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.

Features:

• Over 20 fascinating and entertaining stories of success, challenges and unexpected events from fieldwork around the world.
• Highlights what happens "behind the science" and the lessons learned, even if unplanned.
• Features encounters with polar bears, carnivorous plants, mountain gorillas and many other creatures great and small.

Dr. Helen P. Waudby is an Adjunct Research Fellow with the Gulbali Institute at Charles Sturt University, and a conservation biologist with the NSW Government. She has over 20 years' experience in wildlife research and conservation, and also co-edited the book Wildlife Research in Australia: Practical and Applied Methods.