A day in the life of a Zoologist?

Question

What do they do in a day and how much money do they make?

Answer 1

There are many different jobs a Zoologist can do.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...

What kind of jobs can someone get with a zoology degree?

DAY IN THE LIFE OF A ZOOLOGIST (see the sites for the rest)

http://www.michaeltuma.com/zoology/red-t...

Michael's Blog: A Day in the Life of a Zoologist

Red-tailed hawk nest monitoring (posted March 31, 2006)

     Since the early spring of 2004, I've been monitoring the nests of three red-tailed hawk pairs at a reservoir owned and operated by a municipal water agency in southern California. They've been doing upgrades to the facililties there, and, per the Environmental Impact Record (EIR) written for the project, must conduct the construction in a way that does not harm the nesting raptors near construction areas during the breeding season. My company was hired to provide the biological services for the project. My duties include observing the nesting pairs during the nesting season in order to recommend an appropriate construction schedule, and construction activities, near nest sites.

     It's been an amazing experience watching the hawks struggle to pass on their genes over the past two seasons. The first season was the most successful in terms of numbers of fledglings that left the nests - seven in all. But that season was not without some drama. The chick pictured here was approximately 6 weeks old at the time the photo was taken - this awkward-looking fellow was feeling a little ambitious one day and fell from the nest when hopping to a branch. At six weeks, red-tailed hawk chicks cannot fly, and there was no way he could get back into the nest. As you can imagine, the parents were freaking out. I was a bit concerned, too. I watched all day as the chick cried for its parents; the adult hawks tried feeding the fallen chick,******

http://www.princetonreview.com/Careers.a...

A Day in the life of a Zoologist

A day at the zoo with a zoologist finds him or her employed in one of three fields: Curating, directing, or zookeeping. The curator oversees the care and distribution of animals in the zoo, while the director does not work directly with the animals but rather performs more administrative duties, such as fundraising and public relations. Curators and directors work closely together to determine the best way to contain the animals, maintain their habitats, and manage the facility. They are far more active in the matter of running a zoo, though, and need to have additional business background. The zookeeper provides the daily care of feeding, cleaning, and monitoring the animals and their habitats. Curators design the zoo’s budget, remaining mindful of the zoo’s goals. The educational programs they design for the zoo and the animals they procure for exhibition reflect these goals. The curator leads the zoo staff and delegates assignments to them. Often curators write articles for scientific journals and inform reporters for stories. Zoos often loan animals to other zoos, so a good working relationship with colleagues around the country is ******

http://www.planet-science.com/nextsteps/...

Claire Valentine

Head of Collecting in the Department of Zoology at the Darwin Centre in the Natural History Museum

10.00

     We arrive at the main entrance to the National History Museum and Claire comes to meet us and takes us through the museum to the Darwin Centre. We went to the main storage room for the wet specimens.

     Claire tells us that there are about 22 million wet specimens in jars stored here at the museum some of which are the originals collected by Charles Darwin himself.

11.00

     Claire's department often receive new specimens from scientists all over the world and today she has received a shipment of crabs from a research project in Lake Tanganyika in Tanzania, East Africa.

11.30

     Claire explains that all these crabs (there are about 5 crates of them!) and their specimen labels need to be transferred into fresh jars before they can be placed into storage.

     The process begins with filling a fresh jar with alcohol. At the National History Museum they spend £30,000 a year on glassware for the zoology department alone! (yes, that's right - here at the Darwin Centre they have alcohol on tap! Although it's actually a mix of industrial methylated spirits and ethanol so not quite a nice glass of chardonnay!)

     Then, very carefully, the girls transfer crabs from jar to jar with tweezers while trying to keep their squeals to themselves!

12.30

     We work hard in the lab although there's one crab that we won't be trying to move with tweezers! Claire decides its time for a break and takes us to the staff canteen for a much needed lunch.

13.30

     When we return from lunch Claire takes us to*****

PAY

http://www.aboutbioscience.org/zoologist...

The average salary for a zoologist is $47,740, with the maximum salary around $71,000.

http://www.iseek.org/sv/Salary?id=46001:...

U S: Average: $28.83

http://www.schoolsintheusa.com/careerpro...

Average Earnings  

Entry Level Salary: $29,260

Average Salary: $47,740

Maximum Salary: $71,270

http://online.onetcenter.org/link/detail...

Median wages (2006) $25.63 hourly, $53,300 annual

Answer 2

One of the thinks I like most about being a zoologist is that there is no typical day. I may spend a day up to my elbows in guts, another lecturing, yet another wading thru muck in a search for an imperilled species of turtle. I spent some time designing playground equipment because we had nobody on the project who knew how to do it. On the same project, I wrote white papers on garbage collection and disposal. I've been up as early as 2 AM counting salmon on one project and tropical birds on another.

As far as money goes, that depends on your level of education and experience and what you are doing. Don't go into the field for the money. Go into it because you won't be happy doing anything else.