Final Phase Wildlife Management
Bachelor of Animal Management
Content programme
First year
This major provides plenty of options, enabling you to combine course components according to your individual interests. Do you wish to play a direct role in animal management, or do you prefer to plan and manage the aspects relating to people and society?
One way or the other, everyone starts from a common point of departure, learning about research methods, population genetics and breeding programmes, and about practical ways of balancing the interests of people, profits and planet. This basic knowledge is developed in a set of four wildlife modules:
1. By allocating you a role as a research assistant or ecological consultant, the Ecological Consultant module introduces you to the principles of populations and ecology.
2. In Wildlife and Habitat Management, you are allocated one of three roles: process manager, wildlife-unit manager, or the manager in charge of implementing a nature-management plan. Working with your fellow students on the basis of area-management plans, you decide and implement a plan for the integrated management of wildlife units.
3. The Ex-situ Species Conservation module involves you in managing an in-situ or ex-situ animal population whose interests must be fully integrated with those of your institution or organisation - for example, a zoo, or even a children's farm.
4. In the Conservation and Policies module, you act as a manager, policy-maker or lobbyist in a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO). Here, your knowledge of biology is combined with your ability to deal with political systems, cultural diversity, and ethical and economic questions.
Second year
The second year starts with two optional modules. Period two starts with a 15-week work placement, which may be spent either in the Netherlands or elsewhere. There is an important distinction between ex-situ placements - most of which are spent in zoos in the Netherlands or European countries - and in-situ placements, which may also be spent in Europe, but sometimes as far afield as South Africa, Brazil, Costa Rica or New Zealand. During this part of the programme, students work in a wide variety of organisations - on research projects, for example, or with responsibility for managing a protected area. The last 15 weeks of this year are devoted to the research you conduct for your final thesis.