A wildlife biologist studies how ecological and human caused factors affect wildlife management and conservation, usually in natural habitats.
The most important talent or skill is a deep curiosity about the natural world. Wildlife biology is a rigorous profession with many required skills that include statistics, biology, writing, and public speaking. This profession also requires a passion for wildlife habitat and species conservation.
How do you manage forests in ways that not only sustain lynx, but also provide for the production of wood products and recreation?
We use telemetry to study wildlife movements and habitat requirements. Specialized transmitters collect accurate Global Positioning Systems (GPS) locations. These specialized radio transmitters use satellites to transmit these data to the biologist’s computer. We then use geographic information systems (GIS) computer programs to study the relationship between an animal’s location and landscape features.
All scientific discoveries are exciting in different ways. We were excited to discover that lynx use a mosaic of forest ages and that both young and mature forests are important to their conservation. Our team also was excited to document that lynx and wolverine will tolerate fairly high levels of snowmobile and skier recreation in their winter home ranges.
I knew I wanted to be a “wildlife conservationist” in grade school. I was especially interested in birds of prey. As a 7th grader, the local falconry club let me help them hunt their goshawks. I was hooked; I spent all of my time in high school trapping and training hawks.
