- Joined
- Dec 17, 2019
Introduction:
Raymond Hoser (RT Hoser) a.k.a. "Snakeman Australia", is a fake scientist and Steve Irwin wannabe who is well-known and infamous in the Herpetology community for his self-published works where he makes up new names for reptile species (mostly snakes) based on misunderstood information, supposition or sometimes without any proof at all.
He owns and runs the "Australasian Journal of Herpetology" (Archive), where he "peer-reviews" and "accepts" his own works, and then goes out and petitions the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) with his new "research", and being a more neutral organization, the ICZN then updates their information with Hosers silly names.
Hoser is also known for self-citation (Hoser, 2009), naming species after himself, such as the Western diamondback rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox) to "Hoserea" atrox and the Timber Rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus) to "Hoserea hoserea". Or for example the proposed "Aspidites melanocephalus adelynensis" in his own words: " ETYMOLOGY: Named after Adelyn Hoser, the author’s daughter."
Hoser's shenanigans are so notorious among this segment of the scientific community, that articles in Scientific American (Archive) have been published discussing the issues of taxonomic classification this one single man perpetrates. He is widely considered as a joke if not an outright nuisance by much of the English-speaking herpetologist and taxonomic communities, however, some groups (including Brazilian herpetologists) simply read the recent ICZN updates and don't know any better, leading to use of Hoser's outlandish proposed names by foreign scientists.
Engagement with Critics:
Perhaps if Hoser sat back quietly and kept his commentary to himself, his autistic revisions of reptile taxonomy would go unnoticed by all except the a handful of taxonomists responsible; but it is his choice to gleefully engage with his critics and the internet footprint he leaves across herp forums and Facebook pages to which even recreational snake-lovers have uncovered the insanity of the Hoserverse.
Hoser fancies himself a "real scientist" and a "genuine" member of the Herp community; despite the fact that none of his papers are co-authored. He has a strong Facebook presence where he argues with detractors and likes to ban/delete critics as "fakes".
He can be found here - posting his new papers and arguing with people who make fun of him.
Note that the name "Caudisona" and "Hosera" are genus names made up by Hoser. The admins will occasionally change the name of the page to one of Hoser's made-up genera names to make fun of him.
(Now as we can see "Macrochelys Maxhoser Hoser" is actually incorrect considering even novice scientists know that you don't fucking capitalize past the genus level, e.g. Genus species subspecies. This is further testimate to Hoser's prowess as frontline researcher).
Further note that Raymond has likely never been to the Suwanee River basin, nor has he seen a wild AST from there, nor has he inspected AST DNA under a PCR or Ion Torrent. This claim to "discovery" is reading someone else's work and making a half-assed "yeah I think that's a diff species! I'll name it after myself!"
Raymond also believes that everyone who disagrees with him is part of a "gang" led by a rival scientists
However, Facebook detractors aren't the only group Hoser likes to engage with. Whenever his works are challenged by other professionals, he fires back with his own self-published works which are usually just name-calling and "no u" style arguments.
See for example his 2015 "publication" dubbed: "Rhodin et al. 2015, Yet more lies, misrepresentations and falsehoods by a band of thieves intent on stealing credit for the scientific works of others." (raw pdf below). As you can tell, the title of this "publication" is very professional and scientific.
In a separate 2009 paper about Australasian pythons (raw pdf below), Raymond Hoser lambasts his critics as criminals*, "dissidents" and "sloppy scientists". He spends more space talking about the criminal record of one of his main " arch rivals ", including unsubstantiated rumors, their previous academic shortcomings* (including papers "debunked" by none other than Raymond himself) than he does actually discussing the supposed species status of the pythons in question.
Free-Handling Controversies:
In addition to being a self-publishing, self-citing and self-inserting nuisance on the taxonomic community, Raymond T. Hoser is also part of a dying breed of snake morons who free-handle live venomous snakes. While some (including our boy Raymond) use equipment such as snake hooks, a critical part to free-handling is that at some point their hand or other part of the body will touch the snake in a manner to which they expose themselves or others to being bitten.
Note that all these snakes could kill you several times over, and this method is not endorsed by actual professionals
While this in of itself isn't exceptional among the herp community, especially among amateurs, what makes Raymond Hoser exceptional is that not only did he decide to mutilate snakes and remove their venom glands, he had the balls to detail the whole thing in one of his "publications" so that others could read what he did and repeat the process. (pdf attached below).
