The Zoo isn't just for kids!!!

By Jennifer Seide

Job Description

• A zoologist is a person who studies the field of biology devoted to the study of the animal kingdom. They analyze and classify the animals using certain characteristics, such as the animal's mode of reproduction or the animal's habitat. Now, in comparison to earlier years, zoologists study broader areas like ecology, genetics and biochemistry. There are two sections that a Zoologist focuses on, taxonomically oriented studies and morphology.
• A) Taxonomically oriented studies encompass many different studies such as; entomology, which is the study of insects, macalogy, which is the study of mollusks, ichthyology, which is the study of fish, herpetology, the study of amphibians and reptiles, and paleontology, which is the study of fossils.
• B) Morphology is basically the study of the structural components of animals. This study encompasses histology, which is the study of body tissue, and cytology, which is the study on cells and their components.
• Nature of the Work
• This person does not usually works from 9 a.m to 5 p.m, and it is almost never in an office environment. Because they are researchers, zoologists for the most part make up their hours and research what they need to research, when they need to research it. If the zoologist is not outside gathering materials from animals, he is in the lab, studying the behavior of animals recording the data. A zoologist gets about 15 days vacation for each year.
• Qualifications and Salary
• In order to become a zoologist, a person must have a Ph.D. in your area of specialty and at least 2 years of experience in the field or a related area. a person must also have knowledge about commonly-used concepts, practices and procedures in your field. In order to advance in this career, a person must successfully perform experiments that lead to the classification of anamalia. The entry salary for someone in this profession is about $65,000 and the maximum is around $75,000.

Reflection

• I decided to research this profession because I wanted to know more in general about what a zoologist did. When first looking it up I thought it was a joke of a job, but after reserching it I realized that it is an interesting profession that made sense. I think that if some people would actually research this project, they may find it to be a great profession that they want to pursue as opposed to a joke.

Sources

• "Zoology," Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2001
• Lucas, Jenney. Personal Interview. March 23. 2002
• Job Guide 2001:Zoologist: http://www.tss.qld.edu.au/jobguide/496.htm