What Kind of Major Do I Need to Work in a Zoo?
- Ms. Dewar says that the Lincoln Park Zoo employs not just trained zoologists, but also botanists, ecologists and horticulturalists. A zoo is more than the animals in residence. It is also the grounds -- plants, flowers and sheltering foliage, all of which require people with specialized knowledge to maintain them.
- The notion of a degree in veterinary medicine might first to come to mind, but a zoo's medical staff is likely to also include veterinary technicians, nutritionists and even psychologists. Psychologists, for example, employ behavioral techniques to train animals to obey simple commands. A hand signal may be used to encourage an animal to open its mouth for a dose of medicine.
- Zoos are for people. As such, they're comprised not only animal enclosures and landscaped grounds, but also of restaurants, gift shops and educational facilities. Degrees in public relations, marketing, hospitality, teaching, culinary arts, photography and journalism all have a place at the zoo. Engineering graduates maintain a zoo's infrastructure while computer programmers maintain a wide variety of essential systems, from record-keeping to lighting.
- You don't need to be a college graduate to find important work at a zoo. The same trades -- electricians, plumbers, masons, carpenters, welders and a long list of others -- that keep your own home and community in working condition perform exactly the same jobs at a zoo.