Zoo Jobs: Primate Internship

Primate Internship

Paradise Wildlife Park

Type: Volunteer

Contract type: Full-time

Paradise Wildlife Park currently has a vacancy for a six-month internship with our primate keepers on a voluntary basis.

Our six-month Internship offers a practical work placement within our primate section. The successful applicant will be attending 8.00 am to 6.00 pm, five days a week (including regular weekend work).

The primate section is responsible for the husbandry of many species (including breeding groups of red ruffed lemur, black lemur, cotton topped tamarin, golden lion tamarin and wwo toed sloth) along with other several other species: golden headed lion tamarin, emperor tamarin, silvery marmoset, black tailed marmoset, pygmy marmoset, Geoffroys marmoset, squirrel monkeys, white cheek gibbon, lar gibbon, black and white ruffed lemur, ring-tailed lemur and three banded armadillo.

The intern will be expected to work alongside the primate team to ensure appropriate nutrition is maintained for the animals along with the general husbandry and training routines.

The primate team are also actively involved in the mixed taxa shows on the zoo (these do not include primates), where the successful applicant will learn positive reinforcement techniques for species to demonstrate natural behaviours in public displays.

Applicants must be 18 years old or over, therefore our internships are well-matched to those taking a gap-year between Further Education and Higher Education, sandwich placements or those who have already graduated from University/College, having studied in a related subject. This internship would suit someone wishing to gain experience as grounds for their first zoo animal keeping position.

This position is voluntary and therefore unpaid. Paradise Wildlife Park are unable to pay travel expenses or provide any accommodation for this position so we recommend applicants to be within suitable travel distance for the duration of this placement. We recognise that this position takes a level of commitment from individuals and therefore we aim for interns to come away with experience that will help them in their future careers. Interns will receive zoo uniform, in-house training, 1 free meal a day at our catering outlet, opportunity to complete a portfolio record and a full reference.

Expected duties:

Assisting with daily animal husbandry e.g. food prep, feeding, cleaning, enrichment provision etc.
General site and enclosure maintenance.
Undertake and record animal observations (interns are able to carry out specific research projects at the park during this time if this is of interest to them).
Visitor interaction and delivery of keeper talks, animal shows, encounters and tours (E.g. ‘Feed the Lemurs Experience’)
Over seeing work experience and volunteers at the direction of the keepers.

Requirements: