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08-May-08, 09:35 PM
|  | Subscriber | Join Date: Jan-07 Location: Darwin, NT Age/Gender: 24  | | | | is herpetology a growing profession or a shrinking profession? |
08-May-08, 09:38 PM
|  | Regular Member | Join Date: Oct-07 Location: Sydney NSW Gender: | | | | i want to be a herpetologist when im older, thanks for your help Lozza, my teacher told me to find out what stuff i need to do to become a herpetologist.
apperently you also need unit 2 maths...
Luke
__________________ check out my web pages  bredlis, spotteds, childrens, jackies |
08-May-08, 09:38 PM
|  | Subscriber | Join Date: Oct-06 Location: north coast NSW Age/Gender: 24  | | | Smith84: I don't really know enough to comment on that question - perhaps someone else may?
Luke: no worries
I would do 2 unit maths and biology at school for sure. Chemistry would also help a lot.
In your first year of uni for zoology you generally study maths, statistics, biology, chemistry etc then in later years you get into more specialised zoology subjects
__________________ Squirtle Power  |
08-May-08, 09:44 PM
| | Subscriber | Join Date: Jan-07 Location: Darwin, NT Age/Gender: 24 | | | i wish i had known that when i was at school  |
08-May-08, 09:46 PM
|  | Regular Member | Join Date: May-06 Location: Brisbane Gender: | | | Quote:
Originally Posted by smith84  once you become a herp, what type of employment oppertunities are there? | Bugger all. Instead of calling yourself a herpetologist, you'd probably be better off calling yourself a physiologist/ecologist/whatever. You can still use reptiles/amphibians as your study animals, but you're more employable if you sound like you have a wider field of expertise. Quote:
Originally Posted by smith84 are these research projects a paid activity or do most herps rely on another job or snake breeding as a source of income? | If you're an academic or a research scientist (working at a university, in a government department or for a charity) you will have a salary. You will get paid to study reptiles. This would make you a professional herpetologist.
Keep in mind that a herpetologist is someone who studies reptiles/amphibians. To me, that means you carry out original research and publish your findings for the wider scientific community to view. Keeping reptiles in captivity doesn't make you a herpetologist. If you studied your captive animals and published your findings, that would make you a herpetologist. If you don't make money from your research you'd probably be classed as an 'amateur herpetologist'. That's a phrase that's used a lot, and it's by no means meant to be derogatory. 'Amateur herpetologists' have made an enormous contribution to herpetology in Australia. Of course there are also the amateur herpetologists who have damaged herpetology by 'publishing' (in the loosest sense of the word) very poor taxonomic revisions of a number of groups of reptiles. I won't go into details here...
Publishing (to me, and most other scientists) means submitting articles to a respected journal where other herpetologists/scientists will review your methods and findings and give you feedback on them. Once everyone's happy with the article, the journal will publish it. This (as Lozza says) is called 'peer review', and is the backbone of science. It helps to reduce (but unfortunately will never completely eliminate) the number of dodgy research articles out there.
Becoming a research scientist is a lot of hard work (and there are many other - potentially easier - ways to earn a living with reptiles), but it is no doubt a very rewarding career.
Stewart |
08-May-08, 09:48 PM
| | Regular Member | Join Date: May-06 Location: Brisbane Gender: | | | Quote:
Originally Posted by smith84 is herpetology a growing profession or a shrinking profession? | The Rudd government has made a number of promises regarding education in Australia, so I would expect that it wouldn't be shrinking. If you can find a way to link reptiles to climate change, there's an awful lot of money out there.
Stewart |
08-May-08, 09:49 PM
| | Subscriber | Join Date: Oct-06 Location: north coast NSW Age/Gender: 24 | | | Quote:
Originally Posted by smith84 i wish i had known that when i was at school | lol so do I 
I studied 2 unit math & physics at school but not bio or chem so I wasted a few years in a physics degree before deciding to change to zoology, then I had to go back and do 1st year bio and chem with no prior knowledge.
