What being a field scientist is really about.

Canines have always been a passion for me.  I loved dogs ever since I can remember and I got more and more interested in wolves in my late teens. It was since then that I decided I would like to specialize on wolves in the future, study them and help in their conservation.  I am currently on my way towards trying to achieve that by becoming a researcher. When I am done with my undergraduate, I will apply for a Masters and a PhD, get a Dr. slapped in front of my name and begin a life of wolf studying. The main reason why I am writing this article is because people tend to have a skewed notion of what this will entail. Not just wolves but other animals as well. The media have exposed the public to people who love animals(either through documentaries, reality shows or viral videos) and people either expect you to end up that way or expect themselves to end up that way.

Case and point is Steve Irwin. For those who don’t know Steve Irwin was a brilliant naturalist, a man with a passion in conserving the Australian wildlife and he had a strong love for crocodiles. He is often seen jumping around, being really energetic, picking up animals, wrestling crocodiles and the sort.  Now Steve Irwin was a brilliant passionate person and a great conservationist but he was never a scientist. Not in the conventional sense at least.  Any scientist passionate about crocodiles would not do what he did. It’s not to say that what he did was wrong.  By all means Steve educated generation upon generation (including me) about the Australian wildlife and he was a brilliant TV persona. He was not however a scientist. As much as we all would like  to have a life similar to Steve’s, a scientist’s research is either done in the lab or in the field for a while, then data analysis and then writing. If any biologist is intrigued by crocodiles, then they will either monitor them from afar, breed them in lab conditions or take data from somewhere else.  It all depends on what you would like to investigate on a particular animal.

When I tell people I want to study wolves I often get send videos of Shaun Ellis, usually with comments along the lines of “this will be you in a few years”and so forth. I hope it is not.  The closest I can hope to be is any videos you see from field biologists conducting wolf research such as Doug Smith. Although they handle wolves, most of the science done is either through observation or non-invasive behavior. And at times where humans actually get involved with wolves it is under controlled situations. Allow me to explain why. If you were to bond with a pack of wolves, a pride of lions etc you skew animal behavior, you mess with the data. This sort of data would not be accepted by the scientific community due to biased nature in which they were gathered. Hence if I ever were to become a TV persona  then it will probably mean I am not a scientist.

There needs to be a clear distinction. The people you see on TV handling animals are rarely scientists and what they are doing most of the times is not science. While some documentaries feature recordings of the methods that are used in scientific research, they do not show the painstaking statistical analysis or the paper analysis. I am not saying don’t be a scientist. Just be wary of what the media pass on as science and just take everything with a pinch of salt.

Finally, Steve Irwin was a great influence in my life. This article is by no means meant to be a disrespectful to him what so ever. I just thought I could clear the lines for people who don’t get the differences.