Internship Add On: One Health & Conservation Medicine Fieldwork Internship

This hands-on internship can be added on after completing the veterinary or wildlife husbandry internship at Alturas Wildlife Sanctuary. This internship is suitable for anyone with a veterinary or wildlife conservation background and who would like to gain field work experience working alongside experiened conservationists with Costa Rican Wildlife.

If you would like to learn more about in-field research, wildlife monitoring, community engagement and disease ecology, then this internship is just for you! 

This program takes place in different natural sites and communities throughout Costa Rica. Some of these places include Bijagua, a town renowned for its large tapir population, in the north of the country, close to Rio Celeste, the Talamanca Highlands and the Osa Peninsula. It is led by Dr. Jorge Rojas Jimenez (DVM, PhD), who has years of experiece working with and researching wild tapirs.

• Fieldwork Assistance: Assist in fieldwork activities related to tapir conservation, including habitat montoring, camera trap deployment, and wildlife tracking
• Human-Wildlife Interaction Studies: Participate in research projects focussed on understanding and mitigating human-wildlife conflicts involving tapirs
• Community Engagement: Engage with local communities to raise awarenss about tapir conservation, conduct educational workshops, and collaborate on communitty-based conservation initiatives.
• Tropical Ecology Research: Assist in ecological research projects to better understand tapir ecology, habitat use, and movement patterns in tropical ecosystems
• Wildlife Medicine, Management, and Monitoring: Assist in treating animals for medical care, and support the collection and analysis of data on wildlife populations, contributing to population monitoring and management efforts
• Disease Ecology: Assist and collaborate in disease surveillance and diagnosis of zoonotic diseases at the human-wildlife interface.
• Environmental Governance: Gain insights into environmental policy and governance by assisting in the development and implementation of conservation  plans and strategies
• Conservation Planning: Contribute to conservation planning efforts by assisting in the identification of key conservation areas and the development of conservation  action plans.

• Minimum 18 years old
• Studying for or graduated from a degree in biology, willdife sciences, veterinary medicine, environmental sciences or similar
• Previous experience in wildlife conservation is ideal but not required
• Oral and/or Written communication skills in English & Spanish, or willing to learn
• Ability and adaptation to work in the field under demanding conditions
• Proactive and able to work both indipendantly and collaboratively
• Highly motivated
• Interest in cultural exchange
• Current rabies vaccination is highly recommended
• Provide proof of international health insurance