Animal Care Internship - Pachyderms
Species: African elephants, southern white rhinos, scimitar-horned oryx, Grant's zebra.
Interns work directly with animal care staff to gain firsthand experience of all aspects of animal husbandry including diet prep, enclosure maintenance, training, enrichment, guest interactions and more. The goal of the program is to provide college students (or recent graduates) with pre-professional career experience through hands-on experiential learning opportunities.
This internship is unpaid but housing may be available seasonally. The program spans 10-12 weeks and participants will be scheduled up to 40hrs per week. Spring internships begin in January and end in May (deadline for application is due Nov 15). Summer internships will begin in May and end in August (deadline for application March 1). Fall internships begin in August and end in December (deadline for application due July 1). Selected participants must successfully complete a background check and TB test.
Intern duties will vary upon season and departmental needs, but could include:
•Assisting staff in all aspects of animal care including, but not limited to, diet preparation, exhibit cleaning/disinfection, maintenance, training and enrichment, record keeping, and guest interactions. Contact with class one animals is minimal and directly supervised.
•Actively observing animal's behavior
•Facilitates formal and informal public presentations to engage guests and provide a positive guest experience.
•Assisting with the production of special events, animal celebrations, and awareness days
•Maintaining animal areas, work areas, and all resources in a clean, organized manner
•Completes a special project covering observations, research, enrichment or another area of interest.
Qualifications:
•Must be a dependable, hard-working college student or recent graduate with an interest in the fields of education, interpretation, environmental science, biology, zoology, or zoo management or might be considering a change of career.
•Must be able to work between 24-40 hours per week for 10-12 weeks.
•Must be able to work outdoors in all weather conditions.
•Must demonstrate enthusiasm and good judgement while working with children and zoo guests.
•Must demonstrate excellent communication skills and the ability to follow directions.
Beneficial Skills:
•Proficiency in Office 365, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.