Scott Roberts (centre) training wildlife guides Alison & Mark: Ubirr, Kakadu NP Vici Hasenau
Estimated reading time: 8 minutes
Scott Roberts loves training wildlife guides. As a senior wildlife guide at Echidna Walkabout Nature Tours — and an inveterate wildlife traveller — Scott knows that guiding a successful wildlife tour hinges on courage, compassion, camaraderie and lots more…..
Out of nowhere a big crocodile attacked a large feral pig…..right in front of my tour group!
That was my first experience of the power, skill and cunning of Estuarine Crocodiles. It happened as I was guiding a wildlife tour in the tropical “Top End” of Australia on the vast floodplain of the Mary River.
You can’t make this stuff up but, as a wildlife guide, you can turn an experience like this into more than a heart stopping moment. Use it to build a story about the vital role of crocodiles in the ecosystem.
Everyone can learn from you how important crocodiles are in helping balance damaged tropical ecosystems. (This story came out of my experience: Can crocodile eyes help control feral pigs in Australia’s tropics?)
What makes a great Wildlife Guide?
Echidna Walkabout’s in-house guide training program, overseen by Scott Roberts, aims to give our guides the skill to craft respectful conservation stories that help our guests appreciate the value of wildlife. Under Scott’s guidance the program is recognised as the hallmark of wildlife guide training in Australia. Even Google ranks us at the top.
When Scott interviews potential wildlife guides it’s not surprising that he’s looking for people who have a comprehensive knowledge of flora and fauna. Candidates must also demonstrate a commitment to protecting and conserving wildlife and wild places. But these qualifications are just the starting point.
“Courage and compassion are essential qualities for a good wildlife guide,” Scott explains, “But when you combine those two then mix them with camaraderie, you have the true mark of a great wildlife guide.”
Why Wildlife Guide’s need courage
As a first rate wildlife guide you need bucket loads of courage. On most days, you will head out into the unknown with guests who expect you to “provide the goods”!
You know where you’re going and what you aim to achieve for your guests, but you never know what’s going to happen.
Nothing is guaranteed – that’s the thrill of wildlife in the wild.
Will the platypus be where it usually is? Will the crocodiles — mentioned glibly in the itinerary — be where they usually are or will they be elsewhere because the fish they hunt have gone?
What happens when you traipse up a steep hill on a steaming hot day to look down on an eagle’s nest only to find the eaglets, that were there yesterday, have gone? Or when the whale shark dives out of sight and doesn’t come up again?
How will you deal with guests who don’t think they’ve got what they paid for…..because it rains? Or it hasn’t rained? Or roadworks close access to your favourite waterhole where Pink Cockatoos come to drink most evenings?
Most dauntingly, will you, as a wildlife guide — working in the wild — meet guests’ expectations that may be completely different to what you know to be reality? And how do you help them come down when things don’t go as planned?
When you learn how to cope with the pressures wildlife and your guests place on you you’re well on the way to being a great wildlife guide.
It takes courage to deal with this and a positive belief that the uncertainty of nature is what should delight us rather than upset us.
Compassion: the Wildlife Guide’s Secret
That’s where compassion for people and wildlife comes in.
Our guides help guests understand that no-one can put the ‘wild’ in a box and let it out on call. Wildlife comes out when it wants to, not when we want it to. You explain gently that to understand wildlife we need to embrace uncertainty and work with whatever the ‘wild’ hands out.
That’s the joy of seeing wildlife in the wild and what makes nature so captivating.
We need to have compassion for the wildlife too.
There are times when getting too close to a wild animal — like interrupting its feeding or drinking — will make its survival more difficult, maybe impossible if the disturbance happens regularly.
For example our citizen science research has shown that getting too close to koalas intimidates them. If this happens frequently koalas begin to suffer from mental and physical distress which can reduce the ability of their immune systems to counter deadly diseases like chlamydia. (Read our Sustainable Koala Watching Code)
So, returning to the eaglets, if they’ve vacated the nest, you try finding them nearby. While you’re doing that you look for other wildlife and enjoy that too! And if you never find the eaglets, rejoice at their successful fledging.
