What’s your random work talent?
Ask a Biologist Monday 1/27/25
Answers from Biologists:
I have hawk eyes. Any time equipment is dropped, I can always retrace and find it.
Can be extremely close to wasps/nests without getting scared.
Bleeding small mammals. 98% success rate and only 1 mortality out of 400.
An uncanny ability to guess the time, within a minute or two.
Knowing ALL the job sites to search for work.
Excellent at pulling ticks.
Zero reaction to mosquito bites.
Driving stick.
Surviving unplanned extra field days on gas station fried chicken and not getting sick.
A good fish netter.
A good sense of smell. I pick up on dead things from far away and find the source.
Good at finding critters by accident on field expeditions, mostly cryptic like stick bugs.
Never reacting to poison ivy.
Master of the ratchet strap.
Work related puns.
Can wield a hatchet with surprising accuracy and power.
Seeing in the dark-I’m colorblind but routinely night hike without lights.
Data and entry organization. I type fast, color code, and fix people’s messes often.
Attracting danger no matter the job despite having a culture of safety wherever I work.
IDing plants by smell.
Busting through vegetation to set survey routes. Tamarix especially.
Spotting very weird, well disguised bugs while out in the field.
Work truck DJ.
iPad troubleshooting. There’s always something wrong with them.
Having skinny arms for checking seabird burrows.
Weirdly good at falling without hurting myself or my equipment.
I excel dropping things but never dropping the samples. Don’t ask how many petri dishes I’ve killed.
Very good at using materials from the woods to get a truck unstuck.
Welding.
Spotting scat. I’ve been gifted multiple scat books.
Make a mean turkey noise.
Ability to sleep in cars no matter the distance or terrain.
Really good at back up a trailer.
Trip master. If there is something to trip on, I will find it. Every single time.
Finding live quahogs.
Driving in reverse.
Land navigation.
When bitten by a small animal, the reflex of pulling back the hand is mostly gone. No teeth damage.
Totally calm when covered in ants.
Navigating the Great Lakes and handling quickly changing and dangerous lake conditions.
Incredibly specific work puns and jokes.
Finding RPLNs.
Aging deer by teeth.
Able to immediately fall asleep anywhere and power naps for 15 minutes.
Keeping morale up. Even if we’re all sweaty and exhausted and cranky.
Denting trailers while backing up.
Getting on the nerves of almost all the PhD students and postdocs I meet.
Finding every spiderweb crossing a trail with my face.
Putting any boat on a trailer.
Spotting ticks on my coworkers.
Taking CWD samples. Whole process in under 2 minutes.
Always remember where the monitoring plots are. I may not remember your name though.
Giving baby turtles oral meds.
Can replace a flat tire without help in just a couple minutes.
Backing up a trailer.
Improvising when something goes wrong or breaks. I can and will fix it with whatever I have on hand.
Getting trucks unstuck.
Backing trailers.
Zip tie master. I can zip tie stuff I can’t see underwater, even when I can’t feel my hands.
I can get past any fence (with a permit).
