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Pay · 19-1023

Zoologists and Wildlife Biologists earn $76,780 a year at the midpoint

Half earn more than that and half earn less. The lowest tenth are paid about $49,100, the highest tenth about $126,440 — figures from the 2025 federal wage survey.

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$76,780median a year · United States
$36.91an hour $83,020average 18,120people
Nine in ten people in this work earn between the two ends. The shaded part is the middle half — where most people are.
$61,18025th $76,780median $96,10075th
$49,10010th percentile $126,44090th percentile
$61,180a year at the 25th percentile, nearer a first job
$107,500best-paying state · Maryland
$49,100lowest-paying state · Texas
+40%top state against the national median
  • Read the spread, not the middle. The median is the midpoint across everyone in the occupation, most of them years into the work. A beginner starts nearer the 10th to 25th percentile, which is why the spread is published alongside it.
  • What the figure counts. The figure counts base pay plus tips, commissions and production bonuses. It leaves out the self-employed, unpaid family workers, private household workers, and the value of benefits or profit sharing.
  • Where you live moves it more than your resume does. National figures. A state or metro area can sit far from the national number, and that gap is usually larger than any difference a resume makes.
  • Not in these numbers. Growth and annual openings are not in this dataset. They come from the separate Employment Projections tables, where an opening is a modelled ten year average and not a posted vacancy.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, 2025. Retrieved through the BLS Public Data API on 2026-08-13. bls.gov/oes “BLS.gov cannot vouch for the data or analyses derived from these data after the data have been retrieved from BLS.gov.”

State matters a lotThe same job pays $107,500 in Maryland and $49,100 in Texas — a gap of $58,400 a year.

Zoologist and wildlife biologist earnings, from starting pay to the highest 10%

Pick the job, where you work and how long you have done it. The range comes from the published wage percentiles for that job.

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Zoologist and wildlife biologist pay rate, hourly to annual

Starts at this job’s median. Change the rate or the hours; a full-time year is 40 hours for 52 weeks.

$76,773a year

Place 236 of 788 by median pay

Better paid than 70% of the occupations in the survey.

  1. 234 Writers and Authors $76,910
  2. 235 Electrical and Electronics Drafters $76,870
  3. 236 Zoologists and Wildlife Biologists $76,780
  4. 237 Historians $76,750
  5. 238 Loan Officers $76,690

Adjacent work, and what it pays

Occupations in the same group of the federal classification — the usual next steps, or the ones beside this one.

Zoologists and Wildlife Biologists$76,780
Life Scientists, All Other$93,750+$16,970 Food Scientists and Technologists$88,720+$11,940 Microbiologists$87,990+$11,210 Foresters$76,400−$380

Writing a resume for zoologists and wildlife biologists

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  • Inventoried or estimated plant and wildlife populations.
  • Disseminated information by writing reports and scientific papers or journal articles, and by making presentations and giving talks for schools, clubs, interest groups and park interpretive programs.
  • Developed, or made recommendations on, management systems and plans for wildlife populations and habitat, consulting with stakeholders and the public at large to explore options.

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This page includes information from the O*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. The owner of tiersi.com has modified all or some of this information. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications.

Zoologist and wildlife biologist wages by state

Across 47 states the median ranges by 2.19 times. Figures are the 2025 survey.

State Median a year Where most start 10th to 90th Employed
Maryland $107,500 $63,060 $63,060 — $156,750 250
District of Columbia $107,050 $85,190 $85,190 — $161,470 140
California $98,530 $58,380 $58,380 — $177,760 2,210
Alaska $90,370 $59,280 $59,280 — $126,920 650
Mississippi $88,710 $52,610 $52,610 — $141,130 110
Louisiana $87,460 $65,400 $65,400 — $119,430 50
Oregon $85,150 $54,640 $54,640 — $113,350 1,010
Hawaii $84,910 $65,650 $65,650 — $125,630 170
Massachusetts $84,350 $45,310 $45,310 — $138,940 470
Washington $83,780 $62,070 $62,070 — $129,850 1,840
Colorado $83,300 $60,590 $60,590 — $116,390 730
New Jersey $83,030 $59,420 $59,420 — $128,790 90
Iowa $83,000 $59,850 $59,850 — $90,420 90
New York $82,640 $58,240 $58,240 — $117,860 370
North Dakota $81,330 $55,700 $55,700 — $103,500 100
Illinois $79,780 $55,690 $55,690 — $112,900 250
Vermont $79,620 $65,690 $65,690 — $98,340 70
Michigan $79,150 $58,720 $58,720 — $104,250 330
Montana $78,850 $62,540 $62,540 — $96,100 430
Pennsylvania $78,540 $48,060 $48,060 — $113,920 200
Connecticut $77,300 $50,440 $50,440 — $118,110 110
Missouri $76,400 $57,620 $57,620 — $108,080 120
Nevada $75,180 $49,600 $49,600 — $119,090 190
Ohio $74,550 $45,700 $45,700 — $108,930 220
Maine $74,490 $51,690 $51,690 — $97,680 330
Alabama $74,290 $47,120 $47,120 — $99,600 290
Wyoming $74,150 $56,420 $56,420 — $90,920 320
Utah $73,920 $51,060 $51,060 — $96,100 370
Tennessee $73,570 $50,840 $50,840 — $99,330 310
New Hampshire $73,560 $48,660 $48,660 — $108,850 40
Idaho $73,360 $49,840 $49,840 — $96,100 380
Virginia $72,340 $49,960 $49,960 — $104,920 290
Minnesota $68,620 $45,630 $45,630 — $101,210 720
Wisconsin $68,370 $42,950 $42,950 — $91,170 360
New Mexico $68,220 $51,080 $51,080 — $96,100 170
Arizona $66,880 $48,400 $48,400 — $96,100 410
Kansas $66,440 $54,850 $54,850 — $77,290 160
Georgia $66,210 $54,970 $54,970 — $115,150 200
South Dakota $65,890 $53,410 $53,410 — $87,640 170
North Carolina $64,620 $48,370 $48,370 — $122,120 350
South Carolina $64,090 $46,740 $46,740 — $111,830 250
Oklahoma $62,730 $48,650 $48,650 — $88,610 120
Kentucky $61,950 $46,960 $46,960 — $83,040 150
Nebraska $57,890 $45,350 $45,350 — $83,350 140
Indiana $54,670 $44,180 $44,180 — $76,900 120
Florida $52,750 $39,900 $39,900 — $97,660 1,400
Texas $49,100 $39,800 $39,800 — $106,020 580

Questions people ask

What is a zoologist and wildlife biologist’s yearly income?

A zoologist and wildlife biologist makes a median of $76,780 a year (2025 survey). The middle half earn between $61,180 and $96,100.

What is a zoologist and wildlife biologist’s hourly pay rate?

The median pay rate is $36.91 an hour; the average is $83,020 a year.

What is the starting pay for a zoologist and wildlife biologist?

Starting pay is usually near the 25th percentile, $61,180 a year, and sometimes as low as the 10th, $49,100.

Which state pays zoologists and wildlife biologists the most?

Maryland, with a median of $107,500 a year.

How many people work as zoologists and wildlife biologists?

About 18,120 in the United States — number 236 of 788 occupations by median pay.

Work that pays nearly the same

Median pay within $190 of what zoologists and wildlife biologists earn — $76,780 a year — but not always the same spread.

See all 788 occupations