“When you successfully combine courage and compassion you’re well on the way to becoming a wildlife guide,” Scott says, “But there’s one extra ingredient that helps more than anything else: camaraderie.”
Camaraderie keeps the team strong
Loneliness is a real problem for guides leading extended tours. That may sound odd with guests around all the time. But without the support of friends and family — especially during stressful tours when, say, the weather is against you — it’s great to know that there’s the camaraderie of other like-minded guides a quick message away.
“I give our guides support in the field by providing them with tools that allow them to share their experiences in real time or get others’ opinions when needed,” Scott explains.
“We use phone comms to stay connected, allowing us to express the highs when we swim with whale sharks, watch humpbacks breeching or find a Leichhardt’s grasshopper. We’ve set up a special chat group which is devoted to supporting guides while they’re on tour.
“My guides can share a photo of a bird or a lizard, whatever, and ask other guides what they think it might be — the answer may come through in minutes.
“Social interaction, whether it be while at work, or while exploring in our own time is critical to keeping our wildlife guides on top of their game,” Scott says
How well this all works is dependant on Scott’s training strategy.
Immersive Wildlife Guide Training
Read about our Immersive Training
Scott teaches our wildlife guides using immersive training techniques that take in every aspect of a wildlife tour.
His training always happens in the bush, on location, and is planned to ensure that his trainees have all the tools they need to guide exceptional tours. But the planning starts well before the training…..
- All Echidna Walkabout Wildlife Guides are trained to provide meaningful information about our conservation travel and citizen science program. They also learn about our climate action program including how they can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and plastic waste. (for more details read: Conservation Travel: Help Nature While You Enjoy)
- Training also includes techniques for providing in depth tour briefings detailing how we record the flora and fauna that we find on our tour and how that contributes to citizen science.
- When Echidna Walkabout’s Wildlife Guides start a tour they have an extraordinary amount of support that has been prepared before the tour and is available to them during the tour using our online running sheets.
- Guests are provided with a tour booklet set up specifically for their tour that includes comprehensive information about the region and a detailed wildlife checklist.
- Our wildlife guides update the checklist with their guests on most days. They also keep an online checklist also updated daily. This list is distributed to all the people on the tour, generally within a week or two after the tour.
- Training covers off on all of the above and we find that our guides are surprised not only by the depth of information they receive but also the support they get before, during and after a tour.
Echidna Walkabout ranked #1 by Google
Just for fun, as I began to write this story, I thought I’d ask Google’s AI machine, Gemini, this question: “Which Australian tour company ranks highest for the quality of its wildlife guides?” and, in a split second, this popped up on my screen:
Echidna Walkabout Nature Tours:
- Deep Expertise and Passion: Their entire ethos is built around “conservation travel” and providing authentic wildlife encounters. This naturally attracts guides with a profound knowledge of Australian ecology, animal behavior, and a genuine passion for conservation.
- Focus on Wild Encounters: They specialize in finding animals in their natural habitats, which requires highly skilled guides who can “read” the environment, track animals, and interpret their behavior. Their reviews often highlight the guides’ ability to spot elusive species and provide in-depth information.
- Training and Experience: Their website mentions their guides being trained and experienced in observing wildlife, and even Roger, a key figure, spends much of his time imparting his wealth of knowledge to guides.
More information
➡️Read about our specialist bird guides: Love finding birds with a top bird guide? Meet Martin and Australian Geographic
➡️Guide Diaries: stories about Echidna Walkabout’s Wildlife guides
📷Photos: Vici Hasenau travelled with Scott, Alison and Mark to Kakadu National Park
Help unleash the power of Conservation Travel
Step into the future of travel. Join one of our Conservation Travel tours. An increasing number of these tours include an important Citizen Science project.
➡️Echidna Walkabout is a Founding Member of Australian Wildlife Journeys.
➡️We create, guide and operate tours for Australian Geographic Travel
➡️$10 from every person on tour goes to Koala Clancy Foundation
➡️Donate to Koala Clancy here
