PLEASE HELP.

[CobraKid]

Hello SA reptiles !
i am turning to you in a time of need where i need some crutial advice from anyone who can help !
Ive just matriculated last year , got a bachelors degree pass , did not take maths or science so studying a bsc and eventually herpetology is out of the option .
ive worked with non venomous and venomous snakes for most of my life and i would love to pursue a career close to animals as i have a passion for them all! and inparticular reptiles.
does anyone on here know of any paths i can take thats not a bachelor of science degree ? ive been looking at nature conservation at tsawne university of technology but other than that im stumped .
If you have any advice , insight or help, please comment it will help me alot !

[Westley Price]

Hi CobraKid

There are quite a few very similar topics on the forum so feel free to use the search function at the top right of the page.

Here are a few links I quickly dug up which might be relevant to you.

viewtopic.php?f=49&t=28811&p=234130&hilit=diploma#p234130

viewtopic.php?f=49&t=15618&hilit=diploma

viewtopic.php?f=32&t=11416&hilit=studying

viewtopic.php?f=26&t=28720&p=233581&hilit=studying#p233581

viewtopic.php?f=26&t=22866&p=175879&hilit=studying#p175879

I suggest looking at a diploma in nature conservation and when that is done, you can go for a B. Tech degree or something similar. Technicons are a lot more lenient when it comes to entry requirements but they have their benefits too; when you leave you actually have a practical knowledge instead of a purely theoretical knowledge.

[CobraKid]

thanks so much wes ! i meet the entry requirement for nature conservation so that is definitely my top option at the moment .

[jka]

You can google "Nature College Riversdale" and have a read at what they offer.

Otherwise you can do Nature conservation if you meet the requirements get your Btech degree do you Mtech degree and then try and switch it over to a Bsc Hon degree. some people have done it in the past.

I'm in the same boat as you, another option is to do N1-4 at a college to get maths and science and then apply to a uni

[Jamster]

I have been doing an Environmental Sciences BSc (Major in Zoology and Botany) for the past 2 and a half years or so. If you want to work with animals and they are your passion then the BSc isn't exactly all you may think it's cracked up to be.

You spend an unbelievable amount of time sifting through scientific journals which may be inches thick, for no apparent reason. I have spent many afternoons sitting in a lab drawing cross sections through this and diagrams of that.

Frankly it sucks. Don't get me wrong you learn many interestings things, but a lot of those things seem totally irrelevant, because I want to work with the animals themselves, and not study how much they urinate on a certain diet of so many grams.

I will be doing a national diploma in NatCon at the beginning of next year through unisa, and I will be using credits from my BSc to compensate for certain modules.

Personally if I could do it all over again, I would go straight for the NatCon diploma.

[jka]

Jamster is correct.

With a Natcon diploma you learn more about what the animals do, and with a Bsc degree you learn why they do it.

If you really want to work with animals becoming a ranger should be your goal or maybe even a guide.

[CobraKid]

thanks jamster thats exactly the input i needed ! apreciate it , the advice from everyone has filled me in so much more than the facalties themselves .