Internships, Research Projects, and Veterinary Placements

Interns can train in one of four departments: Mammals, Bird (Zoo or Field – Red-Billed Chough), Herpetology, and Learning. Interns can work with either a single department for a 6-8 month internship or two departments for a 9-12-month internship. Please be aware that many of the departments can only accept one student at a time, so although we try and cater for everyone's first choice of department, this may not always be possible. 

All animal department placements provide opportunity to either observe or assist with to learn and eventually assume responsibility for elements of the core aspects of captive husbandry, as well as involvement in, enclosure design and maintenance, behavioural and veterinary monitoring, animal capture, handling, and sampling techniques, enrichment and training techniques, food preparation and feeding, and public engagement. Depending on the time of year interns may further experience egg incubation, juvenile husbandry, or hand-rearing management. Interns undertaking the Red-Billed Chough placement additionally develop field-based skills in census techniques, target training, quarantine and record keeping and reporting. Those placed in the Learning department assist in the development and delivery of taught sessions and engagement activities for the visiting public (adults and children) and school groups. 

To learn more about each department please read the brochure here.  

Internship training posts are filled a year in advance, and applications for 2026 are currently closed. Keep an eye on our Durrell Conservation Academy Facebook for announcements of when applications re-open and news of adhoc slots opening up during the year. 

The minimum requirement for placement is 6 months and the longest 12 month in length. Longer placements typically start between July - December, 6 month placement typically take start Dec-March but this can vary. Placements for all departments except the Learning Department are available throughout the year. Internships on the Learning Department are only available for 6 months between March-Sept. Applicants must commit to a minimum of 6 months placement, although shorter 4–6-month placements may become available adhoc. 

Yes, we are a research focused organisation and welcome requests to carry out short projects during your placement. Projects will be assigned by Dr Simon Tollington, Conservation Science Manager, DWCT, in agreement with the intern when they are on placement and this research can be carried out in tandem with the interns time on the animal departments. These vary according to season and cannot be arranged ahead of time.

If you are interested in carrying out Research outside of an Internship Placement as part of BSc, MSc or PhD, please check see our Research opportunities section. 

Places for our internships are limited and we have a rigorous application and selection process in place to ensure successful applicants will be dedicated to getting the most out of their training. As such we have a three-stage application process: 

This internship is specifically designed for early-career conservation professionals from Mauritius and the South-West Indian Ocean islands (Mauritius, Rodrigues,  Madagascar, Seychelles, Comoros, and Réunion). Applications from practitioners working elsewhere in the world with experience in tropical island ecosystem restoration will also be considered. 

We are seeking highly self-motivated and conscientious individuals who work well in multicultural teams and are flexible, adaptable, and capable of working in remote field conditions. 

Selected interns will be embedded within the Island Restoration Team. Classroom-based learning will take place at the Durrell Conservation Training facility and will cover topics such as distance sampling, Capture–Mark–Recapture, statistics using R, QGIS, forest restoration, plant propagation and facilitation and communication skills. 

On-the-job training will be provided primarily through fieldwork undertaken with the Island Restoration Team on Round Island and Ile aux Aigrettes, focusing on reptiles, birds and plants, with potential opportunities to contribute to work on other islands. 

For further details on the expected work and the topics covered in the taught component of the internship, please refer to our brochure. 

Fully funded sponsorships are available for SWIO practitioners only and include return international flights, individual medical and repatriation insurance, visa fees (if applicable), work-related local transportation, and a monthly stipend of MUR 20,000 (approximately GBP 320) to support food and personal expenses, all covered by Durrell. Applicants from other regions may be eligible for partially funded sponsorships, depending on funding availability. 

When not deployed to offshore islets, interns will be accommodated in shared housing provided by Durrell and the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation (MWF) in Blue Bay, South-East Mauritius. The classroom component of the internship will be delivered at Durrell’s training facility in Floréal. 

Needless to say, the clinical work undertaken in a zoo differs greatly from that of companion or production animal settings. We find that our ‘hands-on’ workload is less, with fewer operations or examinations occurring on any given day. Instead, we spend more of our time performing other duties relating to the care of our patients. These may include: 

Students who spend time with us are encouraged to engage with all of the above, but it is worth noting that the nature of our work is less clinical than elsewhere and opportunities to actively participate in procedures and surgeries will be reduced. 

