What’s your craziest/funniest field story?
Ask A Biologist 7/5/21
Follow up: We both let it go and stepped back from the bear. It took a few steps and rolled onto its back so we were able to increase the dose of the anesthetic and gather our scientific data/collar it.
Answers from Biologists:
Got stuck in quicksand on a say when everything went wrong. My field partner pulled me out.
Got charged by a sow grizzly with 2 cubs. Had to bear spray them from 4 feet away.
Got horribly lost at a site I had spent 2 years surveying for dragonflies. Twice in 1 week.
Chased/harassed by a spotted owl in the dark while doing a marbled murrelet survey. It made me cry!
Finding a soft boiled and hatched egg at a nest site with a known weeks dead turkey.
Passed out from stress while pit tagging a bat.
Worked a 48 hour Search and Rescue shift that ended in a helicopter rescue.
Spent an hour sitting on TOP of the cab of my truck faced off with a mama moose and her calves.
Locked both car key sets in the car with ALL the field gear.
Seeing a guy in full hazmat gear walking a grown cow on a leash in the front yard of a house.
Chased out of a river where I was resting and soaking by a herd of bison.
Took a step into a wetland that looks fairly dry. Sank in up to my waist and had to be pulled out.
Coworker ran over a bear spray can and sprayed everyone in the parking lot, our crew included.
Found myself face to face with a peccary. We both got surprised and ran like hell!
I blew up a field truck. Hollywood style. Kablooey!
I wild pig bit my foot while I was trying to capture it. My toes were fine, I was wearing thick boots.
Charged by a black rhino while doing a latrine survey for brown hyenas.
Saw a shuttle break through the atmosphere at 4am and didn’t know it was human activity.
A barred owl flew into my mist net over my head as I extracted a titmouse.
Had a tree fall on me.
Trying to get a snare off a young bull moose, he stood up with me on top of him.
Working on private land, cows surrounded our vehicle and trapped us for over an hour.
Surrounded by dingoes at 4am in the dark.
Working on a military base, I set off a booby trap with a smoke bomb on my study site.
I had a duck nibble on my nipple when I was banding it. Luckily I still have my nipple and the duck got a leg band.
A bear stole my field pack with my GPS and spot device. Found it down the street in one piece.
Went for a dip in a gator hole for the hundredth time. This time momma was home.
Fyke nets with a 50lb snapping turtle.
Waving at my crush/coworker then tripping in a hole and face planting right in front of them.
Took a nap during my break and woke up with a rattlesnake inside my shirt.
Sat on a manzanita branch when I was going pee in a field and it punctured my butt.
Came across a man performing a cleansing ritual…in the nude.
Fell in one of the trout raceways at a hatchery.
Went to inventory a spring within a cave and the moment I turned my headlamp on I was swarmed by wasps.
Didn’t realize how steep the pond dropped off until I was suddenly fully submerged.
Melted the side mirror off our fire rig getting too close to the flames on a rowdy fire.
Broke my finger hiking over scree.
Giant rat fell on me so I fell in the river and lost the key to our canoe. At 3am. In the middle of nowhere.
Had a naked guy jog right past me while I was doing bird surveys. He didn’t even care.
Chainsawing into a nest box 20 feet up a tree and having wasps swarm out.
Driving through an intense storm that caused many trees to fall in front of our truck.
Was extracting a sharp shinned hawk from a mist net and one of its talons went into my finger.
Got surrounded by a herd of bison and had to hide until my coworker could pick me up.
Was cleaning a large fish tank and fell in.
Selfie with a bat that decided right at that moment to fly at us.
Tent mate and I had quiet food poisoning events all not trying not to disturb the lions eating 10 feet away.
Got into a fight with a mute swan I wanted to band. He won.
Fell waist deep into snow while bird watching.
Found a dead rattler, was holding it only to find out it wasn’t dead, just stunned.
