Cats and dogs that live on or around field sites can become cherished companions, but what is the best way for researchers to help them? In this week’s Nature careers feature meet Fred and other animals who stole the heart of scientists in the field. To whet your appetite before reading Traci Watson’s article, we’ve produced this little video.

It’s not the first time we’ve taken this approach. In September 2017, Roberta Kwok discovered how old photos, logbooks and papers are a goldmine for fields such as ecology and climatology.  This short video provided a taster:

And earlier this month Roberta profiled scientists who have forged successful careers as film-makers, including Huw James, founder of Anturus, an adventure-education company in Cardiff, UK. We embedded one of Huw’s films in Roberta’s article.

David Payne is chief careers editor, Nature.