Placements are offered to veterinary students in the final (generally 4th or 5th) years of their studies who would like to gain clinical experience in a zoological setting. Application for placements can be competitive and we would ask that only students with a genuine interest in exotic, zoological or conservation medicine apply for the limited spaces we can offer.

We would recommend that students plan to spend four weeks with us. Three weeks is acceptable but any less than that we have found to be less useful as a learning experience. Slightly longer placements can also be arranged on request. 

Our working hours are 8am to 5pm during the winter months and 8am to 5.30pm during the summer. Students are generally asked to work Monday to Friday but there may be exceptional times when weekend work is available. However, this is not common or mandatory.

We must ask that all students have obtained up-to-date vaccinations for rabies and tetanus prior to starting with us. Additionally, our work can be physically demanding at times and students should consider whether or not they are physically able to assist with this. 

UK Students will not require a VISA to enter Jersey. However, VISA's are required by some countries to enter the UK, the same rules apply for Jersey, you can find out more here. Students are responsible for sorting their own VISA applications before their placement starts. 

There is reciprocal health care provision in the event of emergencies for UK and French visitors only. Therefore, it is recommended that students obtain health insurance cover for the duration of their trip, as visits to health care professionals can be expensive. Students will be insured for all their activities within the zoo providing they act in strict accordance with the policy and procedures of the veterinary department and the zoo in general. 

Research whether official or unofficial, personal or professional is a large part of what we do and we encourage students to involve themselves with that whenever possible. Small-scale in-house research projects can be a useful way to spend less busy periods and we will often ask students to assist with these. 

With regards to more ‘official’ research, we cannot offer any options for practical projects, but desk-based research can be carried out under guidance. However, please note that this must be approved by supervisors and will require students to provide a copy of any findings derived from work conducted at the zoo. 

Applications for 2026 are now closed and we would like to thank all applicants for their interest. Check back soon for 2027 application guidance. 

If you have any additional questions regarding veterinary placements at Jersey Zoo, please feel free to contact Dave (Associate Veterinarian) at dave.houston@durrell.org  

We welcome enquiries from students and researchers interested in collaborative research projects on any of our field programmes or at Jersey Zoo.  There are three research categories:  

Academic researcher and/or professional collaborator: Individuals from an academic institution, NGO or other similar organisation wishing to conduct research that advances shared conservation goals.  

Student:  Individuals completing a research project as part of a MSc, MRes and PhD degrees.   

Research intern: Individuals looking to gain research experience such as early-career conservationists, but that are not undertaking the internship to fulfil degree requirements.  

Our research is applied with a focus on conservation, contributing to our mission of saving species from extinction. Research can be desk-based (e.g., using zoo animal records) or involve primary data collection at the zoo or in the field. Our research often covers, but is not limited to, the following sub-disciplines: animal behaviour and welfare; captive husbandry; physiology; genetics; species ecology; population monitoring and management; ecosystem restoration; conservation education; and social science.  

We are open to robust research projects outside of these categories,  so please do get in touch with your idea via email to conservation.science@durrell.org.  

Regardless of research category (professional, student or intern), researchers will be integrated into the relevant teams and become part of a wide conservation network.  All research must adhere to strict welfare and ethical standards, and a research proposal and ethical application must be submitted before data collection begins.  

Individuals will be provided with an induction as appropriate for their project.  With support from the conservation science team, individuals will design their project and collect high-quality data, followed by data analysis and write-up the findings.  It is hoped that impactful research will be widely disseminated, such as through journal publication.   

For student projects, Durrell can act as a project co-supervisor. However, the primary academic supervision must remain with the university.   

Researchers will have the opportunity to join monthly lectures by Durrell staff, run by the Durrell Training Academy.  

Please direct enquiries to conservation.science@durrell.org.   

We strongly encourage you to include a project idea in your enquiry and are particularly interested in projects that align with Durrell's strategy.  All research projects must pass through a rigorous ethics and research approval process before any data collection begins, so please get in touch early to avoid delays in your research.   

For further information including our research policy and examples of previous research projects please visit our  webpage.