Daniel Bennett had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day: One day, after spending 7 years collecting Komodo dragon excrement, he found out that his University had incinerated his prized bag of poo!
But two years into his PhD he returned from fieldwork to find his collection had been "accidentally" thrown away by technicians clearing space in a laboratory.
"The Butaan is so reclusive that all attempts to study it using methods that have proved suitable for the Komodo dragon and other large lizards have ended in total failure," he told Times Higher Education magazine.
"My team and I studied the animals by searching the forest floor for their distinctive faeces and using clues to estimate dietary patterns, population size and structure, and activity areas. By the beginning of the third year of my PhD, I knew more about lizard faeces than I had ever thought possible.
"Returning to Leeds from fieldwork, I was surprised to find my desk space occupied by another student and to see that photographs of my daughter, my girlfriend and my favourite lizards had been removed from the wall.
"My personal effects had been carefully stowed in boxes, but there was no sign of my 35kg bag of lizard ****."
(Photo: Heathcliff O'malley)
I challenge all of you to come up with a better title!