Center for Wildlife Management Studies

Wildlife Management Studies

Tanzania
Semester
15 Weeks
18 Credits
Fall 2025
Sep 1 - Dec 12
Closed
Spring 2026
Jan 26 - May 7
Open
Program Costs
  • Tuition$21,250
  • Room & Board$5,750
  • Total$27,000
Application Deadlines
Fall 2025
May 1, 2025
Spring 2026
November 1, 2025
Semester Program

Wildlife Management Studies

Rhotia, Maasai Steppe,
Tanzania

In the Serengeti, students watch wildebeest herds surge across endless plains, shadowed by lions and cheetahs in pursuit. Days stretch into nights beneath an unbroken sky, where hyenas call and constellations blaze over one of Earth’s last great migrations. Across the Maasai Steppe, elephants press through narrowing corridors while lions prowl village edges, the very spaces where fieldwork begins. In Tarangire and Manyara, they set camera traps, map migration routes, and listen as elders recount shifting rains, placing data within the deeper story of landscape and livelihood.

  • Track predator movements at dawn and dusk during multi-day Serengeti camping expeditions using direct observation and GPS fixes.
  • Map elephant foraging routes across Tarangire–Manyara rangelands by recording fresh signs, dung counts, and browsing patterns.
  • Assess irrigation withdrawals and tourism water use impacting Lake Manyara’s wetlands, noting seasonal fluctuations in bird and fish abundance.
  • Engage with Maasai and Iraqw hosts to understand how cultural tourism balances income benefits with pressures on tradition.
  • Conduct Directed Research: frame a stakeholder-driven question, collect and analyze field data with faculty guidance, and present actionable findings to local partners.

Academics

This academically rigorous program follows a six-day/week schedule. Each program combines theory learned during classroom sessions with field-based applications. The interdisciplinary curriculum is designed to help students actively discover and understand the complexities of environmental, social, and economic issues in Tanzania.

Major academic themes include:

  • Wildlife conservation
  • Climate change impacts
  • African large mammal behavior and ecology
  • Field ornithology
  • Human-wildlife conflict
  • Habitat assessments
  • Community-based conservation
  • Reptile ecology and conservation

Courses

On the Wildlife Management Studies program, you will take three 4-credit disciplinary courses, one 2-credit language and culture course, and a 4-credit capstone Directed Research course. Courses are participatory in nature and are designed to foster inquiry and active learning. Each course combines lectures, field exercises, assignments, tests, and research. All courses are taught in English.

Click on the
to view a description and download the syllabus.
SFS 2060
Introduction to Swahili Language and East African Tribal Communities
2 credits
SFS 3023
Environmental Policy and Socioeconomic Values – Tanzania
4 credits
SFS 3710
Techniques in Wildlife Management
4 credits
SFS 3720
Wildlife Ecology
4 credits
SFS 4910
Directed Research – Tanzania
4 credits

Core Skills

You will gain practical skills in the field such as: GIS use and applications, habitat and biodiversity assessment, natural resource valuation, species identification and wildlife census techniques, animal behavior observation skills, radio telemetry, bird species identification, basic Swahili language skills, research design and implementation, quantitative and qualitative data collection and analysis, and research presentation.

Field Sites

You will visit different ecosystems and communities which may include national parks and wildlife management areas, the plains of the Serengeti, rural villages, Indigenous Iraqw, Hadzabe, and Maasai communities, freshwater wetlands around Lake Manyara, wildlife migratory corridors, the volcanic caldera of Ngorongoro, ranches and farms, and Olduvai Gorge – one of the most important paleo-anthropological sites in the world.


Other Tanzania Programs

Semester

Wildlife Management Studies

15 Weeks
18 Credits
Fall 2025
Sep 1 - Dec 12
Closed
Spring 2026
Jan 26 - May 7
Open

More Information

Program Costs
  • Tuition$21,250
  • Room & Board$5,750
  • Total$27,000
Summer Session 1

Fundamentals of Wildlife Management

4 Weeks
4 Credits
Summer 2026
Jun 1 - Jun 30
Open

More Information

Program Costs
  • Tuition$5,750
  • Room & Board$2,450
  • Total$8,200
Summer Session 2

Carnivores of the African Plains

4 Weeks
4 Credits
Summer 2026
Jul 6 - Aug 4
Open

More Information

Program Costs
  • Tuition$5,750
  • Room & Board$2,450
  • Total$8,200

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