Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I will be gaduating in a couple years and am consodering becoming a herpetoligist. What kind of schooling is required? What are the good herp schools? What is the average pay? Who imploys a herpetologist? Any other useful info apreciated. My other option is vetrenarian but the school guidence office has whole books on that.

>>I will be gaduating in a couple years and am consodering becoming a herpetoligist. What kind of schooling is required? What are the good herp schools? What is the average pay? Who imploys a herpetologist? Any other useful info apreciated. My other option is vetrenarian but the school guidence office has whole books on that.

The term herpetologist is rather widely used so the educational requirements and job opportunities vary.

Zoo herpetologists are basically just zookeepers that work in the herp house. These jobs generally require some academic training (an associates degree in zoo manangement program or a BS in zoology/wildlife science etc). The pay is not very good however. There is also a lot of competition for just a few jobs. For some of the higher level zoo jobs (curator, etc,) you will definitely need at least a BS and probably an MS.

State and federal agencies employ "herpetologists" for a variety of research or resource management positions. Few of these jobs work strictly with herps. For these positions you will require at least a BS in wildlife science/zoology/biology etc and some research experience in the particular field you are interested in. Many positions require an MS or even a PhD.

Most formal "herpetologists" are university professors who do research in the field of herpetology and teach university level classes. For this you will need a PhD and a lot of published research experience in the field. These are the best paying herp related jobs, but are the hardest to get and they require the most education.
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Chris Harrison

Sounds pretty good, Any idia what the better schools for more acedemic oriented (university type) are?

Thank You