Wildlife management is more about people than animals, says Jimmy Nyman who works as a game manager at the Swedish Association of Hunting and Wildlife Management. The education at SLU gave him the essential knowledge for working with management of wildlife resources.
My main tasks are within the wildlife management sector. My work title is 'Game Manager' and I work for the Swedish Association of Hunting and Wildlife Management. I mainly work with moose management, since moose is the most popular game within Västerbottens County.
The moose management consists of both of population management and management of people. I would say that if you were the owner of the 'ultimate book of wildlife management', only ten percent of the book would be dedicated to ecology, biology and population modelling. The rest of the 90 percent would comprise the management of people.
Beside of the moose management I work with predator management such as bear, lynx and wolverine management. Finally, I’m also involved within wildlife diseases. I am also a representative within the Scientific Committee of Wildlife research. This Committee is the instance that distributes research funding from the 'Wildlife Management Fund' to applied science projects.
After I finished my studies at the Management of Fish and Wildlife Populations at SLU I worked during the summer at the County Administrative Board of Västerbotten. At the end of the working season, I think it was around October, the job application appeared before my eyes. I immediately applied and got the job.
At 09.00 I enter my office in Umeå. Check the mailbox, answer the telephone, attend in meetings, sometimes I educate hunters, students and citizens. We have a close collaboration with the County Administrative Board and SLU.
Moose. Photo: Jörgen Wiklund
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Actually, I was uncertain if I would choose the Master Program within Biology at Umeå University or The SLU master program Management of fish and wildlife Populations. After recommendations from other student’s and some telephone calls with the programme director the choice was clear.
I really think that it was THE contributor for getting the job at the Swedish Association of Hunting and Wildlife Management. The Master programme at SLU contains the essential parts that you really need for working with management of wildlife resources.
Be yourself! Trying to be someone else is not sustainable. Don’t procrastinate! Finally, broaden your working experiences. Try work in some other fields, work with people – _Then you will be ready to start working at your dream job. But often you really don’t know what your dream job will be.
Many thanks to Jimmy Nyman!
And thanks to Amber Mertens De Vry, Pablo Del Rio and Markus Woesner; the master students who during the academic year 20/21 ran the account Masters of Nature on Facebook and Instagram who did this interview.