What I would love to study primates as a career. What is this called, and how can I go about getting into thi?

Question

I'm fascinated by primates, especially chimpanzees and baboons. What careers are available that would let me study and interact with them? What sort of degree would I need?

Answer 1

Zoology, veterinary science are good. My friend graduated from Humboldt University with a degree in Wildlife Management. She did 2 tours in Hawaii and Chile out in the wild counting and cataloging animals. Had a blast! Those are the only ones I can think of.

Answer 2

Actually, primate communication and social behavior falls under both anthropology and zoology. The discipline is called Primatology.

Biological anthropology has to do with evolution and our closest evolutionary cousins, the other primates. (We're primates, too.)

Another subdivision of anthropology is linguistics. It may be that they're teaching ape communication there as well.

The biology or zoology department has courses on ethology, the study of animal behavior.

Also the psychology department has courses on language development, psychology of other species, etc.

Careers: Primatologist, that's what you want to be. You'd most likely become a professor and do research concurrently. Read more about it:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primatology

http://primatology.net/

http://www.primate.wisc.edu/

http://www.asp.org/research/ajp/index.ht...

Answer 3

Depends on what about them you like.  If you are fascinated by their social behaviors and attitudes, a major in Zoology sounds like the right choice.  They study animal behaviors and such.  If you are more interested in caring for them ,treating them, bettering their environment for example, a major in Veterinary science is more what you're looking for.  It's like a doctor for animals, and you can specify specific animals that you can take care.