If you know what you want at school it makes it much easier (and saves time!), but how many of us actually do know what we want at that stage in our lives
__________________ Squirtle Power |
08-May-08, 09:53 PM
| | Subscriber | Join Date: Jan-07 Location: Darwin, NT Age/Gender: 24 | | | i fully agree with you there. Quote:
Originally Posted by lozza If you know what you want at school it makes it much easier (and saves time!), but how many of us actually do know what we want at that stage in our lives |
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08-May-08, 09:55 PM
| | Regular Member | Join Date: Feb-08 Location: Melbourne: Australia Age/Gender: 22 | | | | Although it's true that jobs in this field (as in any other "boutique" field of interest) are limited, it's likely that they're on the increase due to an increase in the number of interested persons, more education and understanding about biodiversity conservation and more organisations prepared to allocate money towards herpetological research.
If you were to go through the right channels at Uni including at least an honours level degree, there is no doubt that you'd have a decent chance of making your way into the field. Remember that research and academia isn't the only employment prospect. There are also many jobs in consultancy, technical assistance, education and interpretation, conservation and land management, etc.
The first step is to select the right course. Different Unis will require you to have done different subjects (not all Unis in VIC for example require you to have done VCE chem or maths anymore - but at least the later is recomended). Courses such as "Conservation Biology and Ecology", "Biological Science" or "General Science" are a good start. You can begin to specialise from there and slowly work your way up.
David.  |
08-May-08, 09:56 PM
| | Subscriber | Join Date: Oct-06 Location: north coast NSW Age/Gender: 24 | | | Quote:
Originally Posted by reptilesDownUnder To me, that means you carry out original research and publish your findings for the wider scientific community to view. Keeping reptiles in captivity doesn't make you a herpetologist.
Stewart | I totally agree with that Stewart
There are quite a few "ecologist" positions around but these are in environmental consulting doing EIS all day which is not really my thing lol I'm going for zoo jobs instead
__________________ Squirtle Power |
08-May-08, 09:57 PM
|  | Regular Member | Join Date: Mar-06 Location: Brisbane Age/Gender: 23 | | | Quote:
Originally Posted by reptilesDownUnder The Rudd government has made a number of promises regarding education in Australia, so I would expect that it wouldn't be shrinking. If you can find a way to link reptiles to climate change, there's an awful lot of money out there.
Stewart | haha yeah i think i should do a study on the impact of global warming on rational funding for research |
08-May-08, 09:57 PM
| | Subscriber | Join Date: Jan-07 Location: Darwin, NT Age/Gender: 24 | | | | thanks stewart |
08-May-08, 09:59 PM
| | Subscriber | Join Date: Oct-06 Location: north coast NSW Age/Gender: 24 | | | Quote:
Originally Posted by Cheesecake Remember that research and academia isn't the only employment prospect.
David. | Very true there are other jobs (which is what I am doing) but then you aren't a true "herpetologist" which is what the original question was - see Stewarts post above
__________________ Squirtle Power |
08-May-08, 10:03 PM
| | Regular Member | Join Date: May-06 Location: Brisbane Gender: | | | Quote:
Originally Posted by lozza Very true there are other jobs (which is what I am doing) but then you aren't a true "herpetologist" which is what the original question was - see Stewarts post above | But obviously there's nothing wrong with not being a herpetologist! I've decided that I can make more money in IT, so I've left university and now reptiles are just my hobby. Although I am a bit concerned that these computers are just a passing fad. They've really only been around for a few years. Now reptiles... That's 315 million years of stable employment opportunities!
Stewart |
08-May-08, 10:06 PM
| | Regular Member | Join Date: Feb-08 Location: Melbourne: Australia Age/Gender: 22 | | | Quote:
Originally Posted by lozza Very true there are other jobs (which is what I am doing) but then you aren't a true "herpetologist" which is what the original question was - see Stewarts post above | That's probably true most of the time but... for example, there's a fairly reputable fellow here in VIC by the name of Peter Robertson who doesn't have a PhD and runs a consultancy specialising in herp research and baseline study. There a few who wouldn't call him a professional "herpetologist". He co-supervises PhD students, advises government departments and sometimes works in closely with the museum. Really a herpetologist is someone who studies reptiles (it helps if they do it well!), not necessarily with a PhD. | | |
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