Working with Nature and Wildlife: Share Your Story!

[Sees]

Hi everyone! This is my first ever forum topic on this site.

I’m passionate about nature and wildlife and aspire to work in this field. I recently graduated with a Bachelors in Conservation Biology & Ecology, and I’d love to hear about your journeys! What inspired you to pursue a career that involves nature/wildlife conservation? Where are you at now? What are your plans for the future?

Please share your stories about:
- The experiences or moments that sparked your interest.
- The education or training you pursued.
- Any challenges you faced along the way.
- Tips for someone just starting out in this field.

Let’s inspire each other and share insights on our paths to working with nature! Thanks for replying!

[Sees]

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[Sees]

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[Sees]

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[ChunkyChad]

Hi, saw this thread and thought it was pretty neat so I'll introduce my self! Im 5th year animal health student and I have 3 years of experience in the wildlife rescue and rehab. I volunteered/interned and then got a paid summer position. I worked in rescue and helpline, so I worked with the public to address concerns with animals as well I would go out and preform rescues for cases were most general members of public wouldn't be able to rescue the animal themselves. I've got lots of crazy stories from that lol. I also volunteer in winter doing the care side of things, helping with x-rays, feeding and medicating animals and other parts of rehab. Actually the gull in my profile picture is a bird I rescued that bit the crap out of my hand (gulls have to be top 10 worst biters, way worse than like most birds of prey imo lol)

I have to say I absolutely love working in the wildlife field and I hope to continue to. I love working out in the field, I don't think I could ever work an office job, I already struggle to sit still for like 30min, a classic 9-5 would be deadly. It does have some drawbacks but I think the pros definitely out way the cons

Some tips i would say for anyone looking to get into rescue and rehab or something similar:

- you almost always are going to have to be an unpaid volunteer/intern. I did 20hrs a week for all of summer for 2 years + volunteering in winter before I was able to get a paid position. Rehabs are non-profits so they often don't have the funds to be able to pay for most of the ppl they need to run it, and when the do have a paid position they tend to internally hire from their pool of volunteers as they already are experienced and familiar with the rescue. Very few places will have paid positions for ppl who don't already have experience
- if you deal with the public like I do, be prepare to deal with some.. interesting ppl. I have met many very sweet ppl that honestly shock me with how willing they are to help but I've also dealt with some of the most difficult and honestly disturbing ppl, its shocking how quick ppl will just admit to abusing animals and not seem to care
- be prepared to handle death. Wild animals die very easily compared to domestics, and it's something you need to be able to handle. Its absolutely horrible but in a busy day you can have 20 animals that come in and dont make it, and there's nothing that can be done about that. If you are not able to work with so many animals passing away I'd personally recommend staying away from this field, or doing similar fields like education with ambassador animals as theres really no way around it
- also be prepared to say no to rescuing an animal. Sometimes it's just not safe and you have to refuse to rescue the animal (ie an animal trapped out on a 110km hwy, if you dont have everything needed to safely stop traffic than you cannot preform it, which unless you're a cop or something no chance). it sucks but you need to be able to make the safest calls for you, the public and youre other coworkers who will come with you

If you guys have any questions about this field or anything feel free to pm me or post on this thread ^^

[emball]

Hey! I absolutely love talking about work in the field, definitely one of the best experiences ever and I hope to continue on this path. I'm a second-year marine biology student and mostly work with megafauna (mammals like seals & whales, and big fish like sharks or tuna). I've been working with northern elephant seals for about a year now and will probably stick with 'em for a while!

Taking inspo from the post before me I wanna share a couple things that I've learned working in this field so far:

- When you first start out, don't limit yourself to specific topics! For the longest time I thought I wanted to work with kelp forests and (although I still love them) I switched up super fast when I got into the position I'm in now lol. I did some work with giant kelp and it just didn't give me that spark I'm looking for on my career path, but I learned so much from that position and am super grateful that I tried it out! Nowadays I mostly do marine mammal stuff and I never thought I'd be on this path but I can't imagine finding something I love more. (Will def try out other things though at some point, I'm certain!) Just keep an open mind to things you may not originally be interested in because who knows, maybe you'll fall in love with a field you never thought about before :^)

- Along the same lines: You also don't have to know exactly what you want to be doing as soon as you get into a field you're studying! Around 75% of college students in the US change their major at least once; there's nothing wrong with trying stuff out. Take your time and figure things out at your own pace!

- And yeah, going off of the previous post- You will most definitely start out volunteering without any pay. Even now I'm mostly doing unpaid work haha, but I've always prioritized experience. I feel like that's one of the most important things to have, especially if you want to make a zoology-related field your career! When you get a ton of hands-on experience you'll have a major advantage when it comes to applying for more rigorous (and higher-paying!) jobs later on in your career. Don't think that just because you aren't getting paid means that you aren't gaining anything- in these types of fields, experience is one of the most valuable things you can have!

Sorry for the big paragraphs lol. I'm definitely not the most qualified person in the field yet to be answering questions, I still have a lot to learn- but if anyone has any questions feel free to shoot me a PM and I'll try my best to help out!

[cswolf.]

I have done tons of volunteering out in the Nature and I used to go camping almost every summer and I would spend most of the time exploring and looking for buggies and such!