• Question: What is the easiest animal to work with?

    Asked by 958anmh42 to Carrie, Ellen, Rupert on 17 Mar 2017.
    • Photo: Rupert Marshall

      Rupert Marshall answered on 17 Mar 2017:

      Scientists choose the animal which best helps them answer their question. For example, I study how the pitch of songs differs between noisy and quiet areas. I chose a bird with a simple flat whistle song as it is easy to measure its pitch – it would be much harder if I studied a nightingale which has a very complicated song. But when I study dialects I choose a bird with a clear system of dialects – the corn bunting. Great tits do sing differently if they are far apart but it is a small effect so I am better off choosing a species with a clearer pattern.

      The easiest animal to work with is one which easy to find (see or hear), easy to get to and which displays a behaviour which is appropriate for your question.

    • Photo: Carrie Ijichi

      Carrie Ijichi answered on 17 Mar 2017:

      Animals that are quite small and can be kept in large numbers for tests are really useful but what’s really important is that they’re the right animal to help you answer your question. Horses aren’t that easy to work with because they’re enormous and needs lots of space and are very expensive to kept, plus a lot of work! The good thing is that lots of other people keep them and I can borrow them!

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