Matt Snider
Matt Snider graduated with a degree in Animal Science. When he started college, he planned on going to veterinary school, but his experiences as an undergraduate changed his mind. He is now working as a Research Intern for Global Visions International in South Africa.
“For my last year and a half at Maryland I was a Zookeeper Aide at the National Zoo on Saturdays and Sundays. I was assigned to Asia Trail and really enjoyed working with the animals and staff there and found that I was becoming really interested in wildlife conservation work.”
A classmate of Matt’s knew about his interest in wildlife conservation, and told him about an opportunity with Global Visions International.
“I looked into the organization and applied to take part in a teen week volunteer program in South Africa. Once down here, I applied for the Research Internship in my sixth week,” he says. “The competition was tough because all the people participating in the program were enthusiastic about bringing their knowledge into conservation, but I feel like my studies and extracurricular activities at Maryland put me ahead of most of the competition.”
As part of his internship, Matt has the responsibility of training the next group of volunteers with the knowledge of the research they are conducting. He trains them in how to input research data so that it can be analyzed properly. He also helps them adjust to life at the reserve, where they only have electricity only a few hours a day and there are safety concerns like hyenas, elephants, and leopards.
“My favorite [project] is the Large Predator Study because we are able to go in and do observations on some of the reserve’s large felines,” he says. “The basis of this study is that we are observing the behavior of the seven resident cheetahs, six resident lions, and three resident leopards to establish how they maintain home ranges and how their behavior changes when in close proximity to members of the same and different species.”
Other projects that Matt and Global Visions International are working on include a Prey Survival Study and a Hyena Focus. The Prey Survival Study seeks to discover how population patters of prey impact the health and survival of predators. The Hyena Focus aims to establish a family tree, but, Matt says, “This is sometimes hampered by the complex social structure that Hyenas establish.”
Aside from practical skills, Matt says he has learned a lot from this experience. “The most important thing I have learned so far is that even way out in the field working for the betterment of wildlife, maintaining good interactions with people is absolutely essential.”
Matt says his time at Maryland helped to prepare him for this opportunity.
“This job has given me an opportunity to apply so much of the knowledge that I have gained as an Animal Science major. Some of the classes, like Wildlife Disease Management and Animal Behavior, have obvious applications. But others, like Anatomy, have proven indispensible,” he says.
ShareThisLast updated: 02/15/2011