Friends in the forest: Victoria

By Brinna Barlow

A large part of novel scientific research is the collection of samples, which will eventually be converted into numbers for quantitative, data-driven analysis. Most of my career as an ecologist has focussed on sample-collection or “fieldwork”, whether that be for my own research, as a research assistant collecting samples for another researcher or working for a Non-Government Organisation. Often this work takes place in remote locations: secluded savannahs, remote rainforest, and other far-flung fields. Despite the isolation of locations, this is not isolating work. It’s important to have at least one teammate for safety, efficiency and (hopefully) for fun.  

In this series of blogs entitled “friends in the field” I would like to introduce some of the people who have made my research possible and to share their experience of what it means to do fieldwork in Hong Kong. 

In this third instalment I would like to introduce Victoria, Portuguese-Russian-German and all American. She is a first-generation college student and has recently moved to Hong Kong to read a PhD in urban ecology at the University of Hong Kong. 

What are your expectations for today?

I think it will be difficult, having heard other people’s stories. I know that we’ll be a bit off-piste so maybe I’ll get to see something new in Hong Kong. 

So, were your expectations met?

They were met, but in a good way they were met. 

Oh, in a good way they were met?

Yes, it was actually I wouldn’t call it hard fieldwork with what we did today, but it was fun. 

Ok

It was a lot of swinging around trees and falling down. I like that stuff though. I think it’s enjoyable and I did feel the burn going up that last hill, so I feel like I got a bit of a work-out in. 

So, expectations met in a good way, good. My next question is: what was something that surprised you about today? What was something that you didn’t expect?

What did I not expect? I didn’t expect it to be so hard to find the caterpillars. 

Oh ok.

I was shocked at how bad I was [at finding them]. Some of them I was looking around like “where the heck is the flagging tape” and it was right in front of my eyes. 

Yeah, you have to get your eye in. 

You have to get used to looking.

Yep.

Get your search image in your brain. But I think I did ok. 

Yeah, you did we got all of them pretty much. No caterpillar left behind. 

Another thing, genuinely what surprised me was that the slopes were really slippery and that I did slip and fall. I thought that everyone was blowing it out of proportion that it was really steep and really slippery fieldwork, but they were right. I can see why people have been falling over. It’s pretty tough.

It’s true, it is pretty tough. So how was your overall experience of today? 

Um, it was a 9.5 out of 10. It was very enjoyable: perfect weather, nice and cool out, good breeze, clean air, pretty drive. Also, I saw monkeys, and I hadn’t seen those before. Actually, those surprised me. I was surprised at how large they are and how beefy their muscles look. 

Yeah, they’re quite buff.

I don’t think I would win in a fight. 

You don’t think you would?

I think you would, but I don’t think I would. 

Haha, well hopefully neither of us will ever have to find out.

Yeah.

Fingers crossed.