It was 1978, and there had been no resident timber wolves in Wisconsin for twenty years. Still, packs were active in neighboring Minnesota, and there was the occasional rumor from Wisconsin's northwestern counties of wolf sign or sightings. Had wolves returned on their own to Wisconsin? Richard Thiel, then a college student with a passion for wolves, was determined to find out.
Thus begins "Keepers of the Wolves," Thiel's tale of his ten years at the center of efforts to track and protect the recovery of wolves in Northern Wisconsin. From his early efforts as a student enthusiast to his departure in 1989 from the post of wolf biologist for the Department of Natural Resources, Thiel conveys the wonder, frustrations, humor, and everyday hard work of field biologists, as well as the politics and public relations pitfalls that so often accompany their profession.
We share in the excitement as Thiel and his colleagues find wolf tracks in the snow, howl in the forest night and are answered back, learn to safely trap wolves to attach radio collars, and track the packs' ranges by air from a cramped Piper Cub. We follow the stories of individual wolves and their packs as pups are born and die, wolves are shot by accident and by intent, ravages of canine parvovirus and hard winters take their toll, and young adults move on to new ranges. Believing he had left his beloved wolves behind, Thiel takes a new job as an environmental educator in central Wisconsin, but soon wolves follow. By 1999, there were an estimated 200 timber wolves in 54 packs in Wisconsin.
This is a sequel to Dick Thiel's 1994 book, "The Timber Wolf in Wisconsin: The Death and Life of a Majestic Predator." That book traced the wolf's history in Wisconsin, its near extinction, and the initial efforts to reestablish it in our state. Thiel's new book looks at how successful that program has been.

THE TIMES, ECONOMIST AND GUARDIAN BOOKS OF THE YEAR 2017 It is accepted wisdom today that human beings have irrevocably damaged the natural world. Yet what if this narrative obscures a more hopeful truth? In Inheritors of the Earth, renowned ecologist and environmentalist Chris D. Thomas overturns the accepted story, revealing how nature is fighting back. Many animals and plants actually benefit from our presence, raising biological diversity in most parts of the world and increasing the rate at which new species are formed, perhaps to the highest level in Earth's history. From Costa Rican tropical forests to the thoroughly transformed British landscape, nature is coping surprisingly well in the human epoch. Chris Thomas takes us on a gripping round-the-world journey to meet the enterprising creatures that are thriving in the Anthropocene, from York's ochre-coloured comma butterfly to hybrid bison in North America, scarlet-beaked pukekos in New Zealand, and Asian palms forming thickets in the European Alps. In so doing, he questions our irrational persecution of so-called 'invasive species', and shows us that we should not treat the Earth as a faded masterpiece that we need to restore. After all, if life can recover from the asteroid that killed off the dinosaurs, might it not be able to survive the onslaughts of a technological ape? Combining a naturalist's eye for wildlife with an ecologist's wide lens, Chris Thomas forces us to re-examine humanity's relationship with nature, and reminds us that the story of life is the story of change.

Wildlife and the countryside are highly valued by people in the UK, and for good reason. Healthy habitats are invaluable assets and promote human wellbeing. However, they are under increasing threat from, among other things, relentless urban expansion and intensive modern agriculture. These pressures largely stem from a major underlying cause - the high and growing population of humans living in the UK. This book provides an overview of wildlife in the UK and its recent status; factors contributing to wildlife declines; trends in human numbers; international deliberations about the impacts of human population growth; and the implications for the future of wildlife conservation in the UK. The evidence-based text includes comparisons of wildlife declines and their causes in other countries, providing a global perspective. This book is for ecologists, naturalists and conservation biologists studying and working in academia or in consultancies, as well as all those interested in wildlife conservation.

Animal population ecology comprises the study of variations, regulation, and interactions of animal populations. This book discusses the fundamental notions and findings of animal populations on which most of the ecological studies are based. In particular, the author selects the logistic law of population growth, the nature of competition, sociality as an antithesis of competition, the mechanism underlying the regulation of populations, predator-prey interaction processes, and interactions among closely related species competing over essential resources. These are the notions that are considered to be well-established facts or principles and are regularly taught at ecology classes or introduced in standard textbooks. However, the author demonstrates that these notions are still inadequately understood, or even misunderstood, creating myths that would misguide ecologists in carrying out their studies. He delves deeply into those notions to reveal their real nature and draws a road map to the future development of ecology.

