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

Need an animal career coach?

In the late 1990s I ran the Unusual Animal Career seminar series and not only taught people how to prepare and how to seek a career with animals but also took people into the world of animal careers.

My favorite trip was to an exotic feline facility where the highlight of many students was that they were licked by a leopard.

Hmm, that might be a good title for something.

Anyway, when I moved away from the San Diego location, I moved my animal career coaching to private sessions and have enjoyed watching some of those clients move into careers with animals.

At long last I will begin offering animal career coaching again for selected people who want to participate.

I’ll be sending out notices within a week to my subscribers so I’d urge you to make sure to sign up to the list.

A select group of individuals will be chosen to participate in a beta test of a new online program and course work designed to help you identify if you have what it takes to be involved in an animal career and then direct you into actions that can help you make the career with animals dream a reality.

I’ll be only selecting a few people for this program test and it will be fee based.

It will include some great perks and introductions to a variety of aspects in the animal field (both wild and domestic) so if you want a career with dogs or seek something more exotic–you won’t want to miss it.

The first pre-requisite is that you have to be a subscriber on my list–so sign up now and wait for the announcement!