Job Opportunities

This voluntary 14-week internship program provides qualified individuals with professional experience in the daily care of the department’s animals and the opportunity to support animal care staff. Africa department interns are supervised by animal care staff within the department. The main role of interns is to work with animal care staff to keep areas clean, thus helping contribute to the welfare of the animals. Cleaning, maintaining our various habitats, and behind-the-scenes holding areas may include: raking and shoveling, moving heavy wheelbarrows, lifting hay bales, hosing and scrubbing, etc. Other duties include preparing daily food diets such as cutting and weighing out produce and meat diets and helping maintain behind-the-scenes keeper spaces as well. Interns will have the opportunity to observe animal training sessions and various forms of routine husbandry including: giraffe foot care, blood draw and injection training with a variety of species, bird capture and restraint for wing trims and beak coping, and the management of recently expanded hippo bloat.

OBJECTIVES:

• Provide support to Africa Department staff
• Enhance productivity and efficiency of the Africa Department team
• Allow qualified individuals the opportunity to gain professional experience as a keeper intern at a world-class zoological facility
• Provide an opportunity to gain a strong understanding of potential careers in animal husbandry, training, and conservation education

Please check out the following link to learn more about this habitat/space and the animals in our care here: Africa.

Description:  This professional internship at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden will assist the Animal Excellence Scientist promote an evidence-based approach to animal care and management.  Using science to understand better animal behavior, animal welfare, and our visitors’ perception of animal well-being is integral to the zoo’s mission and is the best way to promote a thriving animal community and an optimal visitor experience. Interns will assist with applied behavioral research projects and other initiatives related to animal welfare and will attain practical experience conducting research and working in a zoological facility.

• Search for and review scientific literature related to animal welfare
• Collect and maintain animal behavior, animal welfare, environmental, and/or visitor-related data
• Assist with study design, technology setup, and report preparation
• Assist with research scheduling
• Interpret on-site research operations for visitors
• Provide support as needed to the larger Animal Excellence Team

• Current college junior or senior working toward an animal-related field: Biology, Zoology, Psychology, etc.; or a recent graduate with a related degree. Successful completion of coursework related to animal behavior is preferred.
• Proven experience participating in the research process (e.g., study design, data collection, analysis), with animal behavior research experience a plus.
• Demonstrated professionalism, communication skills (both written and oral), critical thinking ability, and attention to detail.
• Enthusiasm for the mission of Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden: creating adventure, conveying knowledge, conserving nature, and serving the community.

This internship involves learning the process associated with developing the diet for all the animals in the zoo, food safety/handling, quality control, diet analysis, diet records, and continual assessment of animal condition for the ~1600 animals exhibited at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden. The intern, working alongside the Curator of Nutrition, would work closely with animal management, keepers, researchers, and veterinary staff, to provide diet evaluations, animal body condition assessments, and product recommendations, along with learning to assist commissary staff in product purchasing. The intern would be exposed to the development and supervision of a local browse program to fulfill the nutrition and enrichment needs of the collection while managing the commissary budget. The intern would track, organize and create diet records as part of learning and conduct research deemed appropriate in the effective and applied animal nutrition program, such as food nutrient analysis (sample processing, data collection, and entry) and quality control (forages, feeds, browses, etc.). No direct animal contact takes place in this role. Some computer experience is preferred.

The Animal Ambassador Team cares for The Zoo’s animal ambassadors. Our diverse collection of 125 individual animals encompasses 60 different species that include a wide variety of reptiles, amphibians, birds, mammals, and invertebrates. The main focus of this internship is the daily husbandry and care for these animals, but there is also an opportunity for educating the visitors and offering encounters on grounds. We constantly strive to provide our animals with the best welfare possible through positive reinforcement training, dynamic habitats, and behavioral-based enrichment. Interns are eligible to observe training sessions during their time with us and assist with programs. Tamanduas, Six-banded armadillos, Prehensile-Tailed Porcupine, Tawny Frogmouths, and a variety of snakes are just a handful of species you will be working around!  Our department is very fast-paced. We are spread across four buildings, and you will have the opportunity to work in each of those during your 14-week internship with us. 