There is a growing concern that many important ecosystems, such as coral reefs and tropical rain forests, might be at risk of sudden collapse as a result of human disturbance. At the same time, efforts to support the recovery of degraded ecosystems are increasing, through approaches such as ecological restoration and rewilding. Given the dependence of human livelihoods on the multiple benefits provided by ecosystems, there is an urgent need to understand the situations under which ecosystem collapse can occur, and how ecosystem recovery can best be supported. To help develop this understanding, this volume provides the first scientific account of the ecological mechanisms associated with the collapse of ecosystems and their subsequent recovery. After providing an overview of relevant theory, the text evaluates these ideas in the light of available empirical evidence, by profiling case studies drawn from both contemporary and prehistoric ecosystems. Implications for conservation policy and practice are then examined.

The Coccinellidae are a family of beetles, known variously as ladybirds or ladybugs. In Britain alone, some 46 species belong to the Coccinellidae family, although only 26 of these are recognisably ladybirds. Composed largely of Professor Michael Majerus' lifetime work, and updated by two leading experts in the field, this book reveals intriguing insights into ladybird biology from a global perspective. The popularity of this insect group has been captured through societal and cultural considerations, coupled with detailed descriptions of complex scientific processes, to provide a comprehensive and accessible overview of these charismatic insects. Bringing together many studies on ladybirds, this book has been organised into themes, ranging from anatomy and physiology to ecology and evolution. This book is suitable for interested amateur enthusiasts, and researchers involved with ladybirds, entomology and biological control.

"This story, told by a master teller of such things, does more than take you inside the cages, fences, and walls of a zoo. It takes you inside the human heart, and an elephant's, and a primate's, and on and on. Tom French did in this book what he always does. He took real life and wrote it down for us, with eloquence and feeling and aching detail."
-Rick Bragg, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and bestselling author
"An insightful and detailed look at the complex life of a zoo and its denizens, both animal and human."
-Yann Martel, author of "Life of Pi" and "Beatrice and Virgil"
Welcome to the savage and surprising world of "Zoo Story," an unprecedented account of the secret life of a zoo and its inhabitants. Based on six years of research, the book follows a handful of unforgettable characters at Tampa's Lowry Park Zoo: an alpha chimp with a weakness for blondes, a ferocious tiger who revels in Obsession perfume, and a brilliant but tyrannical CEO known as El Diablo Blanco.
The sweeping narrative takes the reader from the African savannah to the forests of Panama and deep into the inner workings of a place some describe as a sanctuary and others condemn as a prison. "Zoo Story" shows us how these remarkable individuals live, how some die, and what their experiences reveal about the human desire to both exalt and control nature.

The synthesis of the Aquatic Biodiversity and Ecosystems Conference (ABEC) 2015, which was held to assess scientific progress over the past twnety-five years, this book provides a comprehensive and global review of work since the 1992 publication of Plant-Animal Interactions in the Marine Benthos. Taking a regional and, where appropriate, habitat perspective, it considers sites of coastal biodiversity from around the world to incorporate a global approach. The volume analyses abiotic and biotic interactions, and the factors determining distribution patterns, community structure and ecosystem functioning of coastal systems. It explores themes of how phylogeography and biogeographic process influence assemblage composition, and hence drive community structure and the respective roles of environmental factors and biological interactions, with the overall goal to establish how general are the processes in different regions and habitats. For researchers, graduate students and academics studying coastal ecosystems, with interest for conservation practitioners managing areas of high biodiversity.

This practical manual of freshwater ecology and conservation provides a state-of-the-art review of the approaches and techniques used to measure, monitor, and conserve freshwater ecosystems. It offers a single, comprehensive, and accessible synthesis of the vast amount of literature for freshwater ecology and conservation that is currently dispersed in manuals, toolkits, journals, handbooks, 'grey' literature, and websites. Successful conservation outcomes are ultimately built on a sound ecological framework in which every species must be assessed and understood at the individual, community, catchment and landscape level of interaction. For example, freshwater ecologists need to understand hydrochemical storages and fluxes, the physical systems influencing freshwaters at the catchment and landscape scale, and the spatial and temporal processes that maintain species assemblages and their dynamics. A thorough understanding of all these varied processes, and the techniques for studying them, is essential for the effective conservation and management of freshwater ecosystems.

