---
title: "Wildlife Biologist"
description: "Study the origins, behavior, diseases, genetics, and life processes of animals and wildlife. May specialize in wildlife research and management. May…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/wildlife-biologist"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Wildlife Biologist

**Category:** Life, Physical, and Social Science · **SOC code:** 19-1023 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 19-1023.00

Study the origins, behavior, diseases, genetics, and life processes of animals and wildlife. May specialize in wildlife research and management. May collect and analyze biological data to determine the environmental effects of present and potential use of land and water habitats.

Also advertised as: Aquatic Biologist; Conservation Biologist; Fish and Wildlife Biologist; Fisheries and Wildlife Biological Scientist; Fisheries Biologist; Habitat Biologist; Migratory Game Bird Biologist; Wildlife Biologist.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $76,780 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $36.91/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $49,100 to $126,440, with the middle half between $61,180 and $96,100
- **Total US employment:** 18,120
- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's
- **Preparation required:** Medium preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +3.6% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 1,400 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 42/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 18,120 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $49,100 |
| 25th | $61,180 |
| 50th (median) | $76,780 |
| 75th | $96,100 |
| 90th | $126,440 |
| Mean (average) | $83,020 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| MD | $107,500 | $102,421 | 250 |
| DC | $107,050 | $97,406 | 140 |
| CA | $98,530 | $88,990 | 2,210 |
| AK | $90,370 | $88,287 | 650 |
| MS | $88,710 | $102,021 | 110 |
| LA | $87,460 | $99,153 | 50 |
| OR | $85,150 | $82,381 | 1,010 |
| HI | $84,910 | $77,225 | 170 |
| MA | $84,350 | $79,758 | 470 |
| WA | $83,780 | $78,290 | 1,840 |
| CO | $83,300 | $80,833 | 730 |
| NJ | $83,030 | $76,311 | 90 |
| IA | $83,000 | $94,574 | 90 |
| NY | $82,640 | $76,575 | 370 |
| ND | $81,330 | $91,424 | 100 |

33 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 48 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/wildlife-biologist/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/wildlife-biologist.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 19,500 in the 2025–2035 base year to 20,200 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 700 jobs, or +3.6%. About as fast as average: 3.6% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 1,400 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** Bachelor's degree (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Medium preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Four: Considerable Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** None.

## What the work involves

- Inventory or estimate plant and wildlife populations.
- Develop, or make recommendations on, management systems and plans for wildlife populations and habitat, consulting with stakeholders and the public at large to explore options.
- Conduct literature reviews.
- Study animals in their natural habitats, assessing effects of environment and industry on animals, interpreting findings and recommending alternative operating conditions for industry.
- Study characteristics of animals, such as origin, interrelationships, classification, life histories, diseases, development, genetics, and distribution.
- Inform and respond to public regarding wildlife and conservation issues, such as plant identification, hunting ordinances, and nuisance wildlife.
- Coordinate preventive programs to control the outbreak of wildlife diseases.
- Check for, and ensure compliance with, environmental laws, and notify law enforcement when violations are identified.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Reading Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Science — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Complex Problem Solving — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Analysis — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Social Perceptiveness — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Systems Evaluation — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Biology — importance 4.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Geography — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Law and Government — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Administration and Management — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Expression — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Inductive Reasoning — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Investigative (I), Realistic (R), Conventional (C).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| I — Investigative | 6.99 |
| R — Realistic | 5.43 |
| C — Conventional | 3.70 |
| S — Social | 2.55 |
| E — Enterprising | 2.33 |
| A — Artistic | 2.31 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| INTJ | 84.1 |
| ISTP | 81.3 |
| ISTJ | 79.7 |
| INTP | 73.0 |
| ISFJ | 55.1 |

Best-fitting types: INTJ, ISTP, ISTJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Biologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/biologist) — median $98,920
- [Conservation Scientist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/conservation-scientist) — median $73,010
- [Range Manager](https://nuecareer.com/careers/range-manager) — median $73,010
- [Environmental Restoration Planner](https://nuecareer.com/careers/environmental-restoration-planner) — median $82,220
- [Fish and Game Warden](https://nuecareer.com/careers/fish-and-game-warden) — median $74,060
- [Soil and Plant Scientist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/soil-and-plant-scientist) — median $78,850
- [Environmental Scientist and Specialist, Including Health](https://nuecareer.com/careers/environmental-scientist-and-specialist) — median $82,220
- [Geoscientist, Except Hydrologists and Geographers](https://nuecareer.com/careers/geoscientist) — median $101,920
- [Animal Scientist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/animal-scientist) — median $68,940
- [Forester](https://nuecareer.com/careers/forester) — median $76,400

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2025–2035 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/wildlife-biologist