What to study if you’re interested in animals

If you love animals so much that you want to study them, there’re several study programmes you should consider if Czechia is your dreamy destination for university studies. And no, the only career option isn’t becoming a veterinarian!

The Faculty of Veterinary Hygiene and Ecology that belongs to the University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences in Brno opened an attractive bachelor programme called Animal Protection and Welfare. If you want to become a professional in the field of animal protection against cruelty of all kinds, creating better conditions for animals including the legal aspect of animal protection, this is the right programme for you. You’ll obtain deep knowledge and practical experience concerning animal nutrition, animal husbandry and animal behaviour as well.

For a master’s degree, you can go for Veterinary Hygiene and Ecology that will prepare you for the profession of a veterinarian but with a strong emphasis on health and hygiene of food and raw materials of animal origin, veterinary ecology, infectious diseases of animals and epizootiology. Graduates can then find a job in veterinary public health protection, as a both state or private veterinarian, food inspector or in a diagnostic laboratory as a researcher.

The Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences that’s part of the Czech University of Life Sciences in Prague also offers an attractive study programme: Wildlife and Livestock Production, Management and Conservation. As a student, you’ll obtain a solid theoretical background in wild and domestic animal production, management and conservation in tropical and developing regions that will be then practically used during several trainings and fieldworks.

This programme isn’t only about animals, you can help people as well! By learning about local species, feeding animals local crops and studying ecology while respecting both nature and cultural heritage, you can help to provide high quality food for balanced human diet. At the same time, you’ll get knowledge from zoology, animal behaviour and genetics in order to be able to help conserve all sorts of animal species in protected areas.

If it’s fish in particular that makes you tick, consider applying to the Faculty of Fisheries and Protection of Waters which is the only faculty of this type in Czechia and unique in central Europe. It belongs to the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice. They currently offer only one master study programme in English called Fishery and Protection of Waters. It’s not aimed only at biological and technological aspects of fisheries but also environmental policy.