Philippe Bouchet is a modern-day bio-explorer and liaison for undiscovered species.
He leads wildlife-collecting expeditions to far-off corners of the world, bringing along international groups of up to 150-plus. These companions are basically anyone — field researchers, divers and field collectors — who can best aid Bouchet to achieve his primary goal: gathering as many animal (and some plant) specimens as possible.
“The success of a field expedition is not so much to bring a suite of the best experts,” he says. “You may be the best academic on a group of shrimps or shells or worms [but] in the field be completely lost.”
Bouchet is chasing little-known and previously undiscovered species — especially bugs, mollusks and crustaceans. Many explorer-biologists have come before him, rounding up species and delivering their finds to museum collections around the world. From there, the specimens often sit unidentified, sometimes for decades, awaiting study.
Researchers say it will likely take centuries to fully identify the species already in collections. So instead, Bouchet sends the creatures he collects directly to the experts.
