Zoology or Ecology/Wildlife conservation

I can’t decide which degree will be better for me. I love the idea of being able to travel doing animal research and conservation and doing lab work however I have heard that with a zoology degree there is a big focus on the smaller aspects of the environment such as insects and small animals while I want to work with big animals. Is a wildlife conservation degree better for this? I feel like a zoology degree will be more broad and can lead into more potential careers in this sort of field and make it easier to find a job as I know this field is competitive but yeah any advice would be much appreciated.

Reply 1

Meheraj

19

Original post by Dweeter

I can’t decide which degree will be better for me. I love the idea of being able to travel doing animal research and conservation and doing lab work however I have heard that with a zoology degree there is a big focus on the smaller aspects of the environment such as insects and small animals while I want to work with big animals. Is a wildlife conservation degree better for this? I feel like a zoology degree will be more broad and can lead into more potential careers in this sort of field and make it easier to find a job as I know this field is competitive but yeah any advice would be much appreciated.

I do eye-to-eye with the points you've made. If it were me, I would've picked Zoology over Wildlife Conservation considering that the former one is a more straightforward course, will focus on a specific environment and it'll have more options when it comes to future prospects. That doesn't mean I'm telling you to choose Zoology. First of all, do your own research on both of them and try to figure out the pros and cons of the two and then ask yourself what career path would you prefer to see yourself in future. I reckon these three steps can guide you to decide the right course for you. Hope this helps! Good luck! 😊

Reply 2

Dweeter

OP

5

Original post by Meheraj

I do eye-to-eye with the points you've made. If it were me, I would've picked Zoology over Wildlife Conservation considering that the former one is a more straightforward course, will focus on a specific environment and it'll have more options when it comes to future prospects. That doesn't mean I'm telling you to choose Zoology. First of all, do your own research on both of them and try to figure out the pros and cons of the two and then ask yourself what career path would you prefer to see yourself in future. I reckon these three steps can guide you to decide the right course for you. Hope this helps! Good luck! 😊

Thank you! Yes I’ll definitely look into them in depth and I suppose most zoology courses do cover conservation so I’ll just see if I can find some that have more of a focus on that side of things to get the best of both worlds :smile:

Reply 3

Meheraj

19

Original post by Dweeter

Thank you! Yes I’ll definitely look into them in depth and I suppose most zoology courses do cover conservation so I’ll just see if I can find some that have more of a focus on that side of things to get the best of both worlds :smile:

No worries! :smile:

Yeah, you should.

Reply 4

University of Plymouth Undergraduate Student Rep

Official Rep

11

Original post by Dweeter

I can’t decide which degree will be better for me. I love the idea of being able to travel doing animal research and conservation and doing lab work however I have heard that with a zoology degree there is a big focus on the smaller aspects of the environment such as insects and small animals while I want to work with big animals. Is a wildlife conservation degree better for this? I feel like a zoology degree will be more broad and can lead into more potential careers in this sort of field and make it easier to find a job as I know this field is competitive but yeah any advice would be much appreciated.

Hi!

I'm a current Zoology second year student here at the University of Plymouth so if you have any questions at all about the course or anything in general please let me know! We also have a Zoology student rep here on Unibuddy if you're wanting some more information about Zoology in general and what it's like to study it! I really love the subject and I'm looking to travel to two countries in my placement year next year as well as visiting Kenya with my course this year so I definitely love the travel element! Zoology is a really broad subject and does look at those larger animals as well as smaller animals. It's definitely quite broad which is great if you're not sure what direction you want to go in specifically yet but you generally specialise more throughout the degree. If you have any more questions at all feel free to reach out or visit our Unibuddy page! https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/unibuddy

All the best!

- Alfie, University of Plymouth Student Ambassador :koala:

Reply 5

Lancaster Student Ambassador

Official Rep

15

Original post by Dweeter

I can’t decide which degree will be better for me. I love the idea of being able to travel doing animal research and conservation and doing lab work however I have heard that with a zoology degree there is a big focus on the smaller aspects of the environment such as insects and small animals while I want to work with big animals. Is a wildlife conservation degree better for this? I feel like a zoology degree will be more broad and can lead into more potential careers in this sort of field and make it easier to find a job as I know this field is competitive but yeah any advice would be much appreciated.

