NOR'-WEST FRONTIER

摘要

THE SUN HAS JUST SET and there's an orange glow on the horizon. The campsite is humming, and car doors are slamming as people get back from their field sites and queue for dinner. Ecologist Geoff Kay jokes about the '70s, when scientists headed into the bush kitted out in short shorts and equipped with little more than gaffer tape. Under the striped, open-air marquee, a couple of research assistants nurse well-earned beers and swap tips on noosing goannas. A group of volunteers peers over fish ecologist Dr Brendan 'Ebb' Ebner's shoulder at his laptop, from which you can hear the occasional whoosh and see fish snatching at bait in front of an underwater camera. Retired teacher Sally Wren is double-checking the list of butterfly species she's recorded with entomologist Dr Michael Braby, and raucous laughter emerges from around a camera held by science teacher Phil O'Neill. "You're killing me," Dr Colin McHenry says. "I've been looking for that speckled-tree monitor all week."