Bite to Survive
How not to die on a continent that's trying to kill you
| By | Brandon Troy Gifford |
|---|---|
| Format | Paperback / softback |
| Page Extent | 272 |
| Book Size | 210 x 150 mm |
| Imprint | Reed New Holland |
| Release Date | 15/11/2026 |
| Subject Classification | The natural world, country life & pets / Wildlife: general interest |
Australia is not for the faint hearted! For millions of years isolation shaped the continent unlike any other on Earth. Ancient inland seas vanished, rainforests retreated, deserts expanded, the climate shifted, the land hardened, and life was forced to adapt or disappear.
The result was a cast of animals found nowhere else on the planet. Saltwater Crocodiles with the strongest recorded bite of any living animal. Venomous snakes armed with toxins powerful enough to stop a heart. Sharks that can detect electricity fields. Birds that wage territorial wars. Mammals that lay eggs. Lizards that survive where a few other creatures can.
Yet this isn't a book about fear – it's a book about survival. Through science, exploration and first-hand encounters from some of Australia's wildest places, the author takes readers on a journey through the remarkable adaptations that have allowed life to flourish on the driest inhabited continent on Earth. You’ll meet animals that fight, flirt, fake, freeze, glow, spit, swim, tunnel and disappear in plain sight – all in the name of survival. Every adaptation, every battle, every secret weapon in the animal toolkit.
From Uluru to the Daintree, and from the Simpson Desert to the Great Barrier Reef, these are the eye-opening stories of the animals, landscapes and evolutionary battles that shaped modern Australia Because in a land forged by drought, fire, predators and isolation, every species shares one thing in common – a bite to survive.
Brandon Troy Gifford
Growing up on my grandparents’ cattle farm in Casino, NSW, my dad, George, mum, Adele, and two older sisters, Candice, then 14, and Kirby, 12, were terrified of snakes. But I wanted to save animals – like my hero, Steve Irwin. I quickly became known around our tiny town as the ‘snake catching kid’ despite being only 10. Five years later, aged 15, I signed up as a volunteer at Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary in Queensland. My parents drove me the two-hour trip and I spent every school holiday and weekend volunteering. Shadowing the keepers, when I wasn’t cleaning animal enclosures, I was getting hands-on training with birds, cuddling koalas and feeding Tasmanian devils. Studying animal sciences and captive animal studies at TAFE, I then landed my first paid job in 2016 at Australia Zoo as a roving entertainer, taking animals out to meet guests, before quickly transitioning to mammal keeping. Today I work under the operations manager at the Australian Reptile Park.
