Program Overview

This Zoology degree enables you to study traditional zoology with an emphasis on animal behaviour. It is all about animals, investigating their taxonomy, anatomy, development, behaviour, habitats, relationships and interactions with their ecosystems.

Our location provides access to an exceptional range of terrestrial, marine, and freshwater habitats for extensive fieldwork, study sites and research. You’ll be able to observe the behaviour of various animals, such as birds, fish, ungulates and farm animals in contexts relevant to animal behaviour such as predator vigilance, reproductive behaviour or movement behaviour.

Bangor University also has dedicated onsite animal facilities for reptiles, rodents and insects. This includes venomous snakes, honey and bumble bees, fruit flies and mice and hamsters. Treborth Botanic Garden has a pigeon loft for bird cognition, physiology, and biomechanics research, and you can find Alpaca, sheep and bee hives on the farm at Henfaes Research Centre.

Staff expertise spans ethology, ecology, medical and environmental microbiology, plant biology, marine biotechnology, fisheries genetics, cell and genome biology, neurobiology and development. Our applied research is conducted globally, from the mountains of Snowdonia to the coral reefs of the Caribbean, from rainforests to savannahs and beyond.

The University is home to the Environment Centre for Wales, a partnership with the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (UKCEH), whose Welsh branch is based there. We also host the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) Wales. Elsewhere in Bangor, you’ll find regional offices for Natural Resources Wales (NRW), D?r Cymru/Welsh Water, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) and North Wales Wildlife Trust (NWWT). Strong links with these employers provide opportunities for work placements and volunteering, and some contribute to teaching.

You’ll never be short of things to do. The Students’ Union offers a full range of student societies for those with an interest in all manner of animals. Bangor University Zoological Society, Bangor Herpetological Society, Bangor University Birdwatching Society (BUBS), Bangor University Entomology Society and Endeavour regularly collaborate on social and educational events. A recent Bioblitz Weekend, for example, featured moth trapping, mammal print traps, bush beating, sweep netting, woodland searching, and pond dipping.