• Question: Have you been and studied the animals you study in their natural habitats in the wild?

    Asked by fiona to Carrie, Ellen, Rupert on 16 Mar 2017. This question was also asked by 822anmh42.
    • Photo: Ellen Williams

      Ellen Williams answered on 16 Mar 2017:

      I haven’t, but I would really love to! Africa and Sri Lanka are on the ‘to visit’ places list!

    • Photo: Carrie Ijichi

      Carrie Ijichi answered on 17 Mar 2017:

      There are very few truly wild horses unfortunately but you can see feral horses. These have the genetics of domestic horses but live in the wild and behave more like wild horses. I would love to go to the very few places that wild horses still exist to watch their behaviour. Actually, apart from the fact that they’re fearful of humans and have more sexual behaviour (because they’re not castrated) they don’t behave that differently to how domestic horses do if they’re allowed to live in normal groups.

    • Photo: Rupert Marshall

      Rupert Marshall answered on 17 Mar 2017:

      I do most of my research in the wild. I study bird song on a Scottish island and all over the UK. I do have some tropical fish in our aquarium too though. Sometimes it is easier to answer questions about animal behaviour when you can control their environment – like watching fish in an aquarium. But sometimes you want to know how they react in their natural environment. Sometimes animals don’t behave “normally” in captivity – which means you might not get useful answers from your experiments. I want to disturb the animals as little as possible and find out what they do in real-world situations. If that means waiting in the rain, then embrace the moment.

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