Count, track and manage wild animal populations so decisions about land and hunting are based on evidence instead of guesses.
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Pay, the path, pros and cons and the facts on one printable page. Counsellors: send it to a student from your own email in one click.
Programs in the fields this career usually comes through. Each has its own page: what it takes to get in, the courses you need and what it costs.
The median pay is about $76,780 a year. Across everyone in the job it runs from about $49,100 at the lower end to about $126,440 at the upper end. The source is listed under Sources at the end of this page.
4 to 6 years after high school, on the usual route.
$32,000 to $48,500 all in for tuition, fees, exams and kit. Living costs are not counted.
No. There is no license to hold, though many employers still ask for training or a certificate.
Moderate demand nationally, from government outlook data. Demand varies by region, so check your area.
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What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Median
$76,780
Bottom tenth
$49,100
Top tenth
$126,440
The national median is $76,780 a year. The bottom tenth earn $49,100 or less and the top tenth $126,440 or more (2025 federal wage survey). The survey title is zoologists and wildlife biologists, so zoo and research staff are counted in the same group.
Paid by the hour, a season at a time
Field technician, housing sometimes included
Most people do several seasonal field jobs before a permanent one: counting birds, trapping small mammals, radio-tracking. It is the real entry requirement in this field, it is poorly paid, and it is how you meet the people who hire.
$107,500 a year
The median in Maryland, the highest of any state
The District of Columbia is close behind at $107,050 and California at $98,530. The lowest is Texas, at $49,100. State medians from the 2025 federal wage survey.
Roughly, all in
$32,000 to $48,500
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The low end is two years at a community college at about $4,150 a year, then transferring into an in state public university for the final two at roughly $12,000 a year. The high end is four full years at the in state public rate plus the certification application fees charged by the professional society. Out of state and private universities cost far more, but most people in this field take the in state route. A master's degree, which many jobs expect, is usually funded: a research assistantship normally waives tuition and pays a small stipend, so it is not in these numbers. The hidden cost is the unpaid or barely paid field seasons people do to get hired.
File the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) each year. If you end up at a government or nonprofit employer, the PSLF (Public Service Loan Forgiveness) program can cancel the remaining federal loan balance after 10 years of payments, which suits this field well.
Public pensions
State and federal wildlife agencies still run defined-benefit retirement plans.
Loan forgiveness
Government and nonprofit employment qualifies for federal public service loan cancellation.
Gear and vehicles
Trucks, boats, radios, optics and field housing are provided. You are not buying a boat.
Field per diem
Work away from your duty station pays a daily allowance for food and lodging.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
A degree gets you considered. Seasonal field work gets you hired. Most permanent jobs want a master's on top.
High school diploma
Grade 12
Biology, chemistry and statistics. Volunteering at a refuge, a rehabilitation center or a banding station counts for more than you would think.
Bachelor's degree
4 years
Wildlife biology, ecology or a related science. Check that the coursework matches the certification requirements while you still have room in your schedule.
Seasonal field technician jobs
1 to 3 years
Three to six months at a time, often in another state, usually with shared housing. This is the real gate into the profession.
Master's degree
2 to 3 years
Most permanent agency and consulting jobs list it. It is normally funded by an assistantship tied to a research project.
Permanent biologist
After the above
A state wildlife agency, a federal agency, a tribe, a nonprofit or an environmental consulting firm.
Biology
Obviously, but especially ecology and population biology if offered.
Statistics
The single most underrated subject here. Modern wildlife work is population modeling and study design.
Chemistry
Required by most wildlife degrees and by the federal credit-hour standards.
Geography or earth science
Habitat, landscapes and mapping are the daily vocabulary.
English
Reports, permits and management plans are the actual output of the job.
No state licenses wildlife biologists. The Wildlife Society issues the closest thing: Associate Wildlife Biologist, which needs a bachelor's degree with specific coursework and no experience, and Certified Wildlife Biologist, which needs that degree plus at least five years of professional experience with real decision-making. The certification renews every five years with 80 hours of continuing education. Federal jobs ignore both and instead require a set number of biology credit hours, which is why checking your course list against the standards in your sophomore year matters so much.
Land-grant state universities
Colorado State University's Warner College of Natural Resources has a department of fish, wildlife and conservation biology, and most western states have an equivalent.
Programs with a field station
Somewhere you can handle animals, run transects and collect real data as an undergraduate matters more than a famous name.
Community college first
Two years of biology, chemistry and statistics transfers cleanly and cuts the cost by about a third.
Check the coursework list
Certification and federal hiring both require specific credit hours. Two degrees with the same title can differ on this.
Things you don't need, but that help.
GIS (geographic information systems)
Mapping habitat and movement. It appears in almost every job posting in the field.
Statistics and coding
Population models, survey design and data analysis. The R statistical language is the standard tool.
Capture and handling
Netting, trapping, banding and collaring, with the training and permits that go with them.
Remote sensing tools
Camera traps, acoustic recorders and drone surveys are replacing a lot of walking.
A driver's license and a tolerance for bad roads
Trucks, trailers, boats and all-terrain vehicles are daily tools in most field jobs.
Wilderness first aid
You will be hours from a hospital regularly, and it makes you safer to hire.
Willingness to move
Seasonal jobs are wherever the animals are. People who will relocate get the experience first.
Bird and plant identification
Unglamorous, learnable, and it decides who gets hired for survey work.
Environmental consulting firms are hired by developers, energy companies and transport agencies to survey a site before anything is built: what lives there, what is protected, and what the project has to do about it. They hire faster than government agencies and give you a lot of field experience quickly. The trade-off is that you work to a client's deadline, the reports are dense, and you are not the one deciding what happens to the land.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
In field season: out before dawn to run a survey route or check traps, back by early afternoon, then hours entering data and cleaning gear. Out of season: a desk, a spreadsheet, a statistical model, a management plan to write, and a public meeting where somebody is angry about hunting quotas. The ratio surprises people. Most of a wildlife biologist's year is data, permits, writing and meetings, with concentrated bursts of genuinely wonderful field work.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
About 19,500 people work as zoologists and wildlife biologists (2025). The federal projection has the job growing 3% to 4% to 2035, with only about 1,400 openings a year.
The Fish and Wildlife Service hires for many different careers, from biologists and refuge managers to law enforcement officers, engineers and communications staff. A wildlife degree is not the only door into wildlife work.
When O*NET (Occupational Information Network) surveyed people in this job, 72% said a new hire needs a bachelor's degree and 28% a master's degree.
Every list is built from the same numbers shown above, so you can see where this career sits next to the others.
Life and lab first, then the rest of the field. See every career in science and environment.
Last checked October 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in United States dollars, based on Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data and published pay scales. They vary by state, employer and experience. Tuition is for in-state students at public schools unless the card says otherwise. How every figure on this site is sourced and checked.
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