Beyond the glimmering office towers and bustling city streets of Hong Kong, lie vast stretches of jungle-covered mountains, mangrove estuaries, clear rocky streams, fertile lowland farms and remote reservoirs.

This unassumingly verdant habitat is home to a vast array of wildlife, including hundreds of species of birds, and rare and unique mammals.  There are also innumerable invertebrates and roughly 75 species of reptiles and amphibians, the vast majority consisting of local snakes.

As a naturalist, explorer and avid wildlife photographer, Adam Francis frequently encounters snakes on his forays into Hong Kong’s green spaces and began collecting detailed photos of each species encountered. This accumulation eventually gave rise to a project to find and document each of the 45 known species of snake first-hand. 

What seemed like a simple idea resulted in a 3 ½ year all-consuming project, spanning the far reaches of the territory.  It required countless days and nights in search of the more elusive species, and many close calls from both the wildlife and the wild weather often experienced in Hong Kong.
 
Adam Francis has lived in Asia for the last 20 years and is originally from the United States. He received his undergraduate and graduate education at Bryant University and Northwestern University respectively.  He is an International Fellow of the Explorers Club and the Director of the Explorers Club Hong Kong Chapter.

Despite commitments to his work in the business world he makes time for his many natural-world related projects.  These include continued field research in Hong Kong for the publication of additional field guides, leading survey expeditions including most recently to West Papua and participating in numerous conservation projects locally.  He has also invented several tools to aid in his field research with a number of additional science-related tools under development.