This three year degree puts birds at the forefront of your studies; birds have a high profile as model organisms in zoology, and are the focus of growing conservation concern due to the alarming decline of many species. There is a growing demand for professional scientists with specialised knowledge and skills relating to birds.

This course prepares you for work as a science professional as we combine traditional zoology with an emphasis upon avian biology and diversity. We deliver this alongside aspects of conservation management and practices. We will provide you with broad zoological training, with a special focus on both pure and applied aspects of animal life, as well as specialist ornithological knowledge and skills. You will have the opportunity to take part in field activities in the local North Wales area, as well as an ornithology field trip abroad.

You will have the opportunity to acquire a broad range of laboratory and field skills, at home and abroad, and all the transferable skills associated with scientific training, including skills in data analysis, writing and presentation skills, IT skills and experience of independent and group-working. You will have access to a spread of Zoology modules covering vertebrates and invertebrates, as well as a suite of specialist modules on the exciting area of ornithology.

Why choose Bangor University for this course?

• TV presenter Steve Backshall is now part of our teaching team.
• Bangor is a UK centre of research excellence in ornithology, with a team of full-time staff specialising in avian evolution, behaviour, physiology and conservation, and many other staff who have ornithological interests.
• We benefit from expert input to this degree from the Wales office for the British Trust for Ornithology, which is located at Bangor University.
• We have our own natural history museum.
• We also have a research farm, botanical gardens, and a pigeon loft.

On this course you are required to take 120 credits each year made up of lectures, practicals, and interactive exercises, as well as field trips and tutorials in years 1 and 2. The final year can include an integrated research project, which is supervised by a member of staff on a subject to suit the your interests. Past dissertation projects have included studies of avian navigation and physiology with our in-house pigeons, behaviour of local species, and ecology with local breeding colonies. Modules become more specialised as the degree progresses and the number of compulsory modules varies between years. Assessment is by a mixture of formal examination and continuous assessment. Welsh medium modules are also available.

If at the end of the second year you have attained a sufficient standard, you will be given the option to transfer onto the Masters (4th) year following completion of the third year. The Master in Zoology with Ornithology is an extended undergraduate programme which allows you to graduate either with BSc (Hons) at the end of the third year or with a Master at the end of the fourth year.

Our students now work in wildlife management, environmental consultancy, government organisations, non-governmental organisations like the National Trust or the RSPB, teaching and local and national media.

They have also gone on to a range of postgraduate study programmes.

Zoology encompasses animal behaviour, animal physiology, evolution, the interactions between animals and the environment and wildlife conservation. Nestled between the mountains and the sea, Bangor University is the obvious choice for anyone wanting to study Zoology as our location presents the best natural laboratory in the UK.