Interesting. I studied the impact of disturbance on waders in our Waddensee, i.e. how much less food intake under what kind of disturbance. So we had airplanes, boats and people (with dogs) passing certain areas, while we were monitoring behavior. Another study was on the social behavior of mountain hares in the Cairngorms (Scotland), and the third was on the ecology of river otters in Shetland, i.e. finding the relation between the abundance of otters and certain terrain and prey parameters, so an easier way of monitoring otter populations could be found by studying terrain features and food abundance (fish) instead of the otters themselves. Great time!
Actually, I applied for a job as a biologist (1987 I believe) and had added some drawings of mountain hares I made while in Scotland, and the guy told me to better seek a career in (biological) illustration. Which I did, with quite some success (got paintings in a US museum
. )
Regarding biology and 3D art; I often see animated birds (I'm an avid birdwatcher), which don't fly like real birds do, the movements are wrong, and then I wish I could do that better.
I like lizards, we don't have them really, but my dad used to have a large very natural terrarium with anolus, some tree frogs and small European lizards. We used to catch them as little boys, with a stick and a noose on the end. We kept them in a cloth terrarium on the campsite, took them to Holland for the large terrarium and next year swapped them for some new ones. They never died on us, and even bred!