An intrepid investigation of the criminal world of wildlife trafficking--the poachers, the traders, and the customers--and of those fighting against it Journalist Rachel Nuwer plunges the reader into the underground of global wildlife trafficking, a topic she has been investigating for nearly a decade. Our insatiable demand for animals -- for jewelry, pets, medicine, meat, trophies, and fur -- is driving a worldwide poaching epidemic, threatening the continued existence of countless species. Illegal wildlife trade now ranks among the largest contraband industries in the world, yet compared to drug, arms, or human trafficking, the wildlife crisis has received scant attention and support, leaving it up to passionate individuals fighting on the ground to try to ensure that elephants, tigers, rhinos, and more are still around for future generations. As Reefer Madness (Schlosser) took us into the drug market, or Susan Orlean descended into the swampy obsessions of TheOrchid Thief, Nuwer--an award-winning science journalist with a background in ecology--takes readers on a narrative journey to the front lines of the trade: to killing fields in Africa, traditional medicine black markets in China, and wild meat restaurants in Vietnam. Through exhaustive first-hand reporting that took her to ten countries, Nuwer explores the forces currently driving demand for animals and their parts; the toll that demand is extracting on species across the planet; and the conservationists, rangers, and activists who believe it is not too late to stop the impending extinctions. More than a depressing list of statistics, Poached is the story of the people who believe this is a battle that can be won, that our animals are not beyond salvation.

This book brings together a very special collection of pictures. Planet Earth is now regarded as the ultimate wildlife TV series, and its magic lies in its photography. Featuring the very best of Planet Earth images - from breathtaking aerials to unique, intimate portraits - Planet Earth, The Photographs is full of surprises, spectacle and a sense of awe. It is also, to quote David Attenborough, "an eloquent rallying call to all of us who care for the Earth's welfare to redouble our efforts to protect those wonders that still survive." Accompanying the images are thought-provoking captions by Planet Earth series producer Alastair Fothergill, along with quotes from the good and great of the wildlife and conservation world. Together they reveal the wonders of life on earth today and remind us that, without action, "within the next few years, the world itself may never look the same again." "There is something about the wonder of nature, nature in its infinite variety and mystery, that touches people in their very souls." Planet Earth - The Future

Winner of the 2014 Albert Corey Prize from the American Historical Association Winner of the 2013 Hal Rothman Award from the Western History Association Winner of the 2013 John Lyman Book Award in the Naval and Maritime Science and Technology category from the North American Society for Oceanic History For centuries, borders have been central to salmon management customs on the Salish Sea, but how those borders were drawn has had very different effects on the Northwest salmon fishery. Native peoples who fished the Salish Sea--which includes Puget Sound in Washington State, the Strait of Georgia in British Columbia, and the Strait of Juan de Fuca--drew social and cultural borders around salmon fishing locations and found ways to administer the resource in a sustainable way. Nineteenth-century Euro-Americans, who drew the Anglo-American border along the forty-ninth parallel, took a very different approach and ignored the salmon's patterns and life cycle. As the canned salmon industry grew and more people moved into the region, class and ethnic relations changed. Soon illegal fishing, broken contracts, and fish piracy were endemic--conditions that contributed to rampant overfishing, social tensions, and international mistrust. The Nature of Borders is about the ecological effects of imposing cultural and political borders on this critical West Coast salmon fishery. This transnational history provides an understanding of the modern Pacific salmon crisis and is particularly instructive as salmon conservation practices increasingly approximate those of the pre-contact Native past. The Nature of Borders reorients borderlands studies toward the Canada-U.S. border and also provides a new view of how borders influenced fishing practices and related management efforts over time. Watch the book trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ffLPgtCYHA&feature=channel_video_title

