WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT, CONSERVATION, AND CONTROL

Professional status.
Employment opportunities for the WMCC graduate may include:
-	public bodies in charge of spatial planning and control (ministries, regional and provincial authorities, mountain communities, metropolitan cities);
-	nature heritage management bodies (parks, protected areas);
-	other public health and environmental structures (national health authorities, territorial technical services, zooprophylactic institutes, wildlife wardens);
-	operators and employees of ATCs or territorial hunting areas;
-	companies, professional firms and private consortia engaged in wildlife data acquisition (demographic, ecological, genetic or health), environmental impact and strategic assessments, design and planning of environmental restoration interventions (green infrastructure repopulation or reintroduction of species);
-	public and private structures involved in the teaching and dissemination of scientific culture (schools, museums, NGOs, etc.).

Language(s) of instruction/examination.
ENGLISH

Skills associated with the function
Skills:
-	Capable of planning and coordinating, in compliance with animal welfare and current legislation, interventions for the management and control of animal populations, including hunting management, eradication, capture, transport and release into the wild;
-	Capable of planning and managing plans for the control of infectious diseases and parasitosis in wildlife, also through the proposal of prophylactic measures;
-	Capable of planning and conducting monitoring activities of abundance, distribution, genetic diversity and health status of wildlife;
-	Able to quantify the economic value of wildlife in relation to the different ecosystem services provided;
-	Able to design and manage captive breeding programmes;
-	Able to determine the nutritional requirements and food types of wild species in the wild and under controlled conditions.

Function in a work context
Wildlife Manager - wildlife management expert
Activities:
-	Conservation and productive management of wild animal populations
-	Control and prevention of health emergencies in wild and captive animals
-	Planning, development and management of ex-situ and in-situ conservation programs for wild animal populations
-	Planning, development and management of translocation, reintroduction and restocking of wild animal populations

Specific learning outcomes

The educational objectives of the WMCC course include the acquisition of skills in the field of wildlife management and conservation, which include the acquisition of management techniques and skills relating to general issues and specifically concerning terrestrial and aquatic wildlife, genetic knowledge relating to the management and conservation of animal populations, methods of analyzing population data, etc. This is complemented by a block of skills in the field of veterinary physiology, including knowledge of physiological adaptations to environmental changes, and the physiology of reproduction and nutrition, the acquisition of methodologies and management skills related to the epidemiology and control of infectious diseases and parasitosis in wildlife, and elements of first aid and animal welfare. Elements of environmental legislation and environmental capital assessment round off the students' training. All these activities are complemented by study stays at European universities participating in the course project and with specific expertise in the above-mentioned subjects.
Graduates in the master's degree program must:
-	have a solid scientific, technical and operational background in the characteristic, related and complementary subject areas of the course;
-	have a good command of the scientific method of investigation;
-	to be able to deal competently and autonomously with the main management issues related to wildlife management and therefore: 
the formulation of management and control plans of animal populations in terrestrial and freshwater contexts, the application of wildlife monitoring techniques, the planning and execution of reintroduction operations, the formulation of management guidelines related to animal populations, the prevention and resolution of epidemiological and sanitary problems in general related to animal populations, the evaluation of animal welfare in different contexts related to wild animals (in the wild and in captivity), the management of captive breeding projects with reference to demographic, sanitary and ethological aspects, the evaluation of the genetic implications deriving from the management of species in the wild and in captivity;
-	be able to use the English language fluently, both orally and in writing, with specific reference to technical and scientific terminology.
Educational pathway
The student's educational pathway includes a group of characteristic disciplines of the LM-86 class divided into zootechnical and animal production disciplines and management and sustainability disciplines, together with a group of integrative disciplines, necessary to direct the degree towards the management and conservation of wild animals. In addition to this, there is an English language test, aimed at improving and standardizing the students' language skills.
Individual preparation for each training activity is assessed by a final examination and, where applicable, by intermediate cognitive tests and by the presentation and discussion of papers.
The educational pathway aimed at achieving the above-mentioned objectives includes, in addition to lectures, the following activities:
-	laboratory activities devoted in particular to the practice of experimental methods in the fields of genetics, physiology, parasitology and microbiology;
-	practical activities of data acquisition and processing, aimed at deepening the knowledge of computer and computational tools to be applied to real or simulated data of various types (demographic, ecological, genetic);
-	seminar activities, aimed at supplementing the knowledge acquired from attending curricular courses with content proposed from time to time by invited lecturers or visiting scientists;
-	external activities such as traineeship periods in companies, professional firms, public administration structures and laboratories, based on specific training agreements;
-	study stays at foreign universities and research centers, within the framework of specific international agreements;
-	an experimental thesis consisting of carrying out experimental work under the supervision of a course lecturer, processing the data obtained, writing a scientific paper and finally discussing the results.