Wild Science
Unexpected Encounters When Working in Nature
What’s it like to study polar bears in the wild? How do you raise children among large carnivores? And how do you find a frog that no-one has seen for 40 years?
From deserts to rainforests and even the polar Arctic, scientists venture into the field to collect, observe and study the world’s organisms and the environments they live in. But even with the best planning, unexpected weather, unpredictable animals and unforeseen encounters can occur.
Wild Science: Unexpected Encounters When Working in Nature explores the precarious, hilarious and thought-provoking stories ‘behind the science’. It shows the value of these experiences, even when things don’t go right, and the importance of fieldwork for understanding our own place in the world.
With contributions from Cara Penton, Terrah Guymala and Warddeken Rangers; Christopher R. Dickman; Laura Kojima; Pamela Catcheside; Euan G. Ritchie; Neil Jordan; Leonardo Guida; Manu E. Saunders; David M. Watson; Jessica Marsh; Erika M. Roper; Laura M. Skates; Andrew E. Derocher; Isabel Castro; David G. Hamilton; Abi T. Vanak; Jodi J. L. Rowley; Wayne Boardman; Robert Heinsohn; Jo Isaac; Lydia McLean; Tracy Ainsworth; Dieter F. Hochuli; and Bradley P. Smith.
Dr Helen P. Waudby is an Adjunct Research Fellow with the Gulbali Institute at Charles Sturt University in New South Wales, and a conservation biologist with the New South Wales Government. She has worked in wildlife research and conservation for more than 20 years, spending much of that time in the field.
