I'm doing English homework and I have to write a news article which has something to do with animals eating things try shouldn't and the people that do the science of animals. And I need help with it.
What is a formal word for animal scientist?

Help would be greatly appreciated! Please and thank you! ❤️😊🙊

There's more than one specialty within the field, but zoologist is the general one.
Most scientists are mult-discipline. For instance, one who studies one species may also know a lot about genetics and earth history, and one who studies habitat may study environmental science, chemistry, geology, botany, and so on.

Plastic is the big man made item many animals eat and choke on. There are MANY internet articles on this, especially about ocean birds and fish and mammals, because a lot of plastic gets dumped there.
Even gum tossed on city sidewalks kills many birds!