r/wildlifebiology

Hi all,

I start my first semester of college next month. I also just got an offer for volunteering (position is titled animal care intern) at a semi-local wildlife rehab center near by. It would be about 8 hours a week (4 hrs fri/sat). From everything I’ve researched, building up volunteering/internships is huge to be competitive in this field but just wanted to make sure that a position like this at a wildlife rehab will benefit my resume before I accept it.

To me, it seems like it would be beneficial no matter what to meet individuals in the industry, get experience with hands on care etc. but perhaps I’m looking at it with rose-tinted glasses.

I’m still actively looking for opportunities/workshops/internships etc. near me that may be more applicable (there are a couple of bird banding opportunities near me, but most are actively waitlisted).

Thanks!

Hello,

I am currently a junior in high school, and I’ve always wanted to do something related to nature/wildlife. I love hiking and just listening to different animals in their natural habitat.

Most importantly, I want to be able to make a difference. Currently, my plan is to go to the university of Maine, and eventually get a masters Degree. I am willing to do months of internships and seasonal jobs because I actually like the stress and pressure of having to do new things.

I have read that this job isn’t good for those who want high salaries, and that is fine because I want a rewarding job! I’m not currently sure what I want to do in terms of research but I’ll probably figure it out. Do you think this would be a viable and rewarding career for someone like me? And what should I look forward to? Any suggestions/comments are appreciated.

For some context, I'm an 11th grader in Pennsylvania. I've always wanted to work with animals and love biology. On the contrary, I've been hearing how bad the job market is. I personally want to stay in Pennsylvania, and I'm worried that I'll never be able to find a job. I would like to be a wildlife biologist for the game commission. I'm fine with starting with seasonal work for the first couple of years, but I want to get a stable job relatively soon. I was thinking I could get my bachelor's at Pennwest Clarion for fisheries and wildlife biology and then later go for my master's at Penn State. What do y'all think?

Hello guys 🫡 Here to ask career related questions like most, and you all are pretty helpful people!! High school senior, for context.

1. I am wondering if anyone out there has worked in or knows of wildlife bio related careers centered around horses? I’ve spent my entire life around them and want to turn it into a career while combining my love for environmental science. While yes, I know horses are usually livestock and not so much wildlife, I have done some digging out there about possibly becoming a feral horse biologist in the US or Australia. I did a week long volunteer opportunity last summer with one of the American feral horse conservations, and that was AWESOME. But I know those jobs are one in a million type thing. Any other horse or hoofstock related wildlife careers you all know of or recommendations to get in as a feral horse biologist?

2. While I love love love wildlife biology and the idea of becoming a research biologist, game warden, etc., I was curious about a career in policy analysis/law/environmental affairs. With the current state of the field for a lot of hands on research jobs, I was curious if having a policy-related one would be more sustainable and/be in more demand. I know how the pay is pretty bad and everyone is always moving around for field technician jobs, so maybe it’d be a smarter move to go about the policy route? I planned to originally major in wildlife biology and maybe double major/minor in environmental policy analysis. Thoughts? Opinions from analysts?

With all this being said, I’m trying to find a career plan that stays centered around wildlife biology and environmental science while still being able to have a sustainable plan and outlook for my future. If anyone else has any recommendations of things to look into, please let me know!

Hi there, I have a GIS degree that I want to use for wildlife biology. Currently I am an Instrument Operator/Survey Technician at a Surveying firm in the US.
Since the beginning, I’ve wanted to pursue a career in Wildlife Conservation and decided to go the technical route. I am looking for advice, suggestions or guidance on where to start off pursuing a career as an Airport Wildlife Biologist.
As far as I’m aware, I will need to get Certified with the FAA and take some classes to get some basic training/understanding, then get some in person experience, and then get a certification.

I have some questions for those who might be able to give me some insight:

- Is joining The Wildlife Society necessary/required? Would it make things easier for me? Just want to know if they are the ones that manage everything within that sphere or if it’s a government entity that I need to pivot to.

- What does the job *actually* look like? I haven’t seen a whole lot of information about the job, but I know it can vary depending on the situation/location.

- How long does the certificate process take?

- What are the biggest challenges that come with this job?

Hi! I’m currently getting my BS in Biology and I’ve known about wanting to get my MS for a while…. but I’m not sure what field to go into. My options are Environmental Science or Biology. I realized last semester that environmental science was the type of research I wanted to pursue… but having a masters in biology seemed like a safe route due to the state of the US. I’m not focused too much on the financial aspect of things and the university I looked at for the MS in Environmental Science had more opportunities for internships than the one with just biology. Any advice?

I want a career in wildlife conservation. I only have my associates degree (general) , if i volunteer at my local wildlife center, would they potentially want to hire me one day?

i really want to volunteer for wildlife conservation. do you guys know how and where?

I want a career in wildlife conservation. I only have my associates degree (general) , if i volunteer at my local wildlife center, would they potentially want to hire me one day?

