Fall 2026 Wildlife Intern
Piedmont Wildlife Center is seeking a Wildlife Intern who is interested in live-animal care and husbandry practices, education, and environmental non-profit experience. Interns will gain experience in the following:
- Care for and safely handle educational reptiles, mammals, birds (primarily raptors), and more.
- Work with our Animal Enrichment Manager to develop and implement enrichment opportunities for our animal ambassadors.
- Assist with on-site and off-site Wildlife Education programs with live animals.
- Assist with daily maintenance tasks that make a non-profit run, including administration, cleaning, laundry, and tool use.
- Develop, plan, and implement a self-led capstone project (Past Capstone Projects).
This is a paid internship with a $2,200 stipend that is part-time (20 hours/week) for a minimum of 12 weeks. Most hours occur during normal business hours, though occasional weekend and evening work is available. Exact start and end dates are flexible.
Organizational Overview: Piedmont Wildlife Center is a Durham-based non-profit environmental organization encouraging conservation and inspiring people to build lifelong connections with nature through immersive outdoor education, citizen science, and wildlife stewardship.We offer year-round outdoor education programs as well as conservation-themed outreach and citizen science programs with our resident ambassador animals.
Land Acknowledgement: Piedmont Wildlife Center operates out of Leigh Farm Park in Durham County. Leigh Farm Park is a remnant of a 19th century plantation. The Durham County Park department has preserved multiple historic structures. It is extremely important that we discuss this history with our staff and campers, honor the Indigenous and enslaved peoples who cared for the land, amplify their stories, and continue learning about and examining the parks’ legacy.Please let us know if you have perspectives or resources to share - we are always interested in getting staff involved in our journey.
Primary Responsibilities:
- Carefully follow animal care guidelines to perform daily husbandry for animal ambassadors including snakes, turtles, opossums, rats, raptors, and more.
- Assist with medical care of all ambassador animals when necessary.
- Assist the Animal Enrichment Manager to create and maintain enrichment for all ambassador animals.
- Ability to assist and lead educational programs with live animals both on and off-site.
- Develop, plan, and implement a capstone project to benefit PWC and explore new skills.
- Willingness to learn and assist with all aspects of running an environmental non-profit.
Qualifications:
- This internship is designed for college students or recent graduates. A degree is not a requirement.
- Flexible schedule, but available 20 hours per week for a minimum of 12 weeks.
- Attention to detail, especially in relation to the safety and health of animals.
- Confident and enthusiastic about our mission and work.
- Dependable. Must have reliable transportation to get to PWC.
- Comfortable working independently with a proven ability to take initiative on tasks that need to be completed.
- Comfortable handling live animals (snakes, turtles, birds, mammals).
- Ability to dissect rats, mice, chicks, and other raptor food.
Schedule: Schedules are flexible and are designed to accommodate each intern’s availability. Some interns opt for fewer days per week with longer shifts, while others are here more days per week with shorter shifts. To fully experience everything the internship has to offer, we recommend that interns have at least 2 shifts each week that are 5 or more hours long.
Pay: $2,200 stipend. Accepted interns receive half ($1,100) at the start of the internship, and the remaining half ($1,100) at the end of the internship.
AI-generated application materials will not be considered for this position.
The application period will be open from April 20th to June 1st, with a target start date in August.