I Want to be a Zoologist
Ben Bravery goes into the wild
Australian Ben Bravery has always loved wildlife – as a child he spent hours watching animal documentaries. As an adult, Bravery has worked with animals all over the world. While studying zoology at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, he participated in research looking at frogs in tropical Queensland and wallaby reproduction before investigating the ecology of birds in Puerto Rico. He moved to China two years ago to help conserve endangered deer in Hainan. Now managing editor of Integrative Zoology, a journal from the Chinese Academy of Science, Bravery talked to students at the International Montessori School of Beijing about why people eat kangaroos, how fast saltwater crocodiles run, and where to find the world’s most dangerous animals. Jessica Pan
Roger Loh, 9, Singapore
Hugo Dujat, 10, France
Wilfred Guo, 10, Canada
Daniel Walton, 9, Australia
Johnny Hu, 9, China
David Legrand, 11, Luxembourg
Michael Tsen, 8, Canada
Cailin Booth, 10, Canadian
Win King Lee, 8, Singapore
Angela Yan, 10, China/Australia
Alexander Cai, 10, Hong Kong
Roger Loh, 9, Singapore
How does the horn lizard squirt blood out of his eyes?
All eyeballs have blood inside them. So this lizard has lots of big fat veins in his eyes, and it squirts the blood in a type of tear duct. In a way, it cries blood, not tears.
Hugo Dujat, 10, France
How fast can a box jellyfish kill a grown man with its venom?
It depends on where you’re stung – if you’re stung around the heart or head, it can be quick. If you’re stung in the foot or arm, it’s less quick, but still very fast.
Wilfred Guo, 10, Canada
How do you tell when a snake is just pretending to be a dangerous snake?
A scientist and zoologist would be able to tell by examining different characteristics of a snake, such as its length or its tongue. Small things like that help us figure out what species it is.
Daniel Walton, 9, Australia
Have you seen a great white shark?
No, I haven’t in the wild, but I have seen one in an aquarium. I would never want to see one in the wild. It’s one of the most dangerous sharks in the world.
Johnny Hu, 9, China
Are the animals you brought dead?
These are real animals that are dead now. Everything about the animal is real, but the blood, muscles, and eyeballs have been taken out because those things change. But the fur, fingernails and teeth don’t change and will last for hundreds and hundreds of years.
David Legrand, 11, Luxembourg
Have you ever seen a kangaroo?
Of course! There are about 30 million kangaroos in Australia and only 20 million people. For that reason, a lot of Australians eat kangaroo. Hands up if you’ve ever eaten kangaroo meat. I have. It’s really delicious. Some people think we should eat kangaroos and not cows because kangaroos are our native animals.
Michael Tsen, 8, Canada
How come you’re allowed to eat
kangaroos but we can’t eat pandas?
Well, local people have never really eaten panda because the meat is not tasty. Now we have laws to protect pandas from being eaten, but it’s more important to have laws against the cutting of bamboo and deforestation. Pandas are protected in China, so you go to jail if you eat one. But in Australia, kangaroos are not protected.
Cailin Booth, 10, Canadian
Why do monotremes lay eggs?
Monotremes – the echidna and the platypus are really old animals. They were the first mammals to evolve. When they evolved, there were lots of animals like mammals that laid eggs, but those are extinct now. Monotremes are halfway between reptiles and mammals. They’ve evolved from reptiles that lay eggs, and they do everything else that a mammal does. They just happen to be born in an egg.
Win King Lee, 8, Singapore
How does a dragonfly attack its food?
Dragonflies eat other insects, and they’re fast and deadly to their prey. They’re also the best flying animals in the whole world. Scientists and zoologists study dragonflies so we can learn how to build airplanes and helicopters that can fly like dragonflies. They have four wings and can fly straight up, backwards, in circles – they can do everything. We still haven’t been able to build an aircraft like that.
Roger Loh, 9, Singapore
How do sea snakes go underwater without gills?
Sea snakes are the same as land snakes, but they can swim. They have lungs, like you, and they come to the surface to breathe like whales do. They can stay underwater for about an hour and a half.
Win King Lee, 8, Singapore
How many animals can a tiger eat in a single day?
That’s a really good question. Well, how many animals do you think a tiger would want to eat in one day? Do you think a tiger eats everyday? No. Also, hunting is difficult. On the television, it looks easy for a tiger or lion to find an animal to eat, but those filmmakers have to spend months and months filming to capture that moment. In the wild, a tiger might only eat once a week or once every two weeks. If a tiger in the wild could eat everyday, he probably would, but it’s impossible. In a zoo, they are fed just every second or third day.
Angela Yan, 10, China/Australia
How tall is the tallest kangaroo?
About one and a half meters. Almost as tall as me. Big Red is the biggest kangaroo species. Their tails are really fat and they have powerful forearms. They’re actually really dangerous.
Win King Lee, 8, Singapore
How many meters can a snail crawl over one hour?
Wow, that’s a tough question. It depends on the species of snail. I’d say the fastest snail couldn’t even travel 10m, but it depends where the snail is traveling. If he were traveling on carpet, that would be hard because it’s very dry, as compared to the floor of a rainforest. Snails use slime to move across a surface, so on wet surfaces, they move faster.
Wilfred Guo, 10, Canada
How fast can saltwater crocodiles run?
17km per hour. Very fast. They’re faster than humans, at least over a short distance. Over a long distance, humans are faster, so that’s good to know if you’re being chased by one.
Alexander Cai, 10, Hong Kong
If a shark is hungry, does it eat its babies?
Sharks are different from most animals in that some species don’t look after their babies. Once a shark lays its eggs, it will sometimes care for it, but most of the time it won’t. When the baby hatches, the parents are nowhere near the baby. If the shark encounters the baby later, and the shark was hungry, it might eat it. But most shark species would not. In nature, most animals don’t eat their own species.
Michael Tsen, 8, Canada
What is the most dangerous animal?
What’s dangerous depends on where you are. In the ocean, there are lots of things – jellyfish, octopus, sharks, saltwater crocodiles. But the most dangerous animal in Africa is the hippopotamus. They live in the water, and humans are often in boats around them. Although they can attack, often what happens is a hippo will come up underneath a boat and push people out and the people drown. Most of the time it’s accidental. Often what you think is dangerous is not and what you think isn’t dangerous, is.
Roger Loh, 9, Singapore
Why do animals go extinct?
The number one reason is that the world around them changes – for instance, during an ice age, thousands of species go extinct and thousands of new species evolve. Humans have only been around for a very short period of time, so pollution and hunting haven’t caused as many animals to go extinct as have changes in the environment.
