Zoo Jobs: The Living Rainforest – Animal Keeper Work Placement

Wednesday, March 2, 2022

The Living Rainforest – Animal Keeper Work Placement

The Living Rainforest – Animal Keeper Work Placement

The Living Rainforest is inviting applications for a work placement with our Animal Department to gain some much-valued experience within an Animal environment. Our internship programme has been running successfully for years and we are pleased to be able to offer a placement from September 2022 running until June 2023 date tbc.

The Trust for Sustainable Living is a registered charity based near Newbury, Berkshire. At our visitor centre, The Living Rainforest, the animal collection is contained within three tropical glasshouses and consists of more than 60 species. These include callitrichids, toucan and turacos, snakes, chelonia, stingrays, dendrobatids, and invertebrates and more.

Role and Responsibilities:

· The primary role of the intern will be to learn the daily husbandry and routines of our animal department. This includes feeding animals, maintaining enclosures, daily record keeping, diet preparation and animal health checks.

· You will also learn how to train and supervise our existing volunteers and participate in training new volunteers and work experience students.

· You will also receive training and participate in keeper talks (which run through holidays) and keeper experiences.

· You will have the opportunity to gain knowledge of the different aspects of the department such as veterinary treatment, enclosure design and record keeping.

· You may also be invited to attend internal meetings. This may include ethics committees and staff team meetings.

· Where suitable, there may also be opportunities for research projects to be undertaken.

Terms of placement:

· This is a 9 to 10 month voluntary work placement for a registered charity, to begin in September 2022.

· This is an unpaid placement, however, we can assist with reasonable travel expenses

· The success candidate will receive hands-on experience with a variety of species, suitable training and work within a strong team with a wide range of skills and knowledge.

· Our hours are 8.30 am to 5pm. Five days a week on a rota basis. This will include weekends and bank holidays.

The applicant

· This placement is ideal for a candidate working towards an Animal related qualification, who would like to partake in this internship in order to seek further industry experience.

· Some experience within the zoo industry or with exotics would be desirable but definitely not essential.

· Applicants should be enthusiastic, hard-working and have a willingness to learn new skills.

· It is necessary that you have your own form of transport to get to and from The Living Rainforest each day as public transport is infrequent in this area

To apply please email a CV and Covering Letter to Robyn Daniels at robynd@livingrainforest.org

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