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.
“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
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
Daniela Ventura is a Caribbean wildlife biologist and bird bander based in Havana, Cuba. Fascinated by nature from a young age, Daniela started studying biology at the University of Havana as soon as she finished high school. She continues to work there since her graduation as both a biology lecturer and bird research scientist. Daniela
“I had a yellow rain jacket that was just white with guano, and I learnt pretty quickly that I had to close my mouth when looking up”. They do not teach you everything in school; sometimes the field turns into your school. Mathieu Charette, an ornithologist from Montreal, Canada, and director of the Toucan Ridge
Professor Juliet Vickery is Chief Executive Officer of the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), President of the British Ornithologists’ Union (BOU), Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Cambridge and Honorary Professor at the University of East Anglia. Juliet generously made time to share her career story with me and to reflect on BTO’s recent
Are you applying for conservation jobs unsuccessfully? Do you struggle to receive feedback on your applications? Would you like to increase your chances of success by learning from employers? Join us for a free webinar with guest speakers from Conservation International and the RSPB to get first-hand insights into how these top conservation employers recruit
With over 800 species of birds in South Africa and over 100 of them threatened, where do you start with trying to conserve them? Growing up in South Africa, Mark Anderson was taken out into the bush for days on end by his grandfather and from an early age he knew that he wanted to
I eagerly packed my luggage and camp-net – I’ve been longing for this field trip. In anticipation to meet my dream game species, I left home without taking breakfast. I was the earliest bird at the department car park patiently waiting for others to join me. Unfortunately, the bus developed a fault and affected our
In this podcast episode we’re speaking to Dr Mike Clarke, Chief Executive of the RSPB. An organisation with over 1.2 million members, 2,000 staff and 13,500 volunteers, the RSPB is a Goliath in the conservation industry and needs no introduction. Mike became a member of the RSPB at age 12 and has worked professionally for them
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 opening episode of the Conservation Careers Podcast, Nick Askew speaks with Patricia Zurita, CEO of BirdLife International. BirdLife is the biggest conservation partnership on the planet, with charities in 120 countries working from local-to-global to conserve birds and biodiversity. In this episode Patricia shares her career story so far, and how she got from
Over 100,000 giant tortoises on the remote Aldabra atoll, approximately 115 islands across a 1.4 million square kilometre exclusive economic zone, and a Noah’s ark of unique tropical wildlife. That’s the Seychelles that fascinated me as a child who had fallen in love with giant tortoises. I grew up surrounded by Seychelles maps and books,
My interview with Kat Machin from north-west England identified volunteer experience as key evidence that you can deliver and work within a conservation team. Experience in Seychelles offered unique opportunities to work on globally significant projects for both Kat and myself. But local conservation in our home towns in England has been equally important. Kat
I was recently in Honduras, working as a field ornithologist on an Operation Wallacea expedition. Operation Wallacea conducts field conservation research all over the world, and provides young people with the opportunity to experience this research first hand, by bringing school students and university research assistants along with the scientific staff. Sam Jones is the
