Are you fascinated by our feathered dinosaur descendants and have a curious, investigative mind? Then studying birds as an ornithologist might be the career for you. In this Ultimate Guide, we’ll show you how to become an ornithologist.
Are you fascinated by animals and have a curious, investigative mind? Then zoology – a branch of biology – might be for you. Find out how to become a professional zoologist!
“You can’t care about what you don’t know about.” Ornithologist, environmentalist, diversity activist as well as an author, speaker and broadcaster Mya-Rose has certainly had an amazing career. Not only has she had many accomplishments, but she was by the age of 17 the youngest person in the world to see half of the world’s
Katie Propp is an ecologist and wildlife educator, currently working as the Conservation Education Director at Penguins International. With 18 years of experience in the field of wildlife conservation, Katie shares her tips and tricks in delivering effective science communication, as well as her advice for landing your very own dream job with wildlife. Katie’s
“If you take care of the little things, the big things take care of themselves” – Renford Reese For many, it’s hard to imagine the intricate inner workings of agricultural ecosystems, especially in a place like Australia. With diversity across temperate and tropical environments, we tend to take the contribution of floral resources and their
Are you intrigued by how living things interact with each other and their environment? Would you like to study these interactions at the level of individual beings, groups or ecosystems? Find out how to become an ecologist and start your wild career! As an ecologist, you could help advance conservation biology; manage natural resources through
Misty MacDuffee is a biologist and program director with the Wild Salmon Program of British Columbia, Canada’s Raincoast Conservation Foundation. She focuses on fisheries ecology in salmon ecosystems; for the past 15 years she has led diverse studies examining the salmon of the BC coast, including field, lab, technical, and conservation evaluation. With the knowledge
Are you more at home in the water than on land? Would you like to study the life in our oceans and seas, from microscopic algae and plankton to whale sharks and blue whales? Find out how to become a marine biologist and dive into an exciting career! As a marine biologist, you could help
Andrew Painting works as an ecologist for the National Trust for Scotland at Mar Lodge, located in the Scottish Highlands. Not only this, he is now the author of a wonderful new nature book – ‘Regeneration’. Our paths have crossed before, as is typical within the small world of conservation, so I took the opportunity
Marine biologist Inka Cresswell talks about why she went down the filmmaking route of marine biology, how she chose particular courses and universities for her studies and her advice for others. What is your current job? My background is in marine biology but I am working as a researcher in the wildlife filmmaking industry, with
Have you considered a career as an Ecological Consultant or Consultant Ecologist? Here, BSG Ecology provides guidance to students, graduates and early-career ecologists on the skill sets you might seek to develop, and how to set yourself apart from your peers in the job market. Background Ecological consultancies vary in the way in which they
David Fernandez is a behavioural ecologist conservation biologist. Behavioural ecologists play an important role in conservation. Behaviour links organisms and the environment and is a fundamental aspect of animal life. Changes to the environment can affect animal behaviour. For instance, the food available in degraded and pristine ecosystems might differ, which could in turn affect
Ever wondered what it’s like to drop academia for a different kind of conservation adventure? ‘Mercenary biologist’ Dr Fernando Mateos-González – who we’re so thrilled to have join us in delivering our next Kick-starter online training for Early Career Conservationists course – did just that. Fernando is a Spanish biologist with a PhD in Behavioural
Neil Middleton is the author of the ‘The Effective Ecologist’ which covers the stuff that no-one told you about at university – how to develop your office-related and business skills to succeed in your career as a professional ecologist. An effective ecologist is someone who … Behaves professionally and fully understands how to operate with positive
In this episode we speak to Alasdair Davies – Shuttleworth Foundation Fellow and creative technologist on a journey to deliver affordable, open conservation technology for all. We talk about how fast-changing technologies from drones, to sat tags, camera traps and mobile phones are rapidly changing the way we collect and interpret data in the quest to
Dr Joe Chipperfield is a postdoctoral Research Ecologist working in the Biogeography department at the University of Trier in Germany. The main focus of his research is the development and application of new techniques to ascertain the ranges of species and to try and predict what may happen to these ranges in the future. WHY DO YOU
