Raymond Hoser
| Raymond Hoser | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Raymond Terrence Hoser 1962 (age 54–55) United Kingdom |
| Residence | Melbourne, Australia |
| Other names | Wayne King, Snake Man |
| Alma mater | University of Sydney |
| Website | www |
Raymond Terrence Hoser (born 1962) is a self-described Australian herpetologist, snake-catcher, and author. Since 1976 he has written books and articles about official corruption in Australia. He has also authored works on Australian frogs and reptiles and operates a snake handling business, Snakebusters, in Melbourne. Some of Hoser's work is controversial, including his advocacy of the surgical alteration of captive snakes to remove their venom glands and his herpetological taxonomy.
Hoser has published several works as a whistleblower, in a 1998 radio interview he said that he was "known as an anti-corruption crusader". An analysis of his work by the Rationalist Society of Australia referred to him as a "tireless investigator" and he has received praise from Brian Martin, a former president of Whistleblowers Australia.
In his 1993 book Smuggled, Hoser wrote that officials of the wildlife services in New South Wales were involved in the illegal wildlife trade.
In 1995 Hoser published The Hoser Files, detailing his encounters with Victoria Police and the Road Traffic Authority in Melbourne whilst working as a taxi driver. (Hoser had moved to Victoria in 1985.)
Hoser has also contributed to the taxonomy of Australian snakes, describing new species and genera, and suggesting revisions to current arrangements. The majority of these nominations have not been accepted. Hoser's work has been a source of controversy in the field of herpetology, with a 2001 review in Litteratura Serpentium strongly criticising his publications as "less than professional", describing them as a source of confusion and wasted effort. The review claimed that Hoser provided no description of the holotype or type specimen for most of his new species, and argued that Hoser's alleged errors could have been avoided had the articles been published in a peer-reviewed, rather than amateur and non-institutional, journal. Charges of ethical misconduct were made in this article. Further criticism of Hoser's work was published in 2006, in a review that stated that "the level of evidence provided by Hoser to justify his taxonomic acts is minimal" and charged that several of his publications appear to have been made with the intention of scooping other workers in the field, behavior that the authors described as "ethically repugnant".
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