Fieldwork season is here, and like wildlife, our scientists are active outside

Our scientists are always working hard behind the scenes at the Museum, but another important aspect of The Nat’s scientific efforts involves studying wildlife in the natural environment—this is called fieldwork.

Fieldwork can look very different for scientists depending on their discipline, but the main idea is to observe and study wildlife and plants out in nature. This can look like surveying for species populations, live-trapping animals or insects, mapping certain plants, and so much more.

Sometimes scientists are driven by research questions, like a current project within the mammalogy department that’s researching the impacts of cattle on the small mammal community, but sometimes their goal is to simply create a record of what’s living in our environment. These records can help us ask important questions about change over time.

As the weather begins to warm up this month, our scientists are starting to head out of the Museum and into the field. Fieldwork is not exclusively done in the spring, but it’s a great time for surveying across all disciplines, because it is when the environment is most active.

Springtime brings changes and flourishing to the natural environment—plants bloom, birds begin to nest, and animals come out of hibernation or overwintering. In the case of botany, for example, identifying plants often requires the presence of flowers and fruits, and spring is when these features are most common. It’s an exciting time for scientists all around!

The Nat’s Healthy Canyons Initiative, an ongoing multidisciplinary project with the goal of conserving San Diego’s urban canyons, is driven by fieldwork, so spring is a great time for all departments to survey for the project.

Each department has their own methods for surveying and fieldwork. Ornithology surveys can look like setting up bird point count sites in the canyons, where scientists document everything they hear and see at each site for 10 minutes. Invertebrate Zoology often sets up pitfall traps and bowls out in the canyons for 3-4 hours to see what invertebrates drop inside. Herpetology conducts an hour-long visual encounter survey in each canyon to make note of every reptile or amphibian they see. The list of methods goes on and on.

The Nat’s collection of specimens is vast and important to our research in tracking historical changes and making comparisons, but making observations in the natural environment is vital to our research as well. As Curator of Mammalogy Scott Tremor says, “There are a lot of questions that can be answered with fieldwork alone.” In studying mammals, he points out that “you can’t really discover animal behavior from a specimen in our collection, so animal behaviors are something we can measure while in the field.”

Fieldwork is not only most scientists’ favorite part of their jobs, but it is also the foundation of their work. Anna Arft, Conservation Biology Research Project Manager, shares, “We would only have a partial picture of what’s out there if we didn’t get out in the field.”

This type of hands-on work often requires getting down and dirty in nature, staying alert for rattlesnakes, venturing into bad weather, and dealing with poison oak, but it’s worth it for what can be discovered. Scott shared that when he was working in the San Quintin region in western Baja California, he rediscovered the San Quintin kangaroo rat (Dipodomys gravipes), which was previously thought to be extinct.

Fieldwork helps us understand animal behavior, identify plants and animals in the environment, and can show us how threats like climate change are affecting nature. Monitoring the health of our wildlife is a vital and ongoing effort, and we’re always looking for more people to join us. If the prospect of fieldwork sounds interesting to you, our Museum leads community science projects that allow anyone with an interest in nature to contribute to scientific research. Science is for everyone, after all, and there’s always a way to get involved at The Nat.

Surveying for the Healthy Canyons Initiative is a great way to participate in community science. It can be as simple as making wildlife observations on your phone with iNaturalist, or setting up bird recorders on your property, if you live near a canyon.

The upcoming Border BioBlitz project is another great opportunity to take part in fieldwork. This effort takes place during April and May and aims to record as many species as possible along the U.S.-Mexico border. You can participate through independent observations, or join us at organized Border BioBlitz events!

As Scott puts it, “It’s important for your soul to be outdoors—that's where we can all find peace in so many ways.”

Posted by Janae Pabon, Communications Volunteer.