Wildlife Ecology

OVERVIEW OF DEGREE REQUIREMENTS

Minimum number of credits required to graduate: 121

Minimum Cumulative GPA required to graduate: 2.0

Minimum Grade requirements for courses to count toward major: Grade of C or better in MAT 122 or C- in MAT 126, and Grade of C- in WLE 200 or SMS 300 or BIO 319 needed to progress to WLE 220.

Other GPA requirements to graduate: None.

Required Course(s) for fulfilling Capstone Experience: WLE 450 and WLE 455

Contact Information: Lindsay C. N. Seward, Undergraduate Coordinator, 238 Nutting Hall, (207) 581-2847, wildeco@maine.edu

The Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Conservation Biology offers an education with an emphasis on basic sciences and principles of wildlife ecology and resource management, with the goal for students to develop responsible citizenship and a sound training as a professional wildlife biologist, a professional fisheries biologist, or a conservation biologist. A minor in Fisheries is available to non-majors interested in a fisheries career. Students are exposed to wildlife issues in a diversity of ecological systems, in national parks, wildlife refuges, state management areas, and on private land. Maine offers diverse opportunities to study wildlife in a variety of natural environments ranging from the coast with its sea birds, marine mammals and eagles, to the more mountainous northern boreal forest occupied by moose, black bears, loons, red-backed salamanders, brook trout, and salmon.  Maine also has thousands of lakes and ponds and 30,000 miles of rivers and streams.

An active Wildlife Ecology graduate program, offering both M. S. and Ph.D. degrees, enables undergraduates to interact with graduate students conducting research in wildlife and fish ecology and conservation. Students have the opportunity to work with federal wildlife and fisheries biologists who are faculty in the Department and are employed through the USGS Maine Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit.

The curriculum in Wildlife Ecology is designed to train the student to adapt to the changing requirements of the Wildlife profession. The curriculum has solid science and conservation foundations, coupled with experiences in wildlife policy, human dimensions of wildlife conservation, communications, and the humanities. Students can also meet the requirements to become a Certified Wildlife Biologist or a Certified Fisheries Biologist through the professional societies associated with our discipline. The curriculum for the B.S. degree in Wildlife Ecology plus a concentration in Fisheries allow students to meet certification requirements of the American Fisheries Society. The Wildlife Ecology curriculum plus a concentration in Wildlife Science and Management qualify students to meet professional certification requirements of The Wildlife Society.

Requirements for BS in Wildlife Ecology
Graduates must complete 121 credits including:

1. Satisfy general education requirements.
2. Complete all courses listed in the curriculum for the B.S. in Wildlife Ecology. 
3. One additional field course.
4. Complete a Concentration

Also Recommended
Field Experience in the profession, either through a paid or volunteer position or internship.