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| How I Got Started I’ve been interested in nature and the outdoors since I was a kid. When I was in elementary school I was collecting insects, hopping around in the woods, and climbing trees without using ropes. During college I took the first chance I had to get involved with field research, which was to work with a biologist studying marsh birds in Michigan. So I spent the summer after my first year of college tromping around in marshes and getting close to wildlife. I thought it was great to be outdoors and to see animals in the wild. I really thought it was great to do that as my work. Later on, what got me into my current work was an opportunity to work as a research assistant in Borneo. And that has led to my continued interest in the rain forest in Borneo and the work I’m doing now. My wife is also a biologist, and we work together in the field. She has her own research and I have mine, but we cooperate a lot. It’s really great to be able to do field work together. We don’t have any children yet, but I’m sure that when we do, we’ll include them in our travels and fieldwork as much as possible. Where My Interests Take Me For work in the tropical rain forest in Borneo, we base ourselves at a research camp that is deep in the forest. It takes about two days from the nearest city to get there: We take speedboats down along the coast, switch to small canoes, and spend a whole day going upriver. Our rustic base camp is the starting point for going into the forest. It’s sort of like camping all year long. We bathe in the river and have a simple lifestyle. I spend about six months of the year in the field and six months in the States. When I’m in the field, it’s exciting and variable. A typical day could mean getting up early to climb a tree and be in my blind before dawn to observe the animals that come to the fig trees. I might be up there for several hours, then come down, measure trees, or follow up on some of the other ongoing projects. Or I might follow orangutans to see what they are feeding on and take pictures of them. There’s a whole variety of things that change on a daily basis…and it’s always interesting. When I’m in the States I have to write papers, do background research for my papers, and prepare for expeditions. I try to choose a project that has interesting science or questions to be answered, or that has the potential for my exploring something new. Also, I like projects that have good photo potential because I like to take pictures of the plants and animals I’m studying. I also like to choose projects that help bring awareness about conservation of the rain forest. So there are a lot of different factors I think about when I choose a project; an ideal one will combine all of those together.
Before I depart, there is a lot of preparation for a trip to the rain forest in terms of reading up and preparing for the research that I’m going to be doing there. One really important thing is to be sure all my equipment is complete and ready to go. I have very long lists of gear and checklists that I use when I go on a trip to make sure I have everything I need. If I get out in the middle of the rain forest and don’t have some essential piece of equipment, I can’t run down to the corner store and buy it. So it’s really important to have all my equipment. Also, I have to test any camera equipment or tree-climbing equipment before I go to make sure it’s going to work when I get out there. There are lots of bugs and snakes in the rain forest. But once you get to know them they are not so bad. They’re actually very interesting. So when we go to the rain forest with some people who have never been there, I show them the leeches and show them what interesting little animals they are and how they work—before the leeches start biting them—so they don’t get all freaked out. Usually they don’t feel so squeamish after that. If you think of these animals as interesting creatures—that you want to know what they’re doing, how they’re living, and what’s interesting about them—then you don’t feel so squeamish about them. Most kids are naturally interested in critters. I got interested in the fig trees because, during my early experiences in the rain forest, I noticed that fig trees were a real magnet for wildlife. When fig trees were fruiting, lots of animals were coming to the fig trees, and it was a really exciting place to be. Another interesting thing about the fig trees is their growth habits. Since they start life up in the canopy as little seedlings and send the roots down, nobody really studied how they grew because of the difficulty of getting up in the trees to learn about that. So I saw an opportunity to study the figs trees while I explored the rain forest canopy. And there are challenging adventures in the rain forest, like climbing up a tree. Once there was a situation that had to do with a technique I have for climbing trees. I use ropes to climb very tall trees. I first shoot a line over the tree and pull up a rope, which is tied off near the ground. And then I have to climb up the other side of the rope using equipment that attaches me to the rope. Once, the branch that my rope was going over broke while I was halfway up the tree, and I started falling. I knew my rope was going to catch on a lower branch that was below the one the rope was initially over. So I was quite sure I wasn’t going to hit the ground, but I had a few seconds to fall through the air and wait for the rope to get tight, and that was pretty scary. Discoveries in the Field Being one of the first people to explore the rain forest canopy in Borneo has been real exciting and satisfying for me. I’ve made lots of different discoveries about the way strangler fig trees grow and the animals that rely on them. And I’ve even discovered some new species—a new species of ant, some new species of trees, and a new species of fig.
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| Photo Credits. All: Tim G. Laman. © 2000 National Geographic Society. All rights reserved. |
