Animal Behavior & Training Internship (Ohio)

The Toledo Zoo (Toledo, Ohio) has an internship available. This internship is designed for college students or recent graduates interested in pursuing a career in animal training or animal behavior.

Interns will work directly with the Curator of Behavioral Husbandry and Research and animal keepers to learn the principles of animal training and enrichment through lecture as well as hands-on work with the animals.

This particular internship is for seal training and polar bear enrichment and interns will participate in animal training demonstrations and schedule, implement and evaluate daily polar bear enrichment. As with many internships, this position is unpaid but housing is available.

Requirements are that you must be a junior or senior in college, or recent college graduate with a major in Biology, Animal Behavior, Psychology, Zoology or other related field

Must be willing to learn, have a positive attitude, and team mentality. Proficiency in Microsoft Excel required and previous hands-on work with animals a plus.

Duties include preparing seal diets and participate in daily feeding/training sessions and enter those training records into a computer program.

In addition, will help in the development of enrichment schedules for several species and construct and implement enrichment items while also conducting animal behavioral observations.

To apply please send a cover letter, resume and 3 references to (email preferred) to
Beth Posta
Curator of Behavioral Husbandry and Research
The Toledo Zoo
Beth.Posta@toledozoo.org 419-385-5721 ext. 2051

Animal Career Publications

I recently received an animal career publication that looked like it was written by a charitable trust.

However, after scanning through the information, I found that it was simply a promotional piece about pet care careers that directed people to a specific website.

My reason for bringing this up is that there are a lot of people jumping on the bandwagon to solicit funds from those seeking animal careers.

I wrote about accreditation not too long ago and so think it is important that you understand that not all online information is created equal.

Nor are the programs that are out there all worth it.

Although my animal career coaching application period has closed, I will be opening it again once those people are through the program.

If you missed my Unusual Animal Career series and seminars–including weekend intensives that I started back in the 1990s–you won’t want to miss the new program set to launch sometime next year.

I’ll be spending some time reviewing a few animal career publications that might be helpful to you.

In general, vocational guides and college career guidance can be the most helpful to help you sort through the piles of products being promoted online.

Plus, you don’t have to be a student to take advantage of those resources–simply show up and ask for help since you are seeking a career.

When you go for solid sources of information you will save your self some heartache and tons of time.

Does it mean that all private materials or programs are crap?

No, certainly not.

I’ve been involved in private training programs since my career began and do continuing education online–but you have to know how to sort through the mess to find the gems.

In the next few posts I’ll share some good animal career resources with you but also be sure to sign up for the animal career secrets email list so you don’t miss subscriber only goodies!