A life doing dumb stuff with animals

Amanda Gefter, New Scientist 3 Jun 09;

Nature writer Richard Conniff has spent his career out in the field, following researchers around the globe as they study animal behaviour. Throughout his travels he has found himself in some sticky situations, which he chronicles in his new book Swimming with Piranhas at Feeding Time: My life doing dumb stuff with animals (W. W. Norton, $25.95/£18.99). He tells Amanda Gefter about his adventures, motivations and where he is headed next.

What motivates you to go out into the field and do "dumb stuff" with animals?

First of all, it's fun. It's exciting to be in some of these places, like the Okavango Delta in Botswana or Bhutan. I put myself in these positions, not to see how the animal relates to me, but to see how the animal lives on its own. So sometimes I'll do something that seems dumb, like swimming with piranhas or sitting down with African wild dogs, but I'm really doing it to show that they are not the sadistic killers that they're made out to be. I want to get inside the mind of the animal.

In your book you seem very concerned with saving the reputations of misunderstood animals. What animals are the most misunderstood?

Predators are the obvious choice because so many people think they just need to be exterminated, and in many cases they have been, like African wild dogs or wolves in the US. We need to think about what they need to survive, so the ranchers and herders can learn to live with them. It's important to understand that we need the predators, because without them there's a cascade of effects and the whole system falls apart.

When Yellowstone National Park lost its wolves, the park became seriously overpopulated and over-grazed by elk. Restoration of the wolf has helped restore balance. The overfishing of cod and other predators from the oceans has resulted in the blossoming of jellyfish populations. The jellies can then become so dominant that fish populations can't get reestablished, even when we stop overfishing.

In the book, you expressed a desire to see the world through the animals' eyes. How can you do that? For instance, you wrote, "I suddenly wanted to become a spider, at least for a little while".

I was studying spider webs with Bill Eberhard in Costa Rica. You walk 50 feet with him down a patch of rainforest and you see dozens of techniques for creating spider webs, and they're all technologically sophisticated. He sees stuff everywhere that most people ignore.

I decided to try to make a web of my own. I called a YMCA in Massachusetts and found an instructor who was willing to help me do this on a climbing wall. I spent an afternoon trying to string a spider web.

It wasn't exactly the same experience as the spider's – I had to worry about the concrete floor 15 feet below. In addition, every time I joined a line I had to tie a knot, whereas a spider just dabs a spinneret and glues the thing together in no time at all.

Mine took hours and hours and was clumsy and small for my size. But it gave me a chance to see the world through a spider's eyes, or feel the world through their sensilla, and it showed me how far we are from being able to do what they do.

What animal would you most like to be?

I'd have to say the African wild dog because they are beautiful animals, they lead an active and interesting communal life, and they get to run through the most beautiful place in the world. I just wanted to get out of my vehicle and run with them.

Do you ever find that in studying these animals you learn something about what it is to be human?

There are lots of creatures that live on our body – being human is being a habitat, and being a habitat is not a bad thing. These creatures do no harm, and we're constantly learning new stuff about them.

We're now learning that the bacterial population on human skin is far more diverse than anyone thought, and different biological communities live on different parts of the body. The ecology of the human digestive system, for instance, is astonishing. 700 species live in our mouths, and between 600 and 700 live in our colons. They all have an effect on how we live. Knowing that we are part of this web of life is really interesting to me.

What's the most surprising thing you've witnessed out in the field?

I didn't go out expecting piranhas to be peaceful. The most surprising thing was finding out that they basically take off a piece of skin, or rake off some scales from their prey, and live off this renewable resource, getting the bulk of their nutrition without ever killing the animal. The idea that they are these ferocious killers turned out to be just a big myth perpetrated by Teddy Roosevelt.

What's your next adventure?

I'm going to do a story about mastodons and mammoths, so I'm helping to dig one up this summer. I'm also working on a book about the discovery of species.