Some of your daily tasks will include: 

• Daily husbandry 
• Diet Preparation 
• Habitat set up 
• Animal Handling 
• Enrichment 
• Observing Training Sessions 
• Random Animal Encounters / Engagement with Visitors 
• Assisting with other tasks and projects that come up

Come learn from one of the oldest, most well-established cheetah running programs in the country! We not only have ambassador cheetahs but also provide care for ocelots, servals, a red river hog, crested porcupine, domestic cats and dogs. In this internship, you will learn the inner workings of a show department and work with the animal trainers of the Cat Ambassador Program. The ideal candidate has a passion for learning and conservation education. Strong customer service skills are valuable in this role. The Cat Ambassador Intern will be interacting with guests and improving the overall visitor experience during our public shows and also be responsible for daily husbandry, diet prep, and enrichment with the supervision of CAP trainer staff.

This Internship provides work experience within a comprehensive nutrition program and includes animal food production, as well as animal nutrition research components.  Interns do not have direct animal contact. The Commissary is where all food, supplies, ordering, receiving, preparation of, and delivering for all dietary needs of all the animal collection takes place. Interns assist with preparing food for all zoo animals under the direction of supervising personnel, assist with inventory and quality control of all perishable foods, assist with the cleanliness of all the Commissary areas, and assist in the delivery of all food/supplies to all animal areas daily.

Interns will complete a 14-week internship and provides qualified individuals with professional experience in the daily care of Asian elephants at a world-class zoological facility. Elephant department interns are supervised by the animal care staff within the elephant department.

Tasks & learning opportunities include but are not limited to:

• Cleaning elephant indoor and outdoor habitats involving raking, shoveling, carrying heavy wheelbarrows, lifting hay bales, and maintaining sand areas
• Diet preparation: cutting produce and preparing hay
• Choosing and distributing enrichment
• Observe elephant training sessions and husbandry, such as foot care, exercise, and bathing

• Gain a strong understanding of potential careers in animal husbandry, training, and conservation education

• Assisting keepers with various other tasks

Please check out the following link to learn more about the Elephant Reserve habitat and animals.

Elephant Reserve

This internship provides a unique opportunity to apply an environmental education background to a public garden setting.  The intern in this position will contribute to our ongoing garden education efforts by actively engaging visitors through garden activities and interpretive programming, helping to keep garden engagement station stocked with interpretive supplies, meeting with volunteers, and assisting with the creation of new garden engagement programs and activities that reflect our current horticultural mission, initiatives, and programs.

The intern in this position will have the opportunity to participate in interpretive trainings and gain skills in inquiry and participant-led education, storytelling, public speaking, and curriculum development.  The intern may also receive opportunities to present newly developed programs and activities to garden engagement volunteers.  Occasional opportunities to complete tasks in the garden that will support an understanding of our horticulture programs and aid in the development of curriculum and engagement activities will also be available to this intern.

The ideal candidate will possess a passion for sharing information and engaging with the public, enthusiasm for public gardens and horticultural programs, and the desire to inspire people to take actions that promote conservation and co-existence between people and wildlife.  Students currently enrolled in Environmental Education, Horticulture, or a closely related field are encouraged to apply.  Horticulture and/or knowledge of plants and gardening preferred, but not required.

Interns gain first-hand experience in maintaining and expanding the Zoo’s Native Plant Program. They will work at the Bowyer Farm wetland restoration site near Mason, Ohio.  Interns will help grow native federally endangered species, such as Short’s goldenrod, running buffalo clover, Virginia spirea, and other endangered species. Work also includes propagation, such as divisions, cuttings, and seed collecting and germinating. Interns may also work in the CREW lab, which is project dependent. Interns work with native flora, including planting, pruning, watering, mulching, and weeding, establishing native gardens. Interns will also help evaluate flora on which species make good landscape plants. Interns will learn identification, cultural requirements, and various propagation techniques for native flora. The candidate will also get a working knowledge of restoring and maintaining wetlands. The ideal candidate will be hard-working with a sincere interest in further developing their horticultural knowledge and skills in a public garden setting and students who are motivated to take full advantage of the opportunities provided.  Must be a student currently enrolled in horticulture, landscape architecture, ecological restoration, or a closely related field.  A knowledge and passion for plants are required; a positive attitude is a must to join our team!