Hey yall!! I’m currently an undergrad majoring in Wildlife Conservation (pre vet), however am having 2nd thoughts of pursuing vet school due to the length of time required for it and all the difficult prerequisites I need to take. I’m currently stuck between pursuing a career as a wildlife conservation officer or going into wildlife rehabilitation, I LOVE animals, and am especially in love with what the Irwins do (that’s my passion). I understand there are more benefits and higher salary if I take the officer route while wildlife rehabilitation is lower pay. Is there anybody out there that can compare the 2 to me in terms of what could be a better fit? If there are any native Idahoans out there, that would be even more helpful as I am planning on moving there to pursue my career after I graduate.

I'm graduating in December with a bachelor's in Wildlife Ecology and some experience in the field with mostly avian tech jobs and volunteering, and a paid internship with a state agency where I got a variety of experience. Some environmental education/interp experience as well.

I know lots of places probably want someone who can start right away, but I don't want to put off applying for too long. So if I'm ready to work by December, when should I start applying? October? November? September? August? Now?

Code for creating it is also there.

As was pointed out by a sub member, there's a decided lack of posts in here outside of career advice. I'm a big advocate of discussing science and I think it'd be a good start to get a feel for our members and what we do in the field. So, I'll start:

I'm a wildlife biologist for a U.S federal agency and do NEPA work. Primarily, field work consists of wetland mitigation monitoring, bald eagle nest surveys, mussel surveys, least interior tern surveys, and other ESA/MBTA work.

That's what pays the bills. I'm a waterfowl/wetlands guy and did my master's on mallard harvest in the MS Flyway. I stay current on those issues via a professional listserv and through a decent network of friends and other professionals in the field.

I'm venturing into a related area now and working on a collaborative research project with a nearby university along with state and federal agencies. The fieldwork is all my responsibility and I'll be splitting the data analysis with the professor and some of his students. I'd imagine that the writing will be mostly mine, with him editing. We intend to publish and hope to maybe push current management policies in a different direction, if possible.

If anyone out there is into birds and could use some ARU data for their work, feel free to reach out for details. We are amenable to sharing data for other researchers - within reason, of course. I've already collected around 400GB of data and this season isn't done until November. We are doing at least two field seasons, so I'll have a LOT of raw data.

Without doxxing yourselves, what areas of interest do we have on here? I'm always down to learn more about a species or ecosystem with which I'm not that familiar. Let's hear it!

I graduated with BA Biology this spring and want to work with fish. It was a really busy year for me (overloaded my schedule to graduate early) so I've only seriously started applying for jobs in the past 2 months. I got relevant summer jobs while I was in undergrad and (at least I thought) ample field experience just fucking around with various labs and their projects. I have several professors that I talked to, worked with, and can list as a reference but none of them have job opportunities for me.

I often exceed the criteria of the jobs I'm applying to, yet I still find writing the cover letters for my applications to be very challenging. And every single entry level job needs one for some reason. I'm definitely an overthinker about it trying to figure out what each employer wants from me and stressing out thinking I'm not it. I'm just getting sick of it. It feels like a waste of time to be writing these when I get ghosted for every job I apply to. And then reading online from other fields that cover letters usually just get immediately chucked and nobody even reads them anyway. Is what they say in other fields true for wildlife biology too? Is it just a test to see if you can follow instructions?

I feel like I should state just how much time the cover letter shit is wasting for me. Like probably way more than the average person. I feel discouraged from even applying to jobs that require one at this point. I feel like it would be better to just ditch any job that requires one because of how much time I waste on the ones that need a cover letter. I don't think I'm even a bad writer, I'm just uncomfortable embellishing how excited I am to work as a fish poop scooper for 2 dollars per eon. (And listen, I do want to be the fish poop scooper. I think it's fascinating and important. But also, I know it won't be fun and easy all the time. And I just feel the gaze of HR, like a lioness scanning the herd for the smallest sign of weakness... to find a reason to say I wasn't the right choice. Looking for any indication that I'm a human to point to as an unhirable flaw.) I'm struggling with the contradictory task of presenting as human while also being the toxic positive yesman they want who will tolerate everything and doesn't need to learn anything.

Okay long post for my inane question. Please don't tell me to use AI. I hate the garbage it makes and I think it must leave a terrible impression. Advice on how to get out of my head on this-- or where to look for jobs that don't ask for a cover letter are appreciated. I'm just feeling a little out of my depth reading other posts here.

I know herpetology is the catch-all term for the study of reptiles and amphibians, and herpetological is often used as a catch-all term, but I've been wondering lately if there is an "-an" word for herps, similar to "mammalian"/"avian"/"reptilian"/"amphibian"? I've been doing a lot of applications lately, and I often find myself saying "I have avian ID experience", and when I go to say the same thing about herps, using "herpetological ID experience" just feels weirdly wrong?