Because of their enormous size, elephants have long been irresistible for kings as symbols of their eminence. In early civilizations - such as Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Indus Civilization, and China - kings used elephants for royal sacrifice, spectacular hunts, public display of live captives, or the conspicuous consumption of ivory - all of them tending toward the elephant's extinction. The kings of India, however, as Thomas R Trautmann shows in this study, found a use for elephants that actually helped preserve their habitat and numbers in the wild: war. Trautmann traces the history of the war elephant in India and the spread of the institution to the West-where elephants took part in some of the greatest wars of antiquity - and Southeast Asia (but not China, significantly), a history that spans 3,000 years and a considerable part of the globe, from Spain to Java. He shows that because elephants eat such massive quantities of food, it was uneconomic to raise them from birth. Rather, in a unique form of domestication, Indian kings captured wild adults and trained them, one by one, through millennia. Kings were thus compelled to protect wild elephants from hunters and elephant forests from being cut down. By taking a wide-angle view of human-elephant relations, Trautmann throws into relief the structure of India's environmental history and the reasons for the persistence of wild elephants in its forests.

Monarch butterflies are among the most popular insect species in the world and are an icon for conservation groups and environmental education programs. Monarch caterpillars and adults are easily recognizable as welcome visitors to gardens in North America and beyond, and their spectacular migration in eastern North America (from breeding locations in Canada and the United States to overwintering sites in Mexico) has captured the imagination of the public.Monarch migration, behavior, and chemical ecology have been studied for decades. Yet many aspects of monarch biology have come to light in only the past few years. These aspects include questions regarding large-scale trends in monarch population sizes, monarch interactions with pathogens and insect predators, and monarch molecular genetics and large-scale evolution. A growing number of current research findings build on the observations of citizen scientists, who monitor monarch migration, reproduction, survival, and disease. Monarchs face new threats from humans as they navigate a changing landscape marked by deforestation, pesticides, genetically modified crops, and a changing climate, all of which place the future of monarchs and their amazing migration in peril. To meet the demand for a timely synthesis of monarch biology, conservation and outreach, Monarchs in a Changing World summarizes recent developments in scientific research, highlights challenges and responses to threats to monarch conservation, and showcases the many ways that monarchs are used in citizen science programs, outreach, and education. It examines issues pertaining to the eastern and western North American migratory populations, as well as to monarchs in South America, the Pacific and Caribbean Islands, and Europe. The target audience includes entomologists, population biologists, conservation policymakers, and K-12 teachers.Contributors: Anurag A. Agrawal, Cornell University; Jared G. Ali, Michigan State University; Sonia Altizer, University of Georgia; Michael C. Anderson, Eden Prairie, Minnesota; Sophia M. Anderson, Eden Prairie, Minnesota; Kim Bailey, Georgia Department of Natural Resources; Rebecca Batalden, University of Minnesota; Kristen A. Baum, Oklahoma State University; Scott Hoffman Black, Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation; Brianna Borders, Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation; Lincoln P. Brower, Sweet Briar College; Wendy Caldwell, University of Minnesota; Mariana Cantu-Fernandez, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico; Nicola Chamberlain, Harvard University; Sonya Charest, Montreal Insectarium; Andrew K. Davis, University of Georgia; Alma De Anda, Covina, California; Guadalupe del Rio Pesado, Alternare, A.C., Mexico; Janet Kudell-Ekstrum, USDA Forest Service; Linda S. Fink, Sweet Briar College; Mark Fishbein, Oklahoma State University; Juan Fernandez-Haeger, University of Cordoba, Spain; Eligio Garcia Serrano, Fondo Monarca, Mexico; Mark Garland, Cape May Monarch Monitoring Project; Brian Hayes, Monarch Teacher Network; Elizabeth Howard, Journey North; Mark D. Hunter, University of Michigan; Sarina Jepsen, Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation; Diego Jordano, University of Cordoba, Spain; Matthew C. Kaiser, University of Minnesota; Ridlon J. Kiphart, Texas Master Naturalists; Marcus R. Kronforst, University of Chicago; Jim Lovett, University of Kansas; Eric Lee-Mader, Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation; Stephen B. Malcolm, Western Michigan University; Hector Martinez-Torres, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico; Susan Meyers, Stone Mountain Memorial Association; Erik A. Mollenhauer, Monarch Teacher Network; Mia Monroe, Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation; Eneida B. Montesinos-Patino, Monarch Butterfly Fund; Gail M. Morris, Southwest Monarch Study; Elisha K. Mueller, Oklahoma State University; Kelly R. Nail, University of Minnesota; Karen S. Oberhauser, University of Minnesota; Diego R. Perez-Salicrup, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico; Amanda A. Pierce, Emory University; John Pleasants, Iowa State University; Victoria Pocius, University of Kansas; Robert Michael Pyle, Northwest Lepidoptera Survey; M. Isabel Ramirez, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico; Sergio Rasmann, University of California, Irvine; Gerald Rehfeldt, USDA Forest Service; Eduardo Rendon-Salinas, World Wildlife Fund-Mexico; Leslie Ries, National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center; Jacobus C. de Roode, Emory University; Richard G. RuBino, Florida State University; Ann Ryan, University of Kansas; Cuauhtemoc Saenz-Romero, Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolas de Hidalgo; Lidia Salas-Canela, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico; Phil Schappert, Biophilia Consulting; Priya C. Shahani, Oregon State University; Benjamin H. Slager, Western Michigan University; Michelle J. Solensky, University of Jamestown; Douglas J. Taron, Chicago Academy of Sciences/Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum; Orley R. Taylor, University of Kansas; Rocio Trevino, Proteccion de la Fauna Mexicana A.C.; Francis X. Villablanca, California Polytechnic State University; Dick Walton, New Jersey Audubon/Cape May Bird Observatory; Ernest H. Williams, Hamilton College; Elisabeth Young-Isebrand, University of Minnesota; Myron P. Zalucki, University of Queensland; Raul R. Zubieta, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico

