What Type of Classes Do You Need to Take in College to Become a Wildlife Animal Breeder?

Most wildlife facilities that hire wildlife animal breeders are licensed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as either exhibitors or members of a research facility and are often part of larger organizations and institutions. "Anyone who wants to work in the animal field needs a degree in either biology, zoology, animal science, wildlife management or animal breeding," said Terri Werner, director of Tiger Creek Wildlife Refuge. Colleges that offer the courses you need are generally land-grant colleges or universities with agriculture programs.

  1. Required Education

    • If you plan to breed wild animals formally in a zoo, you'll need a bachelor's degree in veterinary science or in a specific animal-breeding program. Graduate training is important for those wishing to work in a research environment. Most animal breeders generally hold a bachelor's degree, but adding a graduate degree in animal breeding helps give you credentials if you want to work in research or teaching.

    Course List

    • Courses for a person interested in wildlife animal breeding include conservation biology, animal nutrition, animal physiology, genetics, wild-animal ecology, natural history, animal disease and advanced animal physiology. Specialized courses to aid breeders in facility management include introduction to captive wild-animal management and captive-animal management. Most programs also include an internship in a wild-animal facility, such as a zoo, research facility or wildlife refuge

    Course Content

    • Animal-breeding courses teach you how to breed animals so that offspring of the animals bred are stronger and healthier and avoid genetically inherited defects. You will learn to develop breeding and nutrition strategies, to select and mate animals and manage the pregnancy and birth of the offspring. You'll study Mendelian genetics, quantitative genetics and animal populations. You'll also learn to use genomic-selection analysis software to create selection strategies, use mathematics and statistics for manual breeding.

    Skills Development

    • Besides training, certain skills go with a career in animal breeding. You need to have genuine compassion for animals and be interested in improving their habitat, strengthening the genes of the species and improving the odds of their survival in the wild. Because you will depend on vast amounts of information in your work, you need to be generous with your own research and willing to work with others in your field as part of a global team working to improve animal species you work with.

    Career Opportunities

    • A wide variety of organizations hire people with animal-breeding training. These include fisheries and hatcheries, wildlife rescue organizations, wildlife refuges, captive-breeding operations and endangered species management groups. Animal exhibitors, zoos, aquariums, university biology programs, state and federal park-based animal rescue and rehabilitation operations and veterinary school wildlife education and research programs hire college-trained staff members.