Career of an Ecologist

Because of the increasing changes in the environment, a career as an ecologist is an important venture, especially for an earth-science-oriented person with a love for nature and animals. With the number of ecological disasters escalating every year there is an ever increasing need for ecologists and people trained in ecology. Along with these disasters there are hundreds of animals and plants that are disappearing off the planet everyday. There is also an increasing demand for a person with the training to take care for rehabilitate and then return to the wild injure animals, which is the prime responsibility of an ecologist.

Ecologists mainly study the ways in which mankind is destroying the natural ecosystems of the earth and how people can help to revive them. Louise Miller once said that,"… the ecologist is the one that brings together the study of all natural systems- earth, air, water, plants, and animals.

Connections between living organisms and effects of their interactions are ecologists' concerns. … The balance of nature, wherever it occurs, is what you will investigate and analyze"(17).

Since a career as an ecologist is usually long term, there are certain characteristics a person should have in order to maintain a successful career. One of these characteristics that is the most important is patience. Patience is important because as an ecologist a person will have to at some point in their career talk to another person who knows nothing of or about ecology.

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 Another reason why patience is important is because through the first years of being an ecologist finding and possibly attempting to tag an animals or gathering research material will be the main jobs of that person and will take a very long time to accomplish. For a person who is just starting out as an ecologist, manual dexterity is just as important as patience. However, later on in a career as an ecologist, many traits will have to surface. Some of these traits include a sense of professionalism, enthusiasm for the work at hand, deep concern for the world, curiosity and dedication. However, skills that are common to most of the ecologists in the world today are creativity and problem solving which are just as important and probably even more important than the rest. A deep love for the environment around a person is one of the best and most desirable characteristics that a person who wants a job as an ecologist could have.

Pre-training occurs when a person volunteers their services to any organization so that they can get the much needed information that they need to perform their job more efficiently. This information would include how to conduct research, how to track animals, and how to clean up disasters in new ways. Getting to see what the animals and nature that a person will most likely be working with or around or would be like is also one of the job details that they must become fluent in. Many organizations, from scouts to the World Wildlife Foundation, can use the services of a ready and able bodied and able minded people to help them out in their conduction of research and concluding hypothesis. Through these organizations a person can make valuable contacts that can help that person get a job in the environmental field or to get a promotion later on in their career.

Because of the changes in the world around us, a person in the field of ecology must stay focused on all of the upcoming and new technologies in the world today. A person needs to have a formal education of at least a bachelors degree. A person will also need at least some experience in conducting research so they will be able to take advantage of certain opportunities in the future. While a person is still living at home, they can find new and inventive ways to apply their knowledge of the environmental sciences. Planting and raising a garden, designing a garbage disposable system that will gather the different recyclables are some of the things a person can do. A person can leave high school at the age of sixteen and get a job in some practical part of ecology such as a green house attendant or a tour guild at a local natural reserve.