Hi there!

I'm an Ecology and Conservation student at Lancaster and I had a similar question when I was applying. Both degrees are great choices and will hopefully lead to a fantastic career in animal conservation! At Lancaster there is quite a lot of overlap with Zoology in first year because many of the modules are shared. This means you can find out what interest you early on and you can always swap courses if you think the other would suit you better. Also, there are a lot of optional modules (for both) which means you can tailor the course to your interests - so if you are interested in larger animals you can pick modules that focus on those. But overall, I'd say Ecology and Conservation is slightly broader (looking at plants, animals and the wider environment) whereas Zoology is more animal focused and goes down the biology route. Obviously this may differ though depending on which university you go to and which modules you pick.

On my course I've had amazing opportunities to study wildlife in Kenya, Scotland and Spain, so I'd definitely recommend choosing a course that has a lot of fieldtrips if you want to travel. Here is a link to the course pages if you are interested:
Ecology and conservation: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/courses/ecology-and-conservation-bsc-hons-c180/2024/
Zoology: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/courses/zoology-bsc-hons-c300/2024/#structure

As for career prospects, I'd say both courses are equally useful - though in this type of work it's really important to have practical experience so I'd suggest finding a local volunteering group to join!

Hope that's helpful, let me know if you have any more questions :smile:

Chloe
(Lancaster Student Ambassador)

Reply 6

Ghostlady

21

Original post by Dweeter

I can’t decide which degree will be better for me. I love the idea of being able to travel doing animal research and conservation and doing lab work however I have heard that with a zoology degree there is a big focus on the smaller aspects of the environment such as insects and small animals while I want to work with big animals. Is a wildlife conservation degree better for this? I feel like a zoology degree will be more broad and can lead into more potential careers in this sort of field and make it easier to find a job as I know this field is competitive but yeah any advice would be much appreciated.

My youngest daughter last year applied for 2023 start. She chose Chester (animal behaviour) Reading Zoology, Lancaster Zoology, Bangor zoology and animal behaviour, and Lincoln Zoology. A lot of the courses do focus on insects and small animals as part of the course. Daughter wants to work with big cats, but there is not really a course ive seen thats geared up for that. Long story short, she chose and got into Reading due to the campus and the course, however she got homesick and withdrew from uni. Nothing wrong with uni/course/campus, it was just too far away from us.
So, she now works and has applied locally for next year 2024 start. She has been to NTU brackenhurst campus and they have a working farm, an animal unit, stables. The animal unit has rabbits, domesticated cats and dogs, spiders, gerbils, ferrets, goats, donkeys, snakes plus a lot more lol. She loves the idea of being hands on and they do zoology and also zoo biology. She was confused about the two as they are very similar, but when speaking to a course advisor, he asked what her aim was and she said big cats, either in zoo's or conservation setting and he said zoo biology for that as it gives more oppotunities to work with them, or other animals in a zoo setting on placements than zoology does, so she went for that and now has had an unconditional offer on friday just gone (since shes got the grades BCC)
NTU draw backs, brackenhurst is in the middle of nowhere. Its 40 mins on a bus to Nottingham city centre, which she will be using to see us every weekend so shes not homesick). Its 5 mins on a bus the opposite way to a town called Southwell which has a few pubs, cafes, takeaways and a co-op. NTU pros: working with animals directly, and the accommodation is also lovely, its like a little village on its own and reasonably priced. It also has its own bar and a couple of eateries on campus.

Now Lancaster, I can also vouch for that as my eldest studies there (physics). with zoology it is more orientated around the animals and their LEC is amazing and their labs. Lancaster is really nice and the campus is very safe and the city is 20 mins on the bus, and the city itself has all you need. I really love Lancaster because its served my daughter well wth her degree and the levels of support shes had with her career, and its just a lovely lovely city and campus.

(edited 5 months ago)

Zoology or Ecology/Wildlife conservation

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