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Asked by MartinaRodriguez to Carrie, Cedric, Ellen, Ines, Rupert on 8 Mar 2017.
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Carrie Ijichi answered on 8 Mar 2017:
It can be – working with horses you can get hurt sometimes even if you’re careful and often you’ll be outside in rubbish weather! It is worth it though or we wouldn’t do it. You’ve got to be hard-working and determined.
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Ines Goncalves answered on 8 Mar 2017:
Hi Martina. It depends on the question you’re asking and the animals you work with. Some animals are very sturdy, they don’t stress easily and your presence doesn’t disturb them much, making it easier to observe their natural behaviour. Others can be very tricky and you need to find way to observe them without them realising it. This can be done with camera traps and normal cameras, with one-way mirrors, or collars that can track their movements. In general, you can be certain that you need a lot of patience and determination when you work with animals, but hopefully, it pays off in the end!
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Ellen Williams answered on 9 Mar 2017:
I think all projects come with their own difficulties. For me it was actually getting access to observe animals (because zoos only allow limited people to conduct research each year). Other things like technology failure, poor weather, etc, are sort of inherent with any outside project. But the benefits of working with animals far outweigh the difficulties!
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Rupert Marshall answered on 9 Mar 2017:
Working with animals can be hard when they don’t show up or don’t do what you expect them to do. When a bird doesn’t sing there isn’t much I can do if I’m trying to record it. And if an animal isn’t where you are in a forest it could be pretty much anywhere. Studying animal behaviour takes time and patience. But it doesn’t always seem like hardwork if you are in a nice location and not in a hurry.
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Cedric Tan answered on 14 Mar 2017:
Yes definitely!
One major problem (and benefit) of working with animals is that they like to perform behaviours that are out of your control. For example, my chickens peck at my hands, or they become so aware of your presence during the experiments that their behaviour might not be very ‘natural’
When working with Wildlife, trekking the forest in the rain and cross high volume rivers can be quite tough. All the dangers with venomous snakes, wasps and spiders make the work tough but the first picture of the clouded leopard on the camera made the hard work paid off!
Working with non-animals like chemicals or materials is also difficult. For example, chemicals can be harmful to health and tools for manufacturing materials can be quite dangerous if used inappropriately. In all, we just have to take safety precautions in all research.
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