How to become Zoologists and Wildlife Biologist in 2024

Zoologists and Wildlife Biologist Study the origins, behavior, diseases, genetics, and life processes of animals and wildlife. May specialize in wildlife research and management. May collect and analyze biological data to determine the environmental effects of present and potential use of land and water habitats.

Zoologists and Wildlife Biologist is Also Know as

In different settings, Zoologists and Wildlife Biologist is titled as

  • Aquatic Biologist
  • Conservation Biologist
  • Fish and Wildlife Biologist
  • Fisheries and Wildlife Biological Scientist
  • Fisheries Biologist
  • Forest Wildlife Biologist
  • Habitat Biologist
  • Wildlife Biologist
  • Wildlife Refuge Specialist
  • Zoologist

Education and Training of Zoologists and Wildlife Biologist

Zoologists and Wildlife Biologist is categorized in Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed

Experience Required for Zoologists and Wildlife Biologist

A considerable amount of work-related skill, knowledge, or experience is needed for these occupations. For example, an accountant must complete four years of college and work for several years in accounting to be considered qualified.

Education Required for Zoologists and Wildlife Biologist

Most of these occupations require a four-year bachelor's degree, but some do not.

Degrees Related to Zoologists and Wildlife Biologist

Training Required for Zoologists and Wildlife Biologist

Employees in these occupations usually need several years of work-related experience, on-the-job training, and/or vocational training.

Related Ocuupations

Some Ocuupations related to Zoologists and Wildlife Biologist in different industries are

What Do Zoologists and Wildlife Biologist do?

  • Study animals in their natural habitats, assessing effects of environment and industry on animals, interpreting findings and recommending alternative operating conditions for industry.
  • Inventory or estimate plant and wildlife populations.
  • Analyze characteristics of animals to identify and classify them.
  • Disseminate information by writing reports and scientific papers or journal articles, and by making presentations and giving talks for schools, clubs, interest groups and park interpretive programs.
  • Study characteristics of animals, such as origin, interrelationships, classification, life histories, diseases, development, genetics, and distribution.
  • Perform administrative duties, such as fundraising, public relations, budgeting, and supervision of zoo staff.
  • Organize and conduct experimental studies with live animals in controlled or natural surroundings.
  • Coordinate preventive programs to control the outbreak of wildlife diseases.
  • Prepare collections of preserved specimens or microscopic slides for species identification and study of development or disease.
  • Raise specimens for study and observation or for use in experiments.
  • Collect and dissect animal specimens and examine specimens under microscope.
  • Inform and respond to public regarding wildlife and conservation issues, such as plant identification, hunting ordinances, and nuisance wildlife.
  • Check for, and ensure compliance with, environmental laws, and notify law enforcement when violations are identified.
  • Develop, or make recommendations on, management systems and plans for wildlife populations and habitat, consulting with stakeholders and the public at large to explore options.
  • Conduct literature reviews.

Qualities of Good Zoologists and Wildlife Biologist

  • Written Comprehension: The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
  • Oral Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
  • Written Expression: The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
  • Oral Comprehension: The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
  • Inductive Reasoning: The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
  • Deductive Reasoning: The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
  • Speech Clarity: The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
  • Information Ordering: The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
  • Problem Sensitivity: The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.
  • Speech Recognition: The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
  • Category Flexibility: The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
  • Near Vision: The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
  • Fluency of Ideas: The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
  • Originality: The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
  • Selective Attention: The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
  • Flexibility of Closure: The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
  • Perceptual Speed: The ability to quickly and accurately compare similarities and differences among sets of letters, numbers, objects, pictures, or patterns. The things to be compared may be presented at the same time or one after the other. This ability also includes comparing a presented object with a remembered object.
  • Mathematical Reasoning: The ability to choose the right mathematical methods or formulas to solve a problem.
  • Number Facility: The ability to add, subtract, multiply, or divide quickly and correctly.
  • Far Vision: The ability to see details at a distance.
  • Time Sharing: The ability to shift back and forth between two or more activities or sources of information (such as speech, sounds, touch, or other sources).
  • Visualization: The ability to imagine how something will look after it is moved around or when its parts are moved or rearranged.
  • Visual Color Discrimination: The ability to match or detect differences between colors, including shades of color and brightness.
  • Hearing Sensitivity: The ability to detect or tell the differences between sounds that vary in pitch and loudness.
  • Arm-Hand Steadiness: The ability to keep your hand and arm steady while moving your arm or while holding your arm and hand in one position.
  • Auditory Attention: The ability to focus on a single source of sound in the presence of other distracting sounds.
  • Finger Dexterity: The ability to make precisely coordinated movements of the fingers of one or both hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble very small objects.
  • Speed of Closure: The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
  • Memorization: The ability to remember information such as words, numbers, pictures, and procedures.
  • Spatial Orientation: The ability to know your location in relation to the environment or to know where other objects are in relation to you.
  • Reaction Time: The ability to quickly respond (with the hand, finger, or foot) to a signal (sound, light, picture) when it appears.
  • Manual Dexterity: The ability to quickly move your hand, your hand together with your arm, or your two hands to grasp, manipulate, or assemble objects.
  • Control Precision: The ability to quickly and repeatedly adjust the controls of a machine or a vehicle to exact positions.
  • Sound Localization: The ability to tell the direction from which a sound originated.
  • Multilimb Coordination: The ability to coordinate two or more limbs (for example, two arms, two legs, or one leg and one arm) while sitting, standing, or lying down. It does not involve performing the activities while the whole body is in motion.
  • Response Orientation: The ability to choose quickly between two or more movements in response to two or more different signals (lights, sounds, pictures). It includes the speed with which the correct response is started with the hand, foot, or other body part.
  • Glare Sensitivity: The ability to see objects in the presence of a glare or bright lighting.
  • Depth Perception: The ability to judge which of several objects is closer or farther away from you, or to judge the distance between you and an object.
  • Peripheral Vision: The ability to see objects or movement of objects to one's side when the eyes are looking ahead.
  • Night Vision: The ability to see under low-light conditions.
  • Rate Control: The ability to time your movements or the movement of a piece of equipment in anticipation of changes in the speed and/or direction of a moving object or scene.
  • Wrist-Finger Speed: The ability to make fast, simple, repeated movements of the fingers, hands, and wrists.
  • Gross Body Equilibrium: The ability to keep or regain your body balance or stay upright when in an unstable position.
  • Gross Body Coordination: The ability to coordinate the movement of your arms, legs, and torso together when the whole body is in motion.
  • Extent Flexibility: The ability to bend, stretch, twist, or reach with your body, arms, and/or legs.
  • Stamina: The ability to exert yourself physically over long periods of time without getting winded or out of breath.
  • Trunk Strength: The ability to use your abdominal and lower back muscles to support part of the body repeatedly or continuously over time without "giving out" or fatiguing.
  • Dynamic Strength: The ability to exert muscle force repeatedly or continuously over time. This involves muscular endurance and resistance to muscle fatigue.
  • Explosive Strength: The ability to use short bursts of muscle force to propel oneself (as in jumping or sprinting), or to throw an object.
  • Static Strength: The ability to exert maximum muscle force to lift, push, pull, or carry objects.
  • Speed of Limb Movement: The ability to quickly move the arms and legs.
  • Dynamic Flexibility: The ability to quickly and repeatedly bend, stretch, twist, or reach out with your body, arms, and/or legs.