Whilst the science of conservation biology is thriving as a discipline, ultimately global conservation is failing. Why, when the majority of people say they value nature and its protection? David Johns argues that the loss of species and healthy ecosystems is best understood as human imposition of a colonial relationship on the non-human world - one of exploitation and domination. Global institutions benefit from transforming nature into commodities, and conservation is a low priority. This book places political issues at the forefront, and tackles critical questions of conservation efficacy. It considers the role of effective influence on decision making, key policy changes to reduce human footprint, and the centrality of culture in mobilising support. It draws on political lessons from successful social movements, including human anti-colonial struggles, to provide conservation biologists and practitioners in scientific and social science disciplines and NGOs with the tools and wider context to accelerate their work's impact.

A "courageous and revelatory memoir" (Naomi Klein) chronicling the life of the leading Indigenous climate change, cultural, and human rights advocate For the first ten years of her life, Sheila Watt-Cloutier traveled only by dog team. Today there are more snow machines than dogs in her native Nunavik, a region that is part of the homeland of the Inuit in Canada. In Inuktitut, the language of Inuit, the elders say that the weather is Uggianaqtuq-behaving in strange and unexpected ways. The Right to Be Cold is Watt-Cloutier's memoir of growing up in the Arctic reaches of Quebec during these unsettling times. It is the story of an Inuk woman finding her place in the world, only to find her native land giving way to the inexorable warming of the planet. She decides to take a stand against its destruction. The Right to Be Cold is the human story of life on the front lines of climate change, told by a woman who rose from humble beginnings to become one of the most influential Indigenous environmental, cultural, and human rights advocates in the world. Raised by a single mother and grandmother in the small community of Kuujjuaq, Quebec, Watt-Cloutier describes life in the traditional ice-based hunting culture of an Inuit community and reveals how Indigenous life, human rights, and the threat of climate change are inextricably linked. Colonialism intervened in this world and in her life in often violent ways, and she traces her path from Nunavik to Nova Scotia (where she was sent at the age of ten to live with a family that was not her own); to a residential school in Churchill, Manitoba; and back to her hometown to work as an interpreter and student counselor. The Right to Be Cold is at once the intimate coming-of-age story of a remarkable woman, a deeply informed look at the life and culture of an Indigenous community reeling from a colonial history and now threatened by climate change, and a stirring account of an activist's powerful efforts to safeguard Inuit culture, the Arctic, and the planet.

