by Dr Kayleigh Fawcett Williams, Founder of Wildlifetek

I’ve seen SO many applications this year from a wide range of humans who want to work with wildlife. Some of these have been from applicants who want to work with us at Wildlifetek, while others have been from students we have been working with in our courses and workshops. The quality of these application documents has been highly variable.

As someone who makes hiring decisions, I need to be able to quickly and easily assess an applicant’s capabilities and potential. Just to make it to the shortlist for a wildlife role, you need to know how to make it easy for an employer to hire you.

The truth is, most people who want a career with wildlife will never get there. This is often because they fail to effectively communicate what they are actually capable of, rather than what they have done. Even the most promising applicants who have invested heavily in years of education and experiences are failing to get into paid...

CAN WE PRINT A BETTER FUTURE?

by Sofiia Pyshnieva

When we talk about 3D printing, we think of products in healthcare, construction or manufacturing. But what if I told you that the future of wildlife conservation is closely related to the advancement of this technology? Recently, several high-profile 3D printing campaigns focused on animal welfare have captured the attention of a global audience and sparked widespread discussion. Is a new era on the doorstep?

Era of additive manufacturing

3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, is defined as the creation of the specific physical object by adding material layer by layer according to the digital blueprint of the object. The technology was developed roughly 40 years ago, but the global industrial market of 3D printing is expected to grow to USD 5.3 billion by 2025 [2]. And what’s more fascinating is that over the last few decades, this technology has found its way to wildlife conservation!

Under the...

by Ellie Benton-Best & Dr Kayleigh Fawcett Williams

Consultant ecologists face some unique challenges progressing their careers. We have been exploring some of these challenges in our recent survey. In this article, we share with you some of our findings.

How it all started

From conversations with friends and peers in a range of ecology roles we noticed patterns in the career progression challenges they faced. We wanted find out if this was unique to our circle or was universal within the sector. So, we set out to gather data (because we love data!) from a broad range of ecologists and employers/managers in the industry.

What we did

In 2019, we asked consultant ecologists to complete one of two surveys. The first was for ecologists up to senior level. We asked them about their personal experiences of development and learning, as well as career progression. The second survey was completed by managers/employers in ecology. In this group were those responsible for teams, hiring,...

At Wildlifetek, we love using technology to better understand and conserve wildlife, so when we had the opportunity to visit the Las Pumas Rescue Centre & Sanctuary in Costa Rica we jumped at the chance. With COVID-19 shutting down many of our wildlife travel plans, it’s not been as easy for us to do the work we love. Likewise, it’s been a tough time for wildlife organisations who rely on funding from visitors to do their work that is so vital to wildlife conservation. Las Pumas is now using technology to help get around some of these issues by offering virtual tours of their centre, enabling those of us who are grounded to experience and better understand wildlife while raising vital funds for their conservation work.

Bruno - a puma. He was kidnapped from the den at one month old and sold as an illegal pet to be displayed as a tourist attraction. He arrived at Las Pumas in 2012 at six months old.

Our amazing tour guide, Virginia Pelayo, gave us a warm...