Geographic Information Systems is a discipline which goes right to the heart of conservation and helps us to answer fundamental questions right across the spectrum of topics in conservation. ‘Why does this species occur here but not there?’, ‘Where should we prioritise our conservation actions?’, ‘How connected are these two wildlife populations?’, ‘What is the
I first met Katherine Smith just over a year ago at a VuPro conference in Hartbeespoort, South Africa. Since interning at VulPro she has achieved fantastic heights in her career, recently being involved in a Parahawking organisation in Nepal, dedicated to creating awareness about the plight of endangered vulture species across the world. Parahawking you
Steve Ormerod is Professor of Ecology in Cardiff University’s School of Biosciences and current Chairman of the RSPB Council – the biggest wildlife charity in Europe. His conservation career so far includes the following highlights: the winner of the Marsh Award for Marine and Freshwater Conservation, Chief Editor of the Journal of Applied Ecology; President
With an increasing number of jobs in the ecology sector opening up all the time, we’re excited to speak with Andrew Black – Director of Ecology Jobs, the only UK job-site dedicated to helping ecologists. What is ‘Ecology Jobs’? Our demographic is UK ecologists, and we understand the specific needs, skills and requirements of both
The Effective Ecologist covers the stuff that no-one told you about at university – how to develop your office-related and business skills to succeed in your career as a professional ecologist. This book shows you how to be more effective in your role, providing you with the skills and effective behaviours within the workplace that
Andrew Snyder is a conservationist and photographer currently working on his PhD in Biology in the U.S. He has been doing field work in tropical rainforests for several years, focusing on amphibians and reptiles, and is involved with Operation Wallacea, a conservation research organization that gives young people the opportunity to do volunteering in tropical
Helping Kew put Conservation on the Map with Steve Bachman Steve is the Species Conservation Assessment Officer in the Herbarium at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. The post is based in the Geographical Information systems (GIS) Unit, which is part of the Biodiversity Informatics and Economic Botany department. Also known as Kew Gardens, the non-departmental
Top 10 tips for getting a career in ecology Professor Bill Sutherland, British Ecological Society President, kicked off their recent Ecological Careers Conference by getting attendees to think about what skills they’d need for a career in ecology and how they could go about obtaining those skills and experiences. Using the advice from this session,
When you hear the word ‘primatology,’ there’s a good chance you’re picturing either Jane Goodall nose-to-nose with a chimp, or Sir David Attenborough huddled amongst mountain gorillas in Rwanda. But beneath its romantic portrayal is a field so challenging, so diverse and so close to our own hearts (and DNA) that it couldn’t possibly be
This week we’re talking to Dr Peter Søgaard Jørgensen and the working group from the International Network of Next-Generation Ecologists (INNGE). Peter Søgaard Jørgensen is a biologist studying the macroecological consequences of global environmental change and sustainable solutions that may improve biological food, resource, health and environmental systems in the 21st century. This is currently studied
Have you ever caught yourself feeling too small to make a difference? It’s a common experience among conservationists and, considering the severity of global issues including biodiversity loss, resource exploitation, and climate change, it’s not surprising we feel overwhelmed. However, focusing on individual conservation stories it’s easy to see big changes can come from small
An island Nature Reserve where environmental conservation and industrial resource extraction go hand-in-hand? This may be hard to imagine but such a place does exist, and this is where Adam McVeigh calls home for two weeks, every month. As a Senior Environmental Scientist for Stantec consultancy in Australia, Adam works on a particularly unique island,
Scientific writing requires details, data and absolutely no emotion, fostering credibility within journals. This approach ensures a rigorous foundation but often lacks the inspirational quality needed to engage a broader audience in conservation efforts. This is where Amber Hopgood bridges the gap between fact-based conservation and the need for greater understanding and support from the
Evi Indraswati’s story doesn’t unfold amidst the sterile silence of a laboratory, but within the harsh realities of communities in Indonesia’s Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park (TNBBS), grappling with environmental degradation and unsustainable fishing practices. Witnessing their unwavering spirit and deep-rooted knowledge ignited a passion within Evi: to bridge the gap between these communities and
