Department Profile

Department of Forest Protection and Wildlife Management is a guarantee expert workplace of the study specialization Game Management with the study programme Applied Zoology and Game Management, providing education of undergraduate, graduate as well as PhD students in the field of biological subjects. The education and scientific-research activity are focused on: 

• ecology of forest vertebrates
• game management
• animal protection

Since the foundation of the Field of study “Game Management” and Programme “Applied Zoology and Wildlife Management”, there has been a need for the creation of a separate organizational unit covering all requirements of the well-functioning study programme. In 2016 the Department of Forest Protection and Wildlife Management has been divided into two separate departments covering fields of applied zoology (Department of Applied Zoology and Wildlife Management) and forest and landscape protection (Department of Integrated Forest and Landscape Protection). As the head of the newly established Department of Applied Zoology and Wildlife Management was appointed Prof. Ing. Peter Garaj, CSc. After reaching the age of 65 years, he was replaced by Prof. Ing. Rudolf Kropil, CSc.

Department of Applied Zoology and Wildlife Management provides courses in fields of applied zoology, wildlife ecology, methods and techniques of quantitative zoology, physiology, nutrition and animal diseases, hunting and game management, special and intensive animal husbandry, marksmanship, kynology, falconry and hunting history and culture.

Graduates can find employment as employees in the state administration bodies within the competence of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of the Slovak Republic and the Ministry of the Environment of the Slovak Republic, in the state enterprise Forests of the Slovak Republic, Banská Bystrica (enterprises, forest administration), the State Nature Conservancy of the Slovak Republic (administration of the national parks, the protected landscape areas), in the functions of game managers, in the organs of the Slovak Hunting Chamber and the Slovak Hunting Association, in the private and non-state sector (game breeds, farms, cynology, weapons and ammunition, hunting tourism) or as experts conducting a monitoring of wildlife populations. The advantage of our graduates compared to other departments at other higher education institutions focusing on the biology of higher animals is the link to forest management, allowing for a more realistic understanding and assessment of the different situations in the relationship between animals and the forest ecosystem.