Worse yet, he gives a reasoning for why he should feel the need to mutilate a poor snake and remove its venom gland, in his own words:
"The push to remove venom glands came from several angles and arose due to my seeking a permit to publicly display, show and handle deadly species of snake and minimize the inherent risks, both real and perceived. Noting the increase in public liability insurance problems and related occupational health and safety laws, particularly in the wake of insurance disasters in Australia such as the Longford Gas Explosion, HIH Insurance Company bust up and so on the idea of using deadly snakes for displays in close quarters became problematic. In the period 2002-2004 I received inquiries from numerous people who wanted a live and interactive display of deadly snakes, but without the associated risks. Included here were the managers of the Heritage Golf Club at Chirnside Park (Victoria), Diamond Creek Public School at Diamond Creek, the Bayside Christian College at Baxter and others. In other words these people wanted to have their cake and eat it too."
Follow the terms of my permit and learn how to handle safely & professionally? Nah, just fucking mutilate the snakes and remove a major organ!
Lawsuits & Legal Trouble:
To prove how harmless his mutilated snakes are, Raymond let two extremely venomous snakes - a Death Adder and a Coastal Taipan - bite his daughter, aged 10 at the time. This led to him being fined $12,000 and having his Commercial Wildlife Demonstrator License revoked (Archive).
Raymond fought the charges on the basis that because he removed the venom glands from the snakes, they weren't actually venomous.
... and the Aussie government refused to grant him a second permit after the first got revoked (Archive).
"Whistleblower" and Conspiracy Shit:
Raymond is also a self-described "whistleblower", and has written at least five books alleging corruption (and possibly murder/rape?) in the Victorian police, court system and wildlife services.
These include:
Smuggled and Smuggled 2, alleging that the Australian government is involved with wildlife smuggling
Victoria Police Corruption and Victoria Police Corruption 2 claiming the Victoria police are involved with various crimes and cover-ups.
The Hoser Files - The Fight Against Entrenched Official Corruption where he claims the courts are in on it too
Adress & Info
Raymond Terrence Hoser
488 Park Road Park Orchards,
Victoria, 3114, Australia
Wikipedia (Archive)
Business Website
Book Website (w/Conspiracy shit) (Archive)
Twitter (Archive)
Personal Facebook (Archive)
Business Facebook (Archive)
*It is worth noting that while some of Raymond's main "arch rivals" are shady wildlife smugglers and sloppy scientists themselves, he does not limit his name-calling and childish insults to those with criminal pasts or flawed research.
Raymond Hoser (RT Hoser) a.k.a. "Snakeman Australia", is a fake scientist and Steve Irwin wannabe who is well-known and infamous in the Herpetology community for his self-published works where he makes up new names for reptile species (mostly snakes) based on misunderstood information, supposition or sometimes without any proof at all.
He owns and runs the "Australasian Journal of Herpetology" (Archive), where he "peer-reviews" and "accepts" his own works, and then goes out and petitions the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) with his new "research", and being a more neutral organization, the ICZN then updates their information with Hosers silly names.
Hoser is also known for self-citation (Hoser, 2009), naming species after himself, such as the Western diamondback rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox) to "Hoserea" atrox and the Timber Rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus) to "Hoserea hoserea". Or for example the proposed "Aspidites melanocephalus adelynensis" in his own words: " ETYMOLOGY: Named after Adelyn Hoser, the author’s daughter."
Hoser's shenanigans are so notorious among this segment of the scientific community, that articles in Scientific American (Archive) have been published discussing the issues of taxonomic classification this one single man perpetrates. He is widely considered as a joke if not an outright nuisance by much of the English-speaking herpetologist and taxonomic communities, however, some groups (including Brazilian herpetologists) simply read the recent ICZN updates and don't know any better, leading to use of Hoser's outlandish proposed names by foreign scientists.
Engagement with Critics:
Perhaps if Hoser sat back quietly and kept his commentary to himself, his autistic revisions of reptile taxonomy would go unnoticed by all except the a handful of taxonomists responsible; but it is his choice to gleefully engage with his critics and the internet footprint he leaves across herp forums and Facebook pages to which even recreational snake-lovers have uncovered the insanity of the Hoserverse.
Hoser fancies himself a "real scientist" and a "genuine" member of the Herp community; despite the fact that none of his papers are co-authored. He has a strong Facebook presence where he argues with detractors and likes to ban/delete critics as "fakes".
He can be found here - posting his new papers and arguing with people who make fun of him.
Note that the name "Caudisona" and "Hosera" are genus names made up by Hoser. The admins will occasionally change the name of the page to one of Hoser's made-up genera names to make fun of him.