Job Duties for Intern (Bowyer Farm):

• Nursery Assistance – occasional watering, weeding, moving plants, assisting with winterization, and propagation methods will be taught. May work with various endangered species projects. Work with over 300 species of native plants.
• Landscape Maintenance – mulching tree rings and display areas, pruning trees & shrubs, perennial cutbacks, planting and watering new plantings. Pollinator installations as needed.
• Wetland Restoration & Conservation – contribute toward the ongoing maintenance of the wetland and prairie and assist with various conservation projects as necessary. Invasive species management, planting, seed collection, bird counts (seasonal spring and fall).
• Event Preparation – assist with set up for plant sales and other public events.
• Browse assistance – assist with harvesting and loading browse and participate in seasonal planting of small trees for future browse harvests.

This internship offers an opportunity to learn about plant recordkeeping in a unique setting. The Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden (CZBG) is home to a diverse collection of plant material, stunning display gardens, and complex immersive habitats. Using IrisBG plant collections management software, we strive to maintain a thorough record of all the persistent plants entering and exiting our grounds. Currently, this includes over 3,500 taxa. With this documentation, we generate tags and labels to clearly identify plants for the public and other garden professionals. We also use the information in these records to produce lists of well-performing plants that we can recommend to regional growers, landscapers, and homeowners. These plant lists are shared with the public through symposiums, classes, public speaking events, brochures, and online resources.

In addition to becoming familiar with the diverse taxa on our grounds, the intern will learn about the many aspects related to plant recordkeeping: collection and entry of accurate taxa information into our IrisBG database from diverse sources (including data collected on the grounds of the CZBG), correction of taxa information, accessioning, updating existing accessions, deaccessioning, plant label production and placement, mapping, and inventorying. The intern will be able to sharpen their skills in Microsoft Word, Excel, and Publisher. The intern in this position will also have opportunities to attend educational events and field trips, and to shadow other gardeners in the care of the plants within the landscape.

The ideal candidate will possess a knowledge of and passion for plants, the ability to identify many plants to at least a genus level, flexibility to perform various tasks, and a positive attitude. Students currently enrolled in Horticulture, Environmental Sciences, or a closely related field are encouraged to apply.

This internship offers a unique opportunity to participate in one of the region’s most expansive plant trialing programs. The Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden is home to a diverse collection of plant material, stunning display gardens, and complex immersive habitats. Since 2002, the Zoo’s Best Plant Trails program has endeavored to trial new cultivars of annuals, perennials, shrubs, and trees in landscape settings to inform homeowners, landscapers, and urban planners of valuable plants for use across the landscape. During the past 20 years, we have trialed thousands of plants throughout approximately 70 acres of garden space. Our trials program evaluates plants from the country’s leading breeders and reports performance findings back to these companies. We also generate lists of well-performing plants and recommend these to regional growers, landscapers, and homeowners. Plant lists are shared with the public through symposiums, classes, public speaking events, brochures, and online resources.

The intern in this position will have the opportunity to familiarize themselves with a great diversity of plant material, gain insight into the path a plant takes from breeding to its release on the market, and impact the plant selections that are recommended through our Zoo’s Best Plant Trialing Program. Day-to-day tasks of this internship include a variety of computer-based tasks including plant trial data entry and analysis, labeling photos, creating various photo PowerPoint documents, taking part in plant trials, taking part in pollinator trials, assisting with the assembly of an annual report and Zoo’s Best List for plant breeders, and aiding with the organization of plant lists and labeling. The intern will also have opportunities for hands-on learning including checking in and organizing annual plants as they arrive, seasonally assisting with the care of display and trial plants (tropicals in the winter, annuals in the spring & summer), labeling various types of spring blooming plants, and assisting with seasonal events. The intern in this position will also have the opportunity to attend educational events as they arise and to shadow other gardeners in the care of the plants being trialed.

