Want to gain a unique career experience? Ready to travel internationally with both independence and support? Consider joining one of our incredible animal internships abroad!

Why Choose An Internship?
Our veterinary internships abroad offer students an amazing opportunity to pursue their love of travel while also earning valuable career experience. Compared to our study abroad programs, our internships give students more flexibility when traveling. They’re perfect for students or other adults who want to gain hands-on experience but with the freedom to travel and spend time on their own. They’re also great for those who don’t want to navigate the logistics of finding and vetting their own internship opportunity or housing abroad.

Similar to traditional internships, our animal internships abroad provide placement with one of our partner projects. Through this placement, you’ll have a set place to intern each day where you’ll shadow, observe, or assist as needed. These internships provide experience that can be used on a resume and some colleges and universities may even accept internship credit for them.

Please note that Loop Abroad internships are quite different from Loop Abroad programs. You will not have a Loop Abroad staff member with you each day, you do not have a Loop Abroad teaching vet, and you do not have activities and transportation scheduled and provided for you. Internships offer you the flexibility of traveling and exploring on your own with the safety and support of an in-country support coordinator, as well as a traditional shadowing internship placement at one of our partner projects. At all internships, you should expect to be on-site approximately 35-40 hours per week, Monday to Friday.


Who It’s For
The externship is for anyone who is interested in learning about zoos, big cats, or wildlife conservation and welfare in South Africa. Participants should have a deep interest in wildlife conservation and the capacity to work in a zoo in challenging conditions. Interns should be aware that they will be working with wild animals, which may present harm to them or expose them to zoonotic disease.

If you and a friend are applying together and would like to intern together and be housed together, please contact us atadmissions@loopabroad.com to assist you. Must be 18+ to apply.

Overview?

This is a practical externship that will be focused on helping to do work throughout the zoo and learn from the staff there. Interns assist in veterinary work, hand-rearing of black-footed cats and bird species, husbandry, and other zoo upkeep. When there are veterinary procedures, you will be able to observe, which may include helping the staff to take animals in for off-site veterinary care when applicable. The zoo does not have a full-time vet so most of your hours will be animal experience hours, though some may be veterinary or research hours.

You’ll be trained to do most of the functions that a zookeeper serves, and this is a great place to learn it! Lory Park is one of only six institutions in Africa to be accredited by the Pan African Association of Zoos and Aquaria, which is indicative of their high standards of safety, veterinary care, animal diets and enrichment practices, and overall welfare of the animals in their care.

Additionally, the park is one of four African institutions granted membership to the International Zoological Educators. Loop Abroad is the only way that American students or participants can intern at Lory Park Zoo. 

Lory Park is home primarily to cats, birds, primates, and reptiles. Some of the species on site include: white and tawny lions, tiger, cheetahs, serval, jaguar, leopard, lynx, caracal, ocelot, puma, black-footed cat, owls, eagles, hornbills,  lorikeets, flamingos, gibbons, meerkats, lemurs, boa constrictors, pythons, chameleons, tortoises, and bearded dragons.

This internship will give interns a deeper understanding of the role of zoos and zookeepers in not online animal management but also in conservation and research.

Highlights
Lory Park Zoo is one of the very best places to learn how to care for a large variety of wild animals, mainly carnivores such as lions, tigers, jaguars, servals and also primates and reptiles. Training will also involve birds of prey and parrots. 
 

• Experience the day-to-day life on all the different sections of the zoo, gaining knowledge about the animals under your care.
• Parrots and lorikeet care (with genetic courses on pairing, reproduction and coloration in birds)
• Reptile care (the new reptile center houses many kinds of non-venomous snakes and other reptiles)
• Upkeep for birds of prey (can include handling of raptors for public demonstrations)
• Learning the basics of primate care (gibbons and lemurs)
• Working to care for big and small cats (tigers, lions, jaguars, cheetahs, ocelots, servals, pumas, leopards, white lions, and caracals)
• Assisting in the breeding center (primarily small cats)
• Training in education of the public, including animal lectures

Interns  who prove themselves to be capable, eager, responsible, and able to take training and direction will be able to assist with cubs and with the hand-rearing of black-footed cats, vultures, and other animals (subject to time of year and necessity) and may be given more responsibilities in caring for animals, which can include health checks, assisting the vet during operations, and handling beyond day-to-day care.