Gain valuable field-based experience and boost your career when you join this 6 month conservation internship in the pristine coastal rainforests of Costa Rica. Learn a range of skills from undertaking biological surveys to canoeing alongside an international team of researchers on a range of projects focusing on species such as jaguars and sea turtles.
On successful completion of your initial training phase, you will proceed to your work placement site and will work with either our team to help run and manage our conservation projects, or you will have the opportunity to work with one of our partner rainforest lodges doing wildlife and habitat conservation. Either way you will be working alongside a professional conservation team, learning from them all along the way.
Life on the Internship
Your First 12 Weeks
The first phase of your internship will concentrate on training alongside program team members. You will learn how to conduct biological surveys, set up a camera trap, species identification and practical skills such as first aid, canoeing and more.
Work Placements
The second phase of the internship will be a work placement within our team to help run our conservation research programme in the Toruguero National Park, or with one of our partner organisations in other regions of Costa Rica, where interns will be assisting in local conservation efforts and/or scientific research.
By the end of the internship programme, participants will have the skills to monitor a wide range of mini-ecosystems in a very diverse location, apply a holistic approach to conservation and return home with a range of certifications alongside valuable field based experience.
Project Details
The programme, once the rigorous training (including an obligatory first aid qualification) phase is complete; rotates amongst a series of focus projects:
Monitoring and Conservation of Sea Turtles (running March to October): Recording important conservation data on nesting for a range of marine turtle species including hawksbill, green, and leatherback.
Marine Turtle Predation by Jaguars: investigating the impact of Jaguar populations on sea turtle populations.
Jaguar, Mammal and Prey Species Abundance Study: we set up camera traps, and conduct transects that record tracks and signs in the National Park forest.
Resident and Migratory Bird Research: We monitor 30 key aquatic bird species to collect long-term seasonal trend data on resident and migratory birds on canoe based surveys.
Biological Assessment Survey (BAS): The aim of the BAS study is to identify all species of Amphibia, Aves, Mammalia and Reptilia across trails encompassing the four major habitat types around Jalova biological station, to provide important data necessary to understand and preserve the local ecology and find a balance between human needs and those of all other species inhabiting Tortuguero National Park.