Freshwater fish are one of the most diverse groups of vertebrates, but are also amongst the most threatened. With contributions from leaders in the field, this is the first assessment of the global state of freshwater fish diversity, synthesising the opportunities, challenges and barriers facing the conservation of freshwater fish biodiversity. The book includes the first global assessment of the number, type and distribution of threatened freshwater fish species, discussing the features of freshwater fish biology and ecology that render so many species vulnerable to extinction. Introductory chapters on why freshwater fish are so sensitive to environmental change and disturbance lead into chapters providing detailed reviews of the key threatening processes and potential solutions. A concluding chapter summarises the key issues and looks to the future for opportunities and challenges for the conservation and management of freshwater fish.

In the first decades of the twentieth century, fish in the Great Lakes and Puget Sound, seals in the North Pacific, and birds across North America faced a common threat: over harvesting that threatened extinction for many species. Progressive era conservationists saw a need for government intervention to protect threatened animals. And because so many species migrated across international political boundaries, their protectors saw the necessity of international conservation agreements. In The Dawn of Conservation Diplomacy, Kurkpatrick Dorsey examines the first three comprehensive wildlife conservation treaties in history, all between the United States and Canada: the Inland Fisheries Treaty of 1908, the North Pacific Fur Seal Convention of 1911, and the Migratory Bird Treaty of 1916. In his highly readable text, Dorsey argues that successful conservation treaties came only after conservationists learned to marshal scientific evidence, public sentiment, and economic incentives in their campaigns for protective legislation. The first treaty, intended to rescue the overfished boundary waters, failed to gain the necessary support and never became law. Despite scientific evidence of the need for conservation, politicians, and the general public were unable to counter the vocal opposition of fishermen across the continent. A few years later, conservationists successfully rallied popular sympathy for fur seals threatened with slaughter and the North Pacific Fur Seal Convention was adopted. By the time of the Migratory Bird Treaty of 1916, the importance of aesthetic appeal was clear: North American citizens were joining chapters of the Audubon Society in efforts to protect beautiful songbirds. Conservationists also presented economic evidence to support their efforts as they argued that threatened bird species provided invaluable service to farmers. Dorsey recounts the story of each of these early treaties, examining the scientific research that provided the basis for each effort, acknowledging the complexity of the issues, and presenting the personalities behind the politics. He argues that these decades-old treaties both directly affect us today and offer lessons for future conservation efforts.

This engaging personal account of one of America's most contested wildlife conservation campaigns has as its central character the black-footed ferret. Once feared extinct, and still one of North America's rarest mammals, the black-footed ferret exemplifies the ecological, social, and political challenges of conservation in the West, including the risks involved with intensive captive breeding and reintroduction to natural habitat.
David Jachowski draws on more than a decade of experience working to save the ferret. His unique perspective and informative anecdotes reveal the scientific and human aspects of conservation as well as the immense dedication required to protect a species on the edge of extinction.
By telling one story of conservation biology in practice--its routine work, triumphs, challenges, and inevitable conflicts--this book gives readers a greater understanding of the conservation ethic that emerged on the Great Plains as part of one of the most remarkable recovery efforts in the history of the Endangered Species Act.

Congress enacted the Wilderness Act in 1964. It established a National Wilderness Preservation System of federal lands "where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain". The act designated 54 wilderness areas containing 9.1 million acres of federal land within the national forests. It also reserved to Congress the authority to add areas to the system, although it also directed agencies to review the wilderness potential of certain lands. This book summarises the various statutory provisions and provisions on prohibited and permitted uses within wilderness areas.

Just like humans, animals and plants suffer from infectious diseases, which can critically threaten biodiversity. This book describes key studies that have driven our understanding of the ecology and evolution of wildlife diseases. Each chapter introduces the host and disease, and explains how that system has aided our general understanding of the evolution and spread of wildlife diseases, through the development and testing of important epidemiological and evolutionary theories. Questions addressed include: How do hosts and parasites co-evolve? What determines how fast a disease spreads through a population? How do co-infecting parasites interact? Why do hosts vary in parasite burden? Which factors determine parasite virulence and host resistance? How do parasites influence the spread of invasive species? How do we control infectious diseases in wildlife? This book will provide a valuable introduction to students new to the topic, and novel insights to researchers, professionals and policymakers working in the field.