Facility

Safari West

Closing Date

Description

Applicants must be 18 years of age. All internships are unpaid. At this time, we are unable to offer housing accommodations, therefore housing and transportation are at the cost and responsibility of the intern. The intern must have reliable means to get to Safari West consistently before committing.

Safari West Giraffe Behavior Internship
The goal of this internship is to integrate students and recent graduates into the current and newly proposed research projects taking place at Safari West. Our objective is to have students understand how research is conducted at a zoological facility by participating in behavioral observations and data entry. This project focuses on the behavior of our giraffe herd. We currently have 12 giraffe in our herd that range in mixed species habitats. Internships can be done in collaboration with a university and we can offer academic credit as approved by an academic advisor.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities
o Data collection of giraffe behaviors and social interactions using an ethogram
o Data organization and entry
Internship Requirements
o Availability: Completion of 3 – 6 months of prelimary and recorded observations at Safari West, including a consistent schedule of a minimum of 6 hours per week of observations (approximately 2-3 hours per day, 3 days per week)
o Collaborative requirement: Intern must be able to work as part of a team, take direction well and be able to interact with employees and guests in a professional manner
o Self-motivated: Interns will be guided through the program but must be internally driven; they will be expected, after some time, to understand their daily responsibilities and be able to start their work without relying directly on orders
o Work conditions: Willingness to work in any weather conditions and ability to remain stationary and/or sit and stand for long periods of time outside and at a computer/tablet with focused attention
o Completion of internship paper
Internship Project/Paper
o Interns are expected to write a short paper detailing their experience
o 3-month interns:
o Experience paper
 Description of learned research techniques and methods and how the internship increased their understanding of research conducted at a zoological facility
 1000-2000 words
o 4-month, 5-month and 6-month interns:
o Will create their own research question based on the information they are collecting for this project
o Simple data analysis utilizing data collected
 Internship & Research Coordinator will assist with analysis (likely will be done in excel)
o Short research paper (1500-3500 words) including introduction, materials and methods, results and discussion sections

Education and Pre-requisites

Not specified.

Compensation and benefits

Not specified.

Application instructions

Please send a resume and short cover letter, highlighting relevant experience, to Erika Defer at edefer@safariwest.com. Not all applicants will be offered an internship position due to the high volume of qualified candidates who apply. All applicants will be notified of our decision by email or phone.