Steve Spawls is a herpetologist with a particular interest in the reptiles of East Africa. He caught his first chameleon at the age of six,, lost a finger to a puff adder when he was 17 and was co-author of A Field Guide to the Reptiles of East Africa a bit later. He has written many key papers on the herps of the region. Steve is an expert on the natural history of Kenya and was co-author of Kenya: A Natural History.