What to study to pursue a career in zoos/wildlife conservation

[Tapirus Lar]

What do you need to study to pursue a career related to zoos, or nature in general? This includes everything like veterinary medicine, zoo designing, wildlife biology, etc. Would a degree in landscape architecture be useful to move into the field of enclosure designing and so forth?
Also I would some insight into the different types of careers/roles in this sphere would be greatly valued and appreciated, as I am in the process of choosing a career for my future.

P.S: If any you could suggest a role/career with decent to good pay in this category, I would be thankful, as my parents are not of the opinion that a career like this will have good pay or much scope in the future.


Thank you in advance!

 

[DavidBrown]

You have a wide range of careers listed there with very different education requirements. If you want to be a veterinarian there are clear pathways - you find out what the requirements for vet school are and then plan coursework and internship and work experiences that will prepare you for those requirements. It would probably be helpful to find a vet (or vets) to informationally interview about their experiences and ask for their specific advice - this is true of anything that you might want to do.

For zoo design, landscape architecture seems to be the way that most people do it. It is a highly specialized field that you really have to pursue to find out where the openings are. Contacting some zoo designers and asking to informationally interview them and to ask for advice would be a starting place. They can give you advice on specific degree programs and possible internship experiences that would be helpful.

For working in a zoo in general there is no substitute for experience. If you have a local zoo where you can volunteer in their education program or as a keeper assistant or whatever is available for you age and experience level, that will show you what working in a zoo is really like. Most people work their way into the zoo world by building a personal network, and volunteering is where many people start. Zoo pay is usually not great, so that is something to consider as you look around for whether it is the profession for you.

Being a wildlife biologist probably will require some kind of biology degree. You would probably work either in academia as a research professor or for a government wildlife agency. If you can take a biology course at a community college and/or informationally interview some professors that would give you a sense of what their lives are like. They teach, they do research, they mentor students - it usually is not very glamorous, but it can be very rewarding if you have some specialized research interest that you want to pursue and/or you like teaching.

General advice: find people doing what you think might interest you for a career and reach out to ask for advice. Some people might be jerks and not respond or be helpful. Ignore them. There are many more people who would welcome your interest and try and answer your questions. The more exploration and networking that you do on the front end, the more equipped you will be to make some career decisions.

What do you need to study to pursue a career related to zoos, or nature in general? This includes everything like veterinary medicine, zoo designing, wildlife biology, etc. Would a degree in landscape architecture be useful to move into the field of enclosure designing and so forth?
Also I would some insight into the different types of careers/roles in this sphere would be greatly valued and appreciated, as I am in the process of choosing a career for my future.

P.S: If any you could suggest a role/career with decent to good pay in this category, I would be thankful, as my parents are not of the opinion that a career like this will have good pay or much scope in the future.


Thank you in advance!

 

[Van Beal]

You have a wide range of careers listed there with very different education requirements. If you want to be a veterinarian there are clear pathways - you find out what the requirements for vet school are and then plan coursework and internship and work experiences that will prepare you for those requirements. It would probably be helpful to find a vet (or vets) to informationally interview about their experiences and ask for their specific advice - this is true of anything that you might want to do.

For zoo design, landscape architecture seems to be the way that most people do it. It is a highly specialized field that you really have to pursue to find out where the openings are. Contacting some zoo designers and asking to informationally interview them and to ask for advice would be a starting place. They can give you advice on specific degree programs and possible internship experiences that would be helpful.

For working in a zoo in general there is no substitute for experience. If you have a local zoo where you can volunteer in their education program or as a keeper assistant or whatever is available for you age and experience level, that will show you what working in a zoo is really like. Most people work their way into the zoo world by building a personal network, and volunteering is where many people start. Zoo pay is usually not great, so that is something to consider as you look around for whether it is the profession for you.

Being a wildlife biologist probably will require some kind of biology degree. You would probably work either in academia as a research professor or for a government wildlife agency. If you can take a biology course at a community college and/or informationally interview some professors that would give you a sense of what their lives are like. They teach, they do research, they mentor students - it usually is not very glamorous, but it can be very rewarding if you have some specialized research interest that you want to pursue and/or you like teaching.

General advice: find people doing what you think might interest you for a career and reach out to ask for advice. Some people might be jerks and not respond or be helpful. Ignore them. There are many more people who would welcome your interest and try and answer your questions. The more exploration and networking that you do on the front end, the more equipped you will be to make some career decisions.

Apologies for nudging what is a bit of a dead thread, but I’m curious as to what your advice would be to someone who is going to begin reaching out to zoos about what they specifically require in employees. While I will likely be headed to one such facility soon enough, I was curious as to whether you had any insight on how to reach them via email. Specifically, the zoo I’m most wanting to enquire to has numerous email addresses on their site, so I was unsure of which to utilize. Any tips?

 

[DavidBrown]

Apologies for nudging what is a bit of a dead thread, but I’m curious as to what your advice would be to someone who is going to begin reaching out to zoos about what they specifically require in employees. While I will likely be headed to one such facility soon enough, I was curious as to whether you had any insight on how to reach them via email. Specifically, the zoo I’m most wanting to enquire to has numerous email addresses on their site, so I was unsure of which to utilize. Any tips?

Hi Van. Many zoos have "How to volunteer" sections on their websites that have contact information for who to call or email. I would start there. Many zoos have general contact emails like info@whateverzoo or contact forms through their websites that you can query about volunteering and they would connect you with the right person. That might be the second thing to try if there is no clear volunteer contact information. Another approach would be to ask someone at the zoo, maybe at the front entrance, who to talk to about volunteering when you are at the zoo. They should be able to tell you who to call.

 

[Sphenisciologist]

I’m currently in college so I don’t know if you want my input but I feel I have substantial knowledge on the subject so I’ll post it here anyway.
As someone who has seen up-close and personal what working at a zoo is like, everyone comes from different backgrounds. I’ve heard of keepers having degrees in things like psychology and geology that, at first glance, seem like they’re not as relevant to the zoo field as, say, an animal science degree, but they substituted that for experience. It’s been said here before and I’ll say it again, experience is the most important thing. In animal care/husbandry experience matters more to anyone than education, at a certain point I think that’s just for employers to ensure that you meet the requirements of a keeper job. Even then I’ve heard of some smaller zoos hiring keepers who only have their associates so it really varies. Now that only goes for the keeper side of it, going on the vet side and/or landscaping would be a very different story that I’m not educated on. But for zookeeping, the degree itself doesn’t need to be super specialized.
I will say, from one young person to another, study whatever interests you but can get you a job you want at the same time. I’m pursuing a wildlife biology degree just incase I want to expand my horizons beyond zookeeping, but still be able to work with wild animals, because even beyond zoos and conservation, the scientific side of it genuinely fascinates me and it’s something I actually want to study. An animal sciences degree or even a general biology degree doesn’t sound like something I want to pursue, despite the fact that that seems to be what many if not most keepers choose to do.
I know this thread hasn’t been posted on in a few weeks but this is a topic I genuinely sympathize with so I wanted to chime in and just say that everyone gets to their goals differently, but we ultimately reach them and that’s what matters.