously informative…This book will remind you why you always wanted to be a naturalist.” (Outside magazine) “Field naturalist Conniff’s animal adventures … are so amusing and full color that they burst right off the page …  a quick and intensely pleasurable read.” (Seed magazine) “Conniff’s poetic accounts of giraffes drifting past like sail boats, and his feeble attempts to educate Vervet monkeys on the wonders of tissue paper will leave your heart and sides aching.  An excellent read.” (BBC Focus magazine)

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Posts Tagged ‘Nassau Mountains’

What’s Scarier Than a Savage Piranha Attack?

Posted by Richard Conniff on June 2, 2014

bloodthirsty-piranha06A particularly gruesome email came in the other morning from Suriname, a beautiful country on the northeastern shoulder of South America. Early last month, a family from the Netherlands was vacationing at a resort on the Suriname River. The eight-year-old daughter was playing with her brother in the shallows, in an area supposedly protected by a “piranha-proof” net. Suddenly the children started screaming.

Another tourist carried the girl out of the water, with blood streaming down from her foot. At the hospital, doctors identified the deep divot cut out of the girl’s right foot as the toothy bite of a piranha. The family caught the next plane back to the Netherlands for further treatment.

The story made my eyes go wide, as my informant no doubt knew it would. Jan H. Mol is a fish biologist at the University of Suriname, and he and I have traded notes on piranhas since traveling together on an expedition in Suriname a few years ago. We’ve both spent a fair amount of time in the water with piranhas and lived to tell the tale (one of my books is titled Swimming With Piranhas at Feeding Time). We’ve also both made considerable effort to Read the rest of this entry »

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