Meet Emily Field, the Mississippi Museum of Natural Science’s dynamic Research Coordinator and herpetologist. Emily’s workdays are anything but typical - she might be out in the field handling alligator snapping turtles one day, and in the lab analyzing data the next.
With a lifelong passion for the outdoors and a deep love for reptiles, Emily brings her enthusiasm for wildlife conservation to every aspect of her role. From maintaining the museum’s invaluable herpetology collection to conducting field surveys for threatened species, Emily is making a significant impact on the conservation of Mississippi’s incredible biodiversity.
HOW LONG HAVE YOU WORKED FOR MDWFP’S MISSISSIPPI MUSEUM OF NATURAL SCIENCE?
Since February 2023.
WHAT’S YOUR WORKDAY LIKE?
One of the things I love most about the job is how different every day is.
Some days I’m in the field working hands on with animals. Other days, I’m in the office analyzing data, writing up reports, doing work in the lab or in the collection.
And, sometimes, I’m helping around the museum with events, exhibits, or other tasks that pop up.
ANY FUNNY WORK STORIES?
We have a joke with Alligator Snapping Turtles that you can tell if the turtle is male or female based solely on how angry it is. There’s a certain amount of truth to this. For some reason, the males just lie there and let you take the measurements, but the females will fight you every step of the way. If the turtle hops out of the boat when you’re done it’s a male, if it turns around into the boat to try and bite you it’s a female.
We had one net earlier this year with two 80+ pound ASTs and one 4-foot alligator in it. There was no way we were going to safely pull the net into the boat, so we just took it to shore instead. We got the gator out pretty quickly and took the two turtles out to work them up.
One of them was good and just sat there but the other was being difficult, so I decided to work that one up first. We did our measurements and determined that it definitely was a female. When we finished, I took it down to the water and placed her in it to swim off. I had gotten back up the bank to start on the other turtle when I turned around and realized the one I’d just released had turned around and was walking back up the bank following me to try and bite me. I was kind of impressed with her commitment!
TELL US A BIT ABOUT YOUR BACKGROUND AND EDUCATION
I grew up in Fayetteville, Arkansas and, like a lot of biologists, spent my childhood outdoors.
We had a neighborhood pond and creek, and I spent the majority of my time during the summer, the weekends, and after school tromping around in the water and exploring. My love for herps started when my mom helped me catch tadpoles and let me raise them into frogs.
I’d always wanted to be a scientist, but by the time I got to college I figured I wasn’t good enough at math and didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life. I actually started college as a film major, but my mom ended up getting sick and I had to drop out of school to take care of her. During that time, I started working in a vet clinic and decided to pursue a biology degree when I went back to school and I’d just work really hard at math. Turns out, with the right teacher, it’s not so bad!
I wanted to get more varied experience to beef up my CV, so I ended up joining a herpetology lab and got to work on a project in the Missouri Ozarks with the Eastern Collared lizard. It was a life-changing experience and led me to realize I wanted a career in wildlife biology where I could work with animals and be outside. I went to Arkansas State University for my master’s degree in the Neuman-Lee lab where I completed my thesis on water snake immunity, reproduction, and the stress response.
I have a fiancé, Calvin, who also works in wildlife biology, and a corgi named Murphy who rules our household. In my free time, I jump around to different craft projects like crochet, needle felting, painting, and digital art.
WHY DID YOU CHOOSE THIS CAREER?
My entire life I’ve enjoyed being outdoors and I’ve always loved animals of all kinds.
After spending a summer in the Missouri Ozarks, I realized I could take these two things and create a career from them.
I’ve never had a fear of snakes or reptiles in general and while I started working with them purely out of coincidence, I developed a passion for them and their conservation. They aren’t cute and fluffy, and maybe they aren’t the most lovable animals to the general public, but that makes their conservation even more important.
HOW DOES YOUR JOB CONTRIBUTE TO CONSERVATION?
Working at the museum means my job is quite different from other wildlife biologist jobs.
A lot of people who visit the museum don’t realize that behind-the-scenes we house natural history collections for many taxa.
Natural history collections are extremely important to conservation and provide an incredible resource for academics, students, and other researchers. These collections can be thought of as a biological library that records the information on the species inhabiting our state throughout history.
Natural history collections have been used to describe new species, document disease prevalence through time, and even uncover the source of species declines. If you’ve never heard of how natural history collections were used to document the effects of DDT on bald eagle eggshell thickness, I highly recommend looking it up. It’s an instance where the information from these collections was used to actually save a once endangered species.
So, part of my job is to maintain our herpetology collection and add to it when we receive specimens. I also get to send out loans and work with other biologists who want to use our collection for their research.
The other half of my job is more along the lines of a traditional wildlife biologist and entails planning and executing field surveys for threatened, rare, and endangered reptiles and amphibians. Mississippi is incredibly biodiverse, but many of these species face threats from habitat loss, disease, and sometimes (especially for snakes) human persecution.
My job is to go out and look for these animals and collect data on them to determine their population sizes, population demographics, and distribution throughout the state. Then, I take this information to make determinations on the status of a species. Is the population stable? Are they reproducing and adding to the population? Are they widespread enough to endure threats to certain habitats?
Between maintaining our collection and getting to go out and assess populations for myself, I feel that my job is extremely rewarding, and I feel that I get to make an impact on conservation every day.
ANY ADVICE FOR A STUDENT INTERESTED IN A BIOLOGY OR MUSEUM CAREER?
Get connected!
Getting good grades and taking the right classes is important, but getting involved is the most valuable thing you can do to land a career later on.
Join your school’s conservation clubs and professional societies.
The best thing I ever did for myself was get involved in a research lab. Not only will you build skills and experience, but your professor and lab mates will help you get connected with other professionals in your field which can help you later on with getting into grad school and eventually landing a job.
School is hard and takes a lot of focus but just make sure to be well rounded. Don’t neglect improving your public speaking, writing, statistics, and critical thinking skills.
