WildLife Training
by
Stan Moore
August 2001

Up early each morning and into the field
In pursuit of good data which knowledge will yield
Survey and sample and theory and test
Bring light to the subject -- leave error to rest

The flora and fauna don't always submit
Willingly to the sampling and just may not sit
So in high heat, mosquitoes, deep frost or heavy rain
The field crew must struggle and must not complain

The data is gathered and sifted in turn
There's need to find patterns and so much to learn
Hypothesis and conjecture are thusly reviewed
Either proved or rejected by methods quite shrewd

A wildlife researcher is made, not just born
A wild life experience comes from those early morns
At one with the subject -- at home in the wild
The trainee researcher goes to adult from child

Then come defense of the thesis and a high degree
And professional status and one's own trainees
The wildlife researcher is forever changed
The wild life experience is now deeply ingrained

A salute is in order to those in this class
We must not divorce from our ancestral past
Wildlife's are to nature an important link
To man's own extinction they may hold off the brink