Animal Scientist

If you enjoy learning about animals as much as you enjoy loving them, you might want to consider becoming an Animal Scientist. As an Animal Scientist, you study the anatomy, behavior, and development of animals with the goal of improving their health, safety, and survival.

Although you might be a Zoologist — in which case you study exotic animals at zoos and in the wild — if you have the title “Animal Scientist,” you’re most likely an Agricultural Scientist, which means you study domestic farm animals in order to help Farmers care for and improve their livestock.

Like most Scientists, your days are a combination of fieldwork and laboratory study, involving a mix of observation, experimentation, and analysis. The questions you’re interested in, however, are very specific to the business of agriculture, including, for example: What’s the best way to house animals? What’s the best way to feed them? How do you lower their mortality rates? How do you control their diseases? How should you dispose of their waste? And how can you improve the quality of their milk, meat, and eggs?

You might specialize in breeding, feeding, or housing farm animals. Always, however, it’s your job to scientifically study animal genetics, nutrition, reproduction, and psychology in order to find out how to raise livestock in a way that benefits both animals and Farmers.