Science is a profession, but it doesn’t really have to take place in a school, or
a laboratory... I ended up being a scientist because I really dug this sort of work in
nature and doing field work. I spent a lot of time out of doors when I
was a kid. I saw some pretty incredible things and I just want to follow them wherever they
would lead.
“We’ve got a barrel shaped hole here and it’s got about six bats. Come here, sweetheart!”
Then I realized, you know, you can actually make a living doing this.
“I’d love to have this tree in my yard - it is truly magnificent.”
One of the things I wanted to do was field work in the tropics. I never imagined that
I would end up going to a part of the world that’s tropical but it was still kind of
developed in recent years by the United States - the Panama Canal. When the US made this
canal with a lot of help they had to have a forest reserve on each side of it because
that protects the water and allows this canal to exist. So this was always going to be a
brilliant place for a protected forest and people could come and study it and nature
could be conserved here, too.
I’m intimately tied with Panama canal, I’ve raised a family here, kids love Panama, they
love the canal, the water, the forest, the out of doors.
“This canal makes me feel good.”
One of the things we really go for in Panama is any sort of water sport. To begin with
we have two oceans and the big canal between it and it’s the greatest feeling of just
freedom and exploration. The tropical equator has the most magnificent
things going on around it and it’s been my job to travel, and I love travelling; Indonesia,
central Africa, South America, parts of Mexico, and all the people there that I’ve met have
turned out to be all of my best friends and altogether it’s made life much richer to
know all these people in all these places but it’s really established to me a fellowship
that extends all around the world and I don’t know where I would have gotten that doing
any other kind of work.
If you’re really interested, there are wonderful teachers, I think just about any part of science
who are willing to go the extra mile because they know you’re really interested
“So let’s follow this tree down - maybe there’s a nest in the upper trunk or maybe
one of these big branches.”
...and I’ve become one of those people now, too, because people come to me who are really
interested in something and although I’m not a professor, I have students and I have
people who I work with who are on their way to getting an advanced degree or becoming
a scientist in some way or another
“Oh, look, there’s a nest. Great! This tube goes right in the tree hollow and it’s
in here somewhere. The colony is probably in a big area like this. But listen to them
now, they’re ventilating a lot because they’re in the sun”
It’s just a joy to work together and try and understand the things that we’re just
totally delighted about when we’ve found what we’re trying to understand. But getting
there is most of the fun.
“We’re going to go up and take a look at bees in the canopy and take a look at some
of the research that you’ve done, mainly.”
Meg: When I’ve seen bees approach the feeders I’ve had at the top of the tower, for some reason
they always seem to come in from this direction.
David: They hit the canopy and then they go along the canopy?
Meg: That would make sense.
David: That would make sense, but you don’t know for sure.
Meg: I don’t know for sure.
David: But it seems likely.
Meg: That’s one of those really interesting unanswered questions.
David: It’s so exciting when you see one pop out! I’ve only seen one pop out once...(fades out)
In the words of many people who work for Smithsonian...
what job? I’m getting paid to do what I like doing, so it’s not like a job. The
payoff is in being able to do this kind of thing.