Kid Territory:Jobs: Preserving Habitats

Researchers from the San Diego Zoo explore giant panda habitat in China to determine how many pandas are left in the wild. Here, a researcher discovers a panda den.

Staff from the Zoo offered workshops to teachers in Paraguay on teaching their students how to protect their own local habitat, called the Gran Chaco.

A CRES researcher taught many women in Antanambao, Madagascar how to create butterfly farms to earn money without destroying the local rain forest.

CRES staff work to preserve native wildlands, like the coastal sage scrub habitat in Southern California.

What we do

Our jobs involve studying habitats, ecosystems, and animal and plant communities in countries all over the world. We look at what species live in these places, and how their populations are doing—are they secure? Are they endangered? Which ones need the most help? We also study how humans are involved with those areas. Do people live in these habitats with the animals and plants? How do they make a living? Are there ways they can continue to live there without destroying the habitat and the native species? We ask a lot of questions, and do a lot of research and thinking to come up with some possible solutions. Conservation work is often like a puzzle—we not only have to find all the pieces, we also have to see how they all fit together.

Much of the work we do involves education—teaching people about the habitats and species that are in need of protection. Sometimes we do that in foreign countries, teaching classes, conducting workshops, and helping to set up programs. Other times we work right here in the U.S., helping people to recognize the habitats in their own backyards and teaching them about the animals and plants that live there. For example, here in San Diego, we teach about conserving our wetlands and forests. We also think ahead and try to do what we can here at our facilities, such as creating a seed bank at the San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal Park to store seeds from our endangered native plants.

What’s cool about this job

Traveling around the world to distant lands is very exciting, and we enjoy meeting and working in collaboration with people in diverse cultures. Perhaps best of all is the feeling that we help make a difference in conserving wildlife and wild places.

Job challenges

When you travel to remote areas, you can get lost, encounter dangerous animals, and have to deal with parasitic or venomous insects. The conditions are often uncomfortable, and you may not get to take a shower for days! It is also difficult to see and realize that the majority of the people in the world are very poor and often ill—it changes your perspective on life. Then when you think about how enormous the scope of our work is: there are so many species declining at such an alarming rate, it is hard to decide what project to work on first.

How these jobs help animals

We help people care about and protect habitats, and the animals that live in them. We try to teach people how to live in these habitats without harming them. We also try to raise awareness among all users of our planet’s resources, which helps save animals—and plants and people, too!

How to get a job like this

Competition is intense for these jobs. Study very hard and get an advanced college degree. If you want to work directly with animals, get a degree in biology. Many different types of knowledge are required in this field, so college backgrounds in education, economics, and public policy help shape the direction you may want your career to take. You need good communication skills, and knowledge of and experience in working with other cultures. Speaking another language is very helpful. Volunteer on wildlife or habitat conservation projects. Keep your goal in mind and work hard to make your career dream come true.