"Going Native"

In Friday’s class we discussed how you design a field study project. There is so much that goes into this process! We discussed different problems with field studies; different ways being in the field can limit a study. One of the things mentioned in the reading was the idea of “going native.” With a field study, one must decide whether to become a full participant in whatever is being studied, or to just sit back and observe. These have pros and cons. Joining in with the project can change how people act or how events would actually unfold. And you run the risk of “going native”, of completely adopting the lifestyle or opinions of whatever you are studying, which makes it hard to analyze that behavior. I just liked this phrase, because I am going to South Africa where I am hoping to study wildlife, so going native for me would be like running off with a lion pride to roam the savannahs.

So, field study project! As I’ve been reading more articles, I think I can almost see a project idea emerging. I just read an article about observing captive animals and designing zoo enclosures around their needs. That would combine animal behavior with zoos…in class we also talked about taking advantage of a field study. What is the point of going half way across the world to study something? In my case, what is the benefit of going to South Africa to study zoos? It would just be amazing to say I had studied wildlife in Africa (wildlife biologist’s dream, remember), but how can I tie in the culture of East London with a zoo study? I think one way to do this would be to look at South Africa’s conservation history. Zoos are supposed to be closely related to conservation work, so I could look at the conservation work that has been done in South Africa (which apparently has a good history of that kind of stuff) and see if zoos play into that conservation work at all. Things to think about…