Fieldwork is the most rewarding part of wildlife biology and also the riskiest. Most field injuries come not from wild animals but from vehicles, falls, heat, dehydration and illness. Good fieldwork also carries ethical responsibilities: to the animals studied, to local communities, and to the quality and honesty of the data. This module covers the essentials.
What you will learn
- How to plan for safety in the field
- How to behave around dangerous animals
- The ethical principles of research on wild animals
- Permits, approvals and working fairly with communities
Planning for safety
Before any field trip, complete a written risk assessment:
- Identify hazards: vehicles and roads, water and boats, heat and cold, terrain, disease, dangerous animals, isolation, and personal security.
- Assess risk: how likely and how serious is each hazard?
- Control risk: training, equipment, procedures and supervision.
- Plan for emergencies: nearest hospital and evacuation route, communication (satellite messenger or radio where there is no mobile signal), first-aid kit and trained first aiders, and a check-in schedule with someone at base.
Never work alone in remote areas without a check-in plan. Carry more water than you think you need. Vaccinations, antimalarial medicine and snakebite first-aid knowledge are essential in many regions.
Dangerous animals
Most wild animals avoid people. Problems usually arise when an animal is surprised, cornered, protecting young or food, or habituated to people. General rules:
- Stay alert and make your presence known in dense cover by talking or making noise.
- Keep your distance and give animals an escape route.
- Never run from large predators such as lions or leopards; running can trigger a chase. Stand tall, face the animal and back away slowly.
- Elephants: watch for warning signs such as ears spread, head raised, trunk swinging or mock charges. Retreat calmly and quietly downwind if possible.
- Hippos and buffalo cause many deaths in Africa. Never walk between a hippo and water, especially at dawn and dusk.
- Bears: in North America and Europe, carry bear spray where recommended and know how to use it. Store food securely. Responses differ by species and situation, so learn local guidance.
- Snakes: watch where you put hands and feet, wear boots and long trousers, use a torch at night, and never try to catch or kill a snake. For a bite, keep the person calm and still, remove rings and tight items, immobilise the limb and get to medical care quickly. Do not cut, suck or apply ice or a tight tourniquet.
- Crocodiles: stay away from the water’s edge in crocodile habitat and never swim unless locals confirm it is safe.
Disease and hygiene
Wildlife can carry diseases that affect people, including rabies, leptospirosis, histoplasmosis in bat caves and tick-borne infections. People can also pass diseases to wildlife: great apes are vulnerable to human respiratory diseases, which is why gorilla and chimpanzee visitors must keep a distance of at least 7 m and may be asked to wear masks. Clean boots and equipment between sites to avoid spreading amphibian chytrid fungus and invasive seeds.
Ethics of research on wild animals
Research that involves capturing, marking, sampling or disturbing wild animals must be justified and carefully done. The widely used 3Rs framework asks researchers to:
- Replace invasive methods where possible, for example using camera traps, eDNA or photographs instead of capture.
- Reduce the number of animals affected to the minimum needed for sound results.
- Refine methods to minimise pain, stress and risk, for example using the lightest possible tags (a common guideline is under 3 to 5 percent of body mass for tags on birds and bats) and trained veterinary staff for immobilisation.
Most universities and research institutions require approval from an animal ethics committee before work begins. Professional societies publish guidelines, such as the American Society of Mammalogists’ guidelines for the use of wild mammals in research and the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour’s guidelines.
Permits and approvals
Wildlife research usually needs several permissions:
- Research permits from national wildlife or environment authorities, such as the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation in Nepal or national research councils in many African countries.
- Protected area permits from park authorities.
- Collection and export permits, and CITES permits for any samples of listed species crossing borders.
- Access and benefit-sharing (ABS) agreements under the Nagoya Protocol for genetic resources.
- Local permissions from landowners, community leaders and Indigenous authorities.
Allow plenty of time: permits can take months.
Working fairly with communities
Good fieldwork involves local people as partners, not just as guides or labourers. This means seeking free, prior and informed consent where research affects communities or their land; employing and training local staff and paying fair wages; sharing results in accessible forms and local languages; recognising local and Indigenous knowledge and co-authoring with local collaborators; and avoiding “parachute science”, where outsiders collect data and leave without building local capacity.
Data ethics
- Record data honestly, including failures and zero counts.
- Keep precise locations of threatened species confidential where poaching or collection is a risk; share generalised locations publicly.
- Back up data and archive them in public repositories when appropriate.
- Respect privacy when camera traps photograph people.
Case study: sensitive species data
In 2017, the journal Science published an article by researchers David Lindenmayer and Ben Scheele describing how scientific papers giving precise locations of newly described reptiles had led to poachers collecting them for the pet trade within months. Many journals and data portals now obscure the locations of sensitive species, and platforms such as iNaturalist automatically blur coordinates for threatened species. It is a reminder that openness and protection must be balanced.
Try it yourself
Write a one-page risk assessment for a day of wildlife watching in a park near you. List at least six hazards, how likely and serious each is, and how you would reduce the risk.
Key terms
- Risk assessment: a structured evaluation of hazards and how to control them.
- 3Rs: Replace, Reduce, Refine.
- Animal ethics committee: a body that reviews and approves animal research.
- CITES permit: a permit for international movement of listed species or their parts.
- Parachute science: research by outsiders without meaningful local involvement.
Quick quiz
Further reading
- Sikes, R. S. and the Animal Care and Use Committee of the American Society of Mammalogists (2016). “Guidelines of the American Society of Mammalogists for the use of wild mammals in research and education.” Journal of Mammalogy.
- Lindenmayer, D. and Scheele, B. (2017). “Do not publish.” Science.