About this Book

On Saturday 29 November 2008, the Royal Zoological
Society of NSW held a forum with the theme of Science
under siege. As the RZS is a zoological society, zoology
under threat became the secondary theme and the basis
for selecting speakers. This book records that forum with
the papers developed for this book as the written word
from the spoken presentations. Papers that were presented
as posters are included, as are the edited plenary sessions
which featured questions from the floor, with answers and
comments encouraged from anyone in the forum. We were
delighted that Mark Horstman, from ABC Catalyst, was
willing to replace his peripatetic colleague Paul Willis, who
was nonetheless very happy to write the foreword. There is a
place for such skilled science communicators, we need more
of them, and scientists at the lab bench, or in the field, or
exploring computer models, or those that have now taken
a job in the policy world, need to stay in touch with them.

Some might say that the title “Science under siege” seems
a bit extreme, but we invite you to examine the evidence
as presented in this book. What follows is an edited version
of the introductory material that advertised the forum: The
title looks dramatic, but if you ask yourself, “is anything killing the
science in your area of interest?” you might be surprised that you
come up with a point or two. Then ask a wider set of questions,
such as: are there any pressures that preclude people from doing
good zoology; do either political/budgetary constraints impact
on your field; is science in the media a subject that influences
the outcome of your work; are there economic impediments to
careers in zoology; is the education mix in Australia right for
this new century; are the best researchers becoming full-time
administrators, or the converse, the poor researchers becoming
the administrators; can you place the Australian situation in
an international context; are there reduced opportunities for
human interactions with the natural world; is the virtual world
killing reality; and what are your predictions of the future? To
deal with such issues, the Royal Zoological Society of NSW has
structured the day to emphasize a range of themes, beginning with
identifying the issues, including those that are persistent and those
that are emerging, and encompassing palpable hits to science.

Direct and indirect hits to science include such matters as the
withdrawal of funding, subversion of science, death by 1000
cuts, redirection of funding to fashion issues and using the name
of science to justify things that are really not justifiable. The
name of science is being dragged down. We need to confront the
ever-present problem of ignoring the scientifically accurate for the
politically correct. This raises such questions as to whether basic
skills in biology are not being acquired because of public concern
based on extreme animal rights propaganda. Good science is
not optional, but what can be done if you are under siege? The
answers include understanding the philosophy of science, the legal
perspective and asking what scientists are (or should be) doing.

Audience participation will be a central part of this forum. The
plenary sessions will address questions raised by the speakers,
and the posters, and debate issues and consider options for
future directions. It is widely known that it is hard to pull a
major paper together on this theme, but so many scientists

know of at least one matter that they would like to draw to
public attention. So, short contributions are included. Listen
to the speakers present some overarching themes or compelling
case studies, contribute to the debate on the day, then examine
your stance on a variety of these subjects to see whether the
day changes your view of this often cryptic aspect of zoology.

As editors, we wish to acknowledge the skills of the referees
(all papers were refereed by two peers), and the patience of
the authors for what has been a long gap between the date
of the forum and this publication. By the end of 2008, the
Royal Zoological Society of NSW, along with everyone else,
was caught by the GFC (Global Financial Crisis) and we
simply had to extend the length of the queue for publication.
We also reassessed our mode of publication. The Council of
the Society voted to publish this production as an ebook, as
well as a short print run for formal library deposit, and other
essential matters. The ebook is open access to enhance the
reach of the papers and the ideas. At the same time, the
Royal Zoological Society of NSW signed a contract for a
more international mode of access of the publications of the
Society, and papers are now available via Metapress. http://
rzsnsw.metapress.com

Science remains under siege, in our view, and now we have
been alerted to the range of issues it becomes easier to
spot the small, irritating closing of options that collectively
amount to a denial of science and its relegation to an
optional way of looking at the world. During production
of this book, this matter became obvious on a number of
fronts, which led us to invite the paper by Rosie Cooney and
colleagues to defend their science of kangaroo conservation
and commercial harvesting from an attack on the science.
We also saw that this issue of science under siege needs
more airing, and the Royal Zoological Society of NSW is
planning its forum for the end of 2012 to take up another
strand of this theme by capitalizing on the lifelong insights
of scientists under the rubric of “grumpy scientists: an
ecological conscience of a nation”. This idea in fact derives
directly from the suggestions in the plenary sessions by Nick
Holmes and Charley Krebs. We are also concerned for
young scientists, with science under siege manifesting often
in a failure to create permanent careers for science graduates
that advance science itself, and zoology in particular, from
flourishing and identifying problems and finding solutions.

If we want to conserve the native fauna of Australia, then
Australian zoologists will have to be key team members.
We contend that to put science under siege, and zoology
under threat, we not only further imperil our native
wildlife, but also the careers of the small band of specialists
that can see the issues, find the problems, implement
solutions and evaluate the outcomes. In short, science
under siege is not a light matter and no one in this forum
thought so. Read on, form an opinion, and speak up and
publish your thoughts, your examples and your solutions.