Anyone work/volunteer in a zoo/aquarium?
- Thread starter Bottomfeeder
- Start date
My local zoo is hardly impressive but even so volunteering consists of working with kids not animals therefore no. But I do hope to find some where to volunteer, I have been looking around for a while. I will most likely be applying for interships at Seaworld either next summer or the summer after.
Zoodiver;4299508; said:
At the Staten Island Zoo, "Interns" are volunteers that volunteers that work with keepers, assisting directly with exhibits.
Zoodiver;4299508; said:
Ya I am aware of that, but the particular intership I found I talked with a student that was apart of it. And all she did was work with people and kids, and to be honest it was a very time consuming commitment. So I figure, as did she, that my time was better spent at school until I find a better program. Although there are some classes they offer once a week that I need to check into.
Seaworld you will not be getting any type of animal contact. All internships there include food prep in fish house or watching the animals and writing down when the go poop or eat and monitoring them and writing down anything out of the ordinary. Only possible internship you could with the company is maybe at Discovery Cove in animal training (dolphins) but that one is only offered once in a blue moon. Most of theme park internships are theme park managment and marketing related. As for the zoo most zoo's will allow zookeeper internships so basically you just shadow a zookeeper but you wont be doing any direct animal contact either.. just observation, cleaning and food prep. I know the sanford zoo does this because I looked into it when I lived in Orlando. Most volunteer openings will be education and people interactions as husbandry is very hard to get into so bug them early about it and see if they will have any openings. I got really lucky to be where I am at.
If anyone is looking for a real aquarist job, I'm looking to add a staff member at the aquarium in Miami. I'm picky about backgrounds/experience though. Looking for someone with at LEAST a year of public aquarium/zoo work - more would be better. My team covers 16 jewel displays, 2 quarantine areas (about to open a third), 10,000 gallon stingray touch pool, 260,000 live reef (largest live Atlantic reef display in the world) and a 600,000 shark display. Pay isn't much ($9 hr starting), long and odd hours, lots of physical labor, must be dive certified, knowledge of Atlantic fish, disease ID and treatments, know open and closed LSS, be able to do public presentations, lift 50 lbs, drug free and all the normal stuff, blah blah blah..... We also help with the manatee and sea turtle rescue team.
Shoot me a PM and I'll give you details and get a copy of your resume/cover letter.
Shoot me a PM and I'll give you details and get a copy of your resume/cover letter.
Ash;4299634; said:
Maybe I worded that a bit odd, yes I understand that I won't be working directly with animals. And from the person I talked to she didn't get to do those things listed, maybe she did not pay attention to what internship she applied for.. But thank you for the information thats actually the zoo(sanford) I was refering too lol. And I will most definately be looking into that more, as well as the discovery cove internship. Food prep, cleaning, and such tasks were the kind of things I was actually looking for. Husbandry is what I was refering too, sorry to confuse.
