Not every degree leaves you languishing in lectures for three years. Third-year zoologist Tamara Williams’ studies have taken her to Ecuador so she can get up close and personal with rain forest life.
At some point in my teens, I found myself so lost in the mesmerising world portrayed by David Attenborough, that I knew no other vocation could possibly satisfy me. I wanted to live it. So here I am a few years later, living in the tropical rainforest of Eastern Ecuador, an intrepid explorer and novice field scientist.
The word scientist evokes all sorts of images, mainly ones of laboratories and white coats, test tubes and lab rats. What about us scientists who don’t work in labs? Field scientists work in the great outdoors, and are interested in pretty much everything from discovering new species to the effect of obscure parasites on ecosystems. They explore and investigate, aiming to eventually understand what they observe. Two years into my undergraduate Zoology degree I’m not quite a field scientist yet, but what I lack in education and experience I make up for in… well, I’m keen anyway.
I am currently spending my third year living at a small scientific research station, named Timburi Cocha, in a remote patch of rainforest belonging to the indigenous Kichwa community of San Josa de Payamino. It is everything you would expect a tropical rainforest location to be. The air is hot and thick, the trees are densely packed, and everywhere is teeming with life.
Life for me here as a work experience student is relatively simple, revolving mainly around my personal research, which is a biodiversity study of frogs. I am trying to establish exactly which species are here, where and when I can find them, and in what condition. To do this I walk slowly along several 100 meter paths in the forest, equipped with a local guide, and at night time a torch. When I spot a frog I feel an intense adrenaline rush, will I successfully capture it? Have I collected this species yet? Unfortunately for most of the time, I am just walking very, very slowly, and looking at leaves. Much of field research is like this. It isn’t all finding new species and being transfixed by exotic courtship rituals.
Being a field scientist basically means being an academic, collecting data and publishing scientific papers. It doesn’t pay well but it is interesting work. Getting your foot in the field science world can be tough. When I was applying for placement jobs there were endless pharmaceutical opportunities, but nothing to fulfil my desire for exploration. Much like a career in anything else, to become a field scientist you need to build up a range of contacts and a portfolio of work. Finding the initial experience can be a difficulty, since many opportunities are voluntary, and by voluntary I actually mean that you have to pay on top of supporting yourself. Getting a job where my expenses are paid, and I even receive a basic salary is almost unheard of.
As a work experience placement goes, this is a fantastic one. By the end of this year I will have gained countless skills and I am hopeful the experience will facilitate my progression into further study. I live an exceptionally beautiful place. I have unlimited freedom in that I choose my own research, and I work to my own timetable in the day. I have no instructions, and nobody to hold my hand. I have no deadlines, no exams, and my supervisor is a world away. This isn’t for everyone though, at times I am at a loss for what to do, or how to do something, and it is difficult to get things organised but it is what I choose to do, and I love it.