<p>Are there any women's colleges that offer Animal Behavior, Ethology or Zoology?</p>
<p>Williams College-Chambersburg
Midway College
Saint Mary of the Wood College</p>
<p>I know this is late, but I actually might be able to help out! I’m a Mount Holyoke psychology/biology double major and my primary academic interest is animal behavior/ethology/behavioral ecology. </p>
<p>It’s pretty rare to see degree programs specifically in animal behavior or zoology, and I definitely didn’t understand why at first. Now I kind of get it. Animal behavior can draw from a lot of different areas of study. Every animal behaves in the context of its own ecosystem, so there’s an ecology component. To understand the ultimate causes of how behavioral patterns came to be, you need a background in evolution and genetics and even phylogeny. The production of behaviors is neurological but also physiological – for example, songbirds have a vocal organ with two sides, so they can produce two sounds at once when they sing. There’s chemistry components to things like hormones or pheromones, ontology and development can impact things like how females of a species choose mates, and if you want to look into broader things like learning and cognition, there’s a lot of psychology that’s really relevant. </p>
<p>So, in general, it kind of makes more sense to specifically focus on behavior during graduate school after you have a broader background.</p>
<p>That being said, I think Mount Holyoke and Smith might both be worth looking into. The Five College Consortium has opened up a lot of opportunities for me. Hampshire does offer a lot of courses on animal behavior specifically that can give you depth you wouldn’t get in a broader program, which I really enjoy. UMass has a great organismal and evolutionary biology graduate department that hosts seminars where animal behavior researchers often come and present their work and talk about it. I also know that some people have taken or audited animal science courses at UMass. It’s a little more applied and a little more agricultural, but still a neat opportunity that doesn’t really exist at most small LACs. </p>
<p>Mount Holyoke has been wonderful even though there isn’t a specific degree program. The psychology department has a fantastic animal behavior course (my personal favorite course that I’ve ever taken), and in the lab for my intro bio course we got to design and run our own animal behavior mini-experiment. I’m a research assistant in a professor’s lab and it’s been an incredible learning opportunity. Ranae Brodie’s [Crab</a> Lab](<a href=“Crab Research in the Field and the Lab - YouTube”>Crab Research in the Field and the Lab - YouTube) and Karen Hollis’s [Antlyon</a> lab](<a href=“- YouTube”>- YouTube) both might interest you, and both of the videos are pretty cool. [Gary</a> Gillis](<a href=“http://www.mtholyoke.edu/~ggillis/Gillis-lab/research.html]Gary”>http://www.mtholyoke.edu/~ggillis/Gillis-lab/research.html) and [Sarah</a> Bacon](<a href=“https://www.mtholyoke.edu/offices/comm/csj/991203/bacon.html]Sarah”>https://www.mtholyoke.edu/offices/comm/csj/991203/bacon.html) also both do research in zoology/animal biology. I’m definitely leaving people out, so definitely have a look through the website. </p>
<p>I don’t know as much about Smith. I know they have an intro bio course that focuses on biodiversity and conservation; I registered and went to the first couple of classes but found that I preferred an intro bio course at Mount Holyoke. I do know that there’s some neat-sounding research with zebrafish development and I think Virginia Hayssen does mammal research! I feel badly because I have less to say about Smith, so hopefully a Smithie will jump in or you can take a chance to look through the website. </p>
<p>If you’re hoping to look more into applied animal behavior/animal training, the [url=<a href=“http://www.moorparkcollege.edu/current_students/teaching_zoo/index.shtml]EATM[/url”>America's Teaching Zoo | Moorpark College]EATM[/url</a>] program at Moorpark College is reported to be fantastic</p>
<p>I would have messaged you privately, but I don’t think either of us have a high enough post count. Hopefully you’ll have a chance to see this. I love my school and I love animal behavior and I love talking about both (as you can probably tell!), so if you have any questions feel free to let me know!</p>