Dr Ann heads west for new ABC science show
So much, in fact, that the ABC journalist, whose PhD is actually in history, has made a career of communicating the joys of the natural world through TV series including last year's The Secret Lives Of Our Urban Birds, podcasts (she hosts ABC's enormously popular What The Duck?!) and radio shows.
Her latest project for television is the new six-part series, Dr Ann's Secret Lives, which sees the presenter stepping into the field alongside scientists to study some of the world's most elusive creatures and 'uncover the secrets of how these remarkable creatures adapt, survive, and thrive in their environments'.
Each episode focuses on one animal, with Jones travelling to all manner of places to study all manner of animals.
Nothing, and no animal, is off limits, with everything from bull sharks to wild orangutans, dugongs to the 'the weirdest animal on the planet', the pangolin, getting a look in.
Jones shot two episodes in Western Australia, where she headed off to the coast of Karratha to get up close and personal with deadly sea snakes and went to Rosemary Island in the Dampier Archipelago to meet wild turtles; both were 'pinch me' moments.
'It was incredible,' she admits. 'But also, I love nerds as well, so being around all these very highly skilled and competent and extremely smart animal lovers was my ideal place.
'These are people who, like me, love looking at the intricacies of, say, sea grass or some particular animal or whatever, and get lost in the details. So there was a lot of pinching of myself, but also a lot of 'what the hell have I got myself into?'' Dr Ann Jones spent time with scientists on an expedition off the Pilbara coast studying sea snakes. Credit: Supplied
The question was especially pertinent on the episode where they find, catch and study elusive sea snakes aboard a research vessel off the Pilbara.
These marine reptiles are highly venomous, and the trip could very quickly have taken a turn for the worst.
'We were 30 or 40km out to sea and if someone had got bitten, we didn't have any antivenom aboard, so we would have had to speed back to land as quickly as possible and hope for the best.
'I still haven't told my mum about that.'
Fortunately there were no incidents, though the trip was not without its challenges.
'Most people went down with sea sickness,' Jones explains.
'I expected that I might be that person, but I was actually one of the last men standing.'
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It meant she was called upon to lend a hand with the collection of the snakes.
'It was like a sushi train of sea snakes coming through, and the weather was horrible,' she explains.
'We had snakes in nets, snakes in buckets . . . the thing is, the welfare of those animals is in your hands, so I felt that was what drove me through.
'I didn't feel too sick because I was so focused on these animals — and not getting bitten.'
Dr Ann's Secret Lives starts Tuesday, July 15 at 8.30pm on ABC.
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