From Flour Beetles to Forest Elephants: My 20 Year Wildlife Career

I’ve recently gained a lot of new followers, so for this week’s episode of the Fancy Scientist Podcast, I wanted to share with you my vast experience that I’ve had working as a wildlife biologist for nearly twenty years, so that you can fully understand what this field is like.My career has taken me all over the world, and I’ve been on all different kinds of adventures: from hiking the deserts of Utah to the top of Mount Kenya, and from flour beetles to forest elephants. I have worked across four different continents and in almost every type of organization that you can think of: the government, zoos, museums, universities, and alongside nonprofits.In this episode, I break down each one of the positions that I have had in the past, telling you what they’re like and what I did, but more importantly, how I felt about the position emotionally, mentally, and what it did for my career.This is a comprehensive, yet fun overview of my journey. It’s you and me hanging out, sharing the raw reality of these different places, so you can see the truth behind the resume. I do not shy away from discussing real challenges, like navigating toxic work environments and the “sink or swim” nature of graduate research. Chances are, you’ll find it refreshing how I don’t hold back, but also share how I pulled through.I started my wildlife career officially in 2003 when I graduated with my Bachelor’s degree. My first position was an internship with the Bureau of Land Management in St. George, Utah, where I searched for water catchments to help wildlife combat drought and started some preliminary bat research in the Grand Canyon. This got me started in my wildlife career, but this was a challenging internship, and I almost quit!I’m so glad I didn’t because that experience led me to a dream internship at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, where I worked in a glass-walled lab doing endocrine research on the captive animals there, including African savanna elephants and the critically endangered cotton-top tamarin monkey. This was a total 180 from my experience in the desert! I loved Disney World and spent my days catching tamarin poop and helping to monitor elephant pregnancies. It was a supportive environment that showed me how much I loved combining science with outreach.From there, my journey took me to Kenya as an intern for the School for Field Studies, which was also enriching but challenging. Again, I almost quit! But here I showed that I could work at a field station internationally long-term, which was a major flex for my upcoming Ph.D. research. It also gave me the invaluable experience of publishing.My Kenya internship led me into a six-and-a-half-year Ph.D. program studying African forest elephants in Gabon. I loved my Ph.D., but each step was a mix of incredible highs like observing wild elephants for months on end in Central Africa and the lows of being lonely in a field station or figuring out how to do something that has never been done before! Here, I fully understood what scientific research was really all about.This episode is a must-listen to one if you are interested in going into wildlife fields, want to get to know me better, or are just curious to know what it’s like to be a wildlife biologist!Specifically, we go over:How I landed my first “legit” field internship with the Bureau of Land Management in Utah and why it was so hard on meThe inside scoop on working at a world-class zoo and in Disney World, being a Reproductive Biology intern, including what it’s like to catch cotton-top tamarin poop and monitor elephant pregnanciesWhat it’s like to live in Kenya for a year, and in a remote field stationNavigating toxic work environments and almost quitting more than onceHow I got my first scientific publicationsA brief overview of my research on forest elephants in Gabon, the “sink or swim” reality of graduate school, and why I considered dropping down to a Master’sHow to study “disgust” in raccoons and why I drove around looking for roadkill carcassesMy seven-year postdoc at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, running global camera trap projects, and the birth of “The Fancy Scientist”How these 17 years of experience led me to leave the traditional research path to start my own business in science communication and career mentoringOther fun experiences, like seeing a tiger in the wild or watching a leatherback turtle lay eggsAnd MORE!Dream of being a wildlife biologist, zoologist, conservation biologist, or ecologist? Ready to turn your love of animals into a thriving career?🌿🐘 Then…✍️ SIGN UP for my next FREE training: https://fancyscientist.com/3-pillars-to-success/🐾 Get my FREE Job Tracker: https://stephanieschuttler.com/job-tracker/📚 Read Getting a Job in Wildlife Biology: What It’s Like and What You Need to Know: https://www.amazon.com/Getting-Job-Wildlife-Biology-What/dp/B08JDYXS4G/🚀 Work with me! Programs: https://stephanieschuttler.com/work-with-me/I’m Dr. Stephanie Manka (formerly Schuttler), a wildlife biologist of 20 yrs who is on a mission to empower wildlife professionals and break stereotypes of scientists so they can get jobs, live out their life’s purpose, and make a difference in this world.🎥 How I became a wildlife biologist: https://youtu.be/zBvHRDO7gIg Full show notes:👉https://stephanieschuttler.com/149-my-wildlife-career/Jump links:01:37 First Field Internship08:09 Loneliness and Resilience11:57 Disney Internship Begins14:20 Repro Lab and Zoo Science20:44 Wildlife Surveys and Extras24:43 Career Tips and Perks27:45 Kenya Internship Overview29:32 Field Cred and Publications33:07 Tourism Research in Kenya34:51 East Africa Travels35:20 Almost Quitting Kenya40:04 Publishing Initiative42:52 PhD Ups and Downs44:55 PhD Research Reality53:07 PhD Advice 54:38 Raccoon Disgust Postdoc59:44 Museum Postdoc Dream Job01:01:16 Camera Traps in Classrooms01:04:43 Global Expansion and Expeditions01:07:39 Wildlife Insights AI01:08:23 Final Career TakeawaysLet’s connect! 🤝✨Website: https://fancyscientist.com/Getting a Job in Wildlife Biology Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/gettingajobinwildlifebiologyYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FancyScientistInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/fancy_scientist/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sgschuttler/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fancyscientist/Twitter: https://twitter.com/FancyScientistThreads: https://www.threads.net/@fancy_scientistBluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/fancyscientist.bsky.socialPinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/fancyscientist/