DH and I are both scientists- DH is a professor, I am a research coordinator at a Med School- I'm not really in normal academia, it's closer to private sector. I think both can be good, depends on what you want.

Pros of Academia:
-More flexible schedule for doing things during business hours that are not work- popping home to walk dogs, etc
-Lots of variety in tasks
-Support for people in obscure and/or less applied fields (like ecology and animal muscle function)
-Researching your own ideas
-Tends to be a more community feeling
-In-class time is great
-Once you get tenure- job security

Cons of Academia:
-Longer hours in general
-Stresses of funding (the level of which depends on if it's a teaching college or a research university)
-Grading, students who expect you to reiterate lectures via email, etc.
-Having to be on committees
-Student evaluations (there's always one every semester that makes you feel like a toad)
-Having student evaluations and grant money brought in determine if you get tenured (I know you guys don't have 'tenure' per se, but whether you ever make professor vs staying at lecturer forever.)

Pros of Private Sector:
-Can pay lots better (depends on field- probably not in ecology, but could in behavior if it's medically related)
-9 to 5
-You don't directly worry about funding (depends on setup)
-Higher job security from the start- no tenure to attain, etc.
-Because of the funding, there's a bit less sink or swim- less requirements for publication usually and there's not as much background stress (of course depends on the company)

Cons of Private Sector:
-Often you are investigating what someone pays you to look at. Which can be fine, but there's less "Hey, I've got an idea, I'm going to check it out"
-Often the above makes you question whether it's still 'science'
-More 'job' feeling than academia. The academics are dreamers, constantly theorizing and fun to be around. Not that you don't get some in private, but the percentage is less.

Hope that might help a little. It is a job, which is usually a good thing. And there's nothing that says you have to stay in a job forever- you could always try it.