The ideal candidate will possess knowledge and passion for plants, flexibility to perform various tasks, and a positive attitude. Students currently enrolled in Horticulture or a closely related field are encouraged to apply.

The Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden is seeking a World of the Insect intern that will assist keepers in the daily husbandry and maintenance of over 60 invertebrate species.  As World of the Insect was the first building in the United States dedicated solely to displaying invertebrates in 1978, this opportunity is incredibly unique.  The building is regulated by the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service and Plant Protection and Quarantine.  The selected intern candidate will be working hands on with our American Burying Beetle local conservation program, various SWARM (Safety Web for Arthropod Reproduction and Management) species, our butterfly aviary, aquatic invertebrates, and many more including katydids, ants, beetles, millipedes, cockroaches, mantids, walking sticks, arachnids, true bugs, and grasshoppers. The ideal candidate for this position exhibits an eagerness to learn, enthusiasm for the species under our care, is a team oriented-respectful individual, with a mindset to work hard and have fun.

Interns will complete a 14-week internship and leave the program with the skillset needed to successfully become a zookeeper. Time will be spent in both the Night Hunters building and Cat Canyon. 

Night Hunters is home to the following species: aardvark, aardwolf, Arabian sand cat, binturong, black-footed cat, common vampire bat, fennec fox, Indian flying fox, large-spotted genet, ocelot, Pallas’s cat, potto, ringtail, southern three-banded armadillo, and tawny frogmouth.  

Cat Canyon is home to the following species: cougar, Malayan tiger, and snow leopard. 

Tasks & learning opportunities include, but are not limited to: 

• Cleaning and preparing various habitats and animal spaces 
• Diet preparation 
• Choosing and distributing enrichment 
• Interns may complete projects including designing enrichment and documenting animal behavior through ethograms 
• Assisting keepers with various other husbandry tasks 

Please check out the following links to learn more about the habitats and the animals in our care here: 

• Night Hunters 
• Cat Canyon

Interns will complete a 14-week internship and leave the program with skill sets to become successful zookeeper. Time may be split between Jungle Trails (7 weeks) and Primate Center (7 weeks) or in a single area for 14 weeks.

Jungle Trails cares for the following species: bonobo, orangutan, aye-aye, sifaka, potto, pygmy slow loris, galago, guenon, Angolan colobus, saki monkey, howler monkey, Mueller gibbon, white-handed gibbon, and several bird species.

Primate Center cares for the following species: gorilla, ring-tailed lemur, black and white colobus, buff-cheeked gibbon, and siamang gibbon.

Tasks & learning opportunities include but are not limited to:

• Cleaning and preparing various habitats and animal spaces
• Diet preparation
• Making and distributing enrichment
• Exposure to operant conditioning training
• Enrichment and habitat re-propping projects
• Animal behavior observation and data collection
• Assisting keepers with various other tasks

Please check out the following links to learn more about the habitats and the animals in our care here:

• Gorilla World
• Gibbon Island
• Lemur Lookout
• Jungle Trails

This internship aims to provide interns with basic husbandry skills of birds, public speaking opportunities, and observations of training in a show setting. Interns at the Wings of Wonder will be able to learn husbandry and animal training in a fast-paced environment. During the summer, we have a Bird Experience twice daily, five days a week. Individuals must be self-motivated and willing to engage with the public.

The Wings of Wonder Team cares for various animals such as Macaws, Amazons, Eagle, Hawk, Falcons, Owls, Vultures, Cockatoos, Hornbills, Pigeons, and Rats.

Tasks and responsibilities include but are not limited to:

• Must be able to lift 50 lbs and work in all weather conditions (Especially heat.)
• Must be able to follow directions and balance multiple tasks.
• Cleaning, disinfecting, and preparing animal spaces.
• Provide crowd management and public interactions in the theater.
• Choosing and distributing enrichment, as well as actively observing animal behaviors.
• Interns will complete a project assigned by the intern coordinator.
• Assisting keepers with various other tasks

Please check out the following link to learn more about this department and internship here: Wings of Wonder