Field scientists sometimes break their own research protocols to prevent harm they observe

Evidence

This roadkill monitoring is the project of James Gibbs, an internationally renowned conservation biologist. He is a leader in conserving Galapagos tortoises and Tanzanian toads—but his concerns are also here in Labrador Hollow. He and his students set up the drift fences, patrol the road, and stay up all night counting. Gibbs confesses that sometimes, on rainy nights when he knows the salamanders are moving—and dying—he can’t sleep. He puts on a raincoat and goes out to carry them across. Aldo Leopold had it right: naturalists live in a world of wounds that only they can see. — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass, 1311

Categorization

• XREF: Closes the loop opened at ch1310: Gibbs himself cannot sustain the detached-observer stance on nights he knows salamanders are dying — the profession’s most credentialed figure breaks protocol. — connects to: Scientific observation can require standing by while harm one could prevent occurs — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 1310