Tools Used by Zoologists and Wildlife Biologist

  • 35 millimeter cameras
  • Adjustable widemouth pliers
  • Aerial nets
  • Air compressors
  • All terrain vehicles ATV
  • Animal transmitters
  • Animal traps
  • Archery bows
  • Axes
  • Benchtop centrifuges
  • Benthic samplers
  • Binoculars
  • Boat trailers
  • Bongo nets
  • Calorimeters
  • Canoes
  • Carbon dioxide CO2 monitors
  • Climbing belts
  • Clinometers
  • Compasses
  • Compound binocular light microscopes
  • Compound microscopes
  • Conductivity meters
  • Counting chambers
  • Culvert traps
  • D-ring nets
  • Dart guns
  • Dataloggers
  • Desktop computers
  • Digital cameras
  • Dip net samplers
  • Dissecting microscopes
  • Dissecting tools
  • Dissolved oxygen meters
  • Dropping pipettes
  • Drying ovens
  • Dust masks
  • Egg candlers
  • Ekman dredges
  • Extension ladders
  • Field thermometers
  • Fish traps
  • Flow meters
  • Folsom plankton splitters
  • Foot snares
  • Four wheel drive 4WD vehicles
  • Fume hoods
  • Geodetic ground global positioning system GPS receivers
  • Gill nets
  • Graduated glass laboratory cylinders
  • Hand lenses
  • Hard hats
  • Jellyfish scoops
  • Jet skis
  • Laboratory balances
  • Laboratory beakers
  • Laboratory forceps
  • Laboratory freezers
  • Laboratory funnels
  • Laboratory mechanical convection incubators
  • Laser hypsometers
  • Laser printers
  • Leather gloves
  • Light traps
  • Mesh sieves
  • Metric measuring tapes
  • Micrometers
  • Mist nets
  • Monopan balances
  • Multiplate samplers
  • Nitrile gloves
  • Notebook computers
  • Odonata nets
  • Personal computers
  • Petri dishes
  • pH meters
  • Photomicroscopes
  • Plankton nets
  • Portable refractometers
  • Radio telemetry equipment
  • Rubber rafts
  • Rulers
  • Safety glasses
  • Salinity meters
  • Scintillation vials
  • Secchi disks
  • Seines
  • Self-contained underwater breathing apparatus SCUBA equipment
  • Sieve buckets
  • Sledgehammers
  • Small power boats
  • Snorkels
  • Snowmobiles
  • Specimen collection containers
  • Spectrometers
  • Spotting scopes
  • Spring scales
  • Stainless steel scalpel blades
  • Steam autoclaves
  • Sterilizing ovens
  • Sweeping nets
  • Tree corers
  • Tree top peeper and video probe systems
  • Two way radios
  • Vernier calipers
  • Volumeters
  • Water pumps
  • Water sample collection containers
  • Water samplers
  • Water thermometers

Technology Skills required for Zoologists and Wildlife Biologist

  • Computer modeling software
  • Corel WordPerfect Office Suite
  • Database management software
  • Email software
  • ESRI ArcGIS software
  • ESRI ArcView
  • Geographic information system GIS software
  • Geographic information system GIS systems
  • Global positioning system GPS software
  • HATPRO
  • IBM Lotus 1-2-3
  • Microsoft Access
  • Microsoft Active Server Pages ASP
  • Microsoft Excel
  • Microsoft Office software
  • Microsoft Outlook
  • Microsoft PowerPoint
  • Microsoft Project
  • Microsoft Word
  • Python
  • R
  • Relational database software
  • SAS
  • Spreadsheet software
  • Statistical software
  • Web browser software
  • Word processing software