(Now as we can see "Macrochelys Maxhoser Hoser" is actually incorrect considering even novice scientists know that you don't fucking capitalize past the genus level, e.g. Genus species subspecies. This is further testimate to Hoser's prowess as frontline researcher).
Further note that Raymond has likely never been to the Suwanee River basin, nor has he seen a wild AST from there, nor has he inspected AST DNA under a PCR or Ion Torrent. This claim to "discovery" is reading someone else's work and making a half-assed "yeah I think that's a diff species! I'll name it after myself!"
Raymond also believes that everyone who disagrees with him is part of a "gang" led by a rival scientists
However, Facebook detractors aren't the only group Hoser likes to engage with. Whenever his works are challenged by other professionals, he fires back with his own self-published works which are usually just name-calling and "no u" style arguments.
See for example his 2015 "publication" dubbed: "Rhodin et al. 2015, Yet more lies, misrepresentations and falsehoods by a band of thieves intent on stealing credit for the scientific works of others." (raw pdf below). As you can tell, the title of this "publication" is very professional and scientific.
In a separate 2009 paper about Australasian pythons (raw pdf below), Raymond Hoser lambasts his critics as criminals*, "dissidents" and "sloppy scientists". He spends more space talking about the criminal record of one of his main " arch rivals ", including unsubstantiated rumors, their previous academic shortcomings* (including papers "debunked" by none other than Raymond himself) than he does actually discussing the supposed species status of the pythons in question.
Free-Handling Controversies:
In addition to being a self-publishing, self-citing and self-inserting nuisance on the taxonomic community, Raymond T. Hoser is also part of a dying breed of snake morons who free-handle live venomous snakes. While some (including our boy Raymond) use equipment such as snake hooks, a critical part to free-handling is that at some point their hand or other part of the body will touch the snake in a manner to which they expose themselves or others to being bitten.
Note that all these snakes could kill you several times over, and this method is not endorsed by actual professionals
While this in of itself isn't exceptional among the herp community, especially among amateurs, what makes Raymond Hoser exceptional is that not only did he decide to mutilate snakes and remove their venom glands, he had the balls to detail the whole thing in one of his "publications" so that others could read what he did and repeat the process. (pdf attached below).
Worse yet, he gives a reasoning for why he should feel the need to mutilate a poor snake and remove its venom gland, in his own words:
"The push to remove venom glands came from several angles and arose due to my seeking a permit to publicly display, show and handle deadly species of snake and minimize the inherent risks, both real and perceived. Noting the increase in public liability insurance problems and related occupational health and safety laws, particularly in the wake of insurance disasters in Australia such as the Longford Gas Explosion, HIH Insurance Company bust up and so on the idea of using deadly snakes for displays in close quarters became problematic. In the period 2002-2004 I received inquiries from numerous people who wanted a live and interactive display of deadly snakes, but without the associated risks. Included here were the managers of the Heritage Golf Club at Chirnside Park (Victoria), Diamond Creek Public School at Diamond Creek, the Bayside Christian College at Baxter and others. In other words these people wanted to have their cake and eat it too."
Follow the terms of my permit and learn how to handle safely & professionally? Nah, just fucking mutilate the snakes and remove a major organ!
Lawsuits & Legal Trouble:
To prove how harmless his mutilated snakes are, Raymond let two extremely venomous snakes - a Death Adder and a Coastal Taipan - bite his daughter, aged 10 at the time. This led to him being fined $12,000 and having his Commercial Wildlife Demonstrator License revoked (Archive).
Raymond fought the charges on the basis that because he removed the venom glands from the snakes, they weren't actually venomous.
... and the Aussie government refused to grant him a second permit after the first got revoked (Archive).
"Whistleblower" and Conspiracy Shit:
Raymond is also a self-described "whistleblower", and has written at least five books alleging corruption (and possibly murder/rape?) in the Victorian police, court system and wildlife services.
These include:
Smuggled and Smuggled 2, alleging that the Australian government is involved with wildlife smuggling
Victoria Police Corruption and Victoria Police Corruption 2 claiming the Victoria police are involved with various crimes and cover-ups.
The Hoser Files - The Fight Against Entrenched Official Corruption where he claims the courts are in on it too
Adress & Info
Raymond Terrence Hoser
488 Park Road Park Orchards,
Victoria, 3114, Australia
Wikipedia (Archive)
Business Website
Book Website (w/Conspiracy shit) (Archive)
Twitter (Archive)
Personal Facebook (Archive)
Business Facebook (Archive)
*It is worth noting that while some of Raymond's main "arch rivals" are shady wildlife smugglers and sloppy scientists themselves, he does not limit his name-calling and childish insults to those with criminal pasts or flawed research.
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