Wildlife Caretaker

Our volunteer program as a wildlife caretaker is very important in the project progress. We require people who mainly have a deep love for animals, no previous studies are required, people who have more experience will be designate to certain types of animals and those who do not have much experience will be responsible for other types of animals, the common quality should be to have a lot of patience and be very observant, the time the volunteer spend feeding and taking care of them is essential for the project because they can detect diseases, behaviors out of the ordinary, behavior patterns, attitudes, etc. Even before the veterinarians. The wildlife caretakers are the main and first source of information for monitoring the physical and emotional health of the animals in our care.

The project

The general problem that exists in this area of ​​the Amazon is the uncontrolled use of natural resources by unscrupulous people, which causes many losses of wildlife. All animals that come to our center were rescued from illegal traffic or hunting, as a result of this, they are orphans and very young, in some cases babies who require feeding by bottle and a lot of care and interaction to gain confidence and can adapt to a new group of the same species, this is the challenge that a volunteer is faced, cover not only food but emotional needs of animals arriving after suffering abuse and malnutrition.

Volunteer work

The volunteer program for wildlife caretaker includes the following activities in general:

• Support in animal’s rescue process traveling with the staff, ecological police and authorities to the places where wild animals are confiscated for illegal traffic or because they have them as pets.
  
• Support in animal’s rehabilitation, cleaning of each area, preparation of food and delivery of food, control of the growth and behavior of the animal to detect incidents. 
  
• Support in animal’s treatment, assistance to the vet in the administration of medicines and monitoring of animal health in quarantine or in topical. 
  
• Implementation of enrichment programs for animals, monitor the behavior of a group of assigned animals, introducing external elements to observe their behavior, to implement improvements in their environment and quality of life.
  
• ·Work in the butterfly enclosure, development of the observation and feeding of caterpillars, monitoring the plan to determine the biological cycle of certain species, and achieve their reproduction in a controlled environment. 
  

The volunteers must be mainly responsible, the work we do is very delicate, since we work with the lives of vulnerable species; it is very important for us that the volunteers has passion for their work and they have to be very observant, and can contribute ideas and improvements in the care process. All ideas and improvements that can be implemented will be taken into account and welcome. What we want is forming a team in which all volunteers from different countries leave a positive mark on the project with ideas and improvements, they will see in the future through the social networks that they contributed to the growth of the project.

What you can expect

Volunteers can be sure that the facilities where they spend their days are comfortable and is a quiet environment, which allows them to work during the day and relax or do research at night. Our team is very united, we are a young organization that has grown little by little during the last 8 years, bringing together people who love what they do and contribute ideas, whose main objective is the welfare of the animals in custody. In this project your ideas will always be welcome.

The staff of RAREC speak English and Spanish. In our team we have specialists in rescues, rehabilitation and medical treatments, they live in RAREC and they will be in charge of designating the tasks and supporting volunteers in all the activities or doubts they may have. The project directors also live in RAREC and we are attentive to all the needs of the volunteers and we will collect all the information they can give us so that their work and findings will be part of the database and protocols of the project. On the other hand volunteers will work with veterinarians and biologists in charge of primates, manatees, and others, they make their follow-up visits once a week or come in emergencies. For manual tasks such as area improvement, volunteers can rely on maintenance personnel.

We give to each volunteer RAREC t-shirts and rain boots. It is important that they bring comfortable and fresh clothes, sneakers, sandals, hats and also long-sleeved shirts and pants to avoid bugs at night.

A typical day for a volunteer begins at 7 am with breakfast. The first task of all, is the preparation of food for the animals assigned and then take them to their respective areas, this task is usually done in pairs to also clean the area where the food is left. 

Subsequently, the environmental enrichment exercise is carried out in the designated area, or the administration of medications in the case animals are assigned in clinic or quarantine. 

In the afternoon, after lunch, the feeding for the animals and the exercise of environmental enrichment are repeated. Only in the case of baby manatees the feeding is repeated 4 times a day and the case of the butterflies the change of feeding is once a day. 

Apart from this, volunteers can have other tasks that arise from observing the behavior of animals, or perform manual tasks implementing new ways to improve the areas of animals with swings, platforms, houses, etc.

On the days that we have rescues, the tasks will be reassigned so that a group can go out to the rescue area, always led by our staff.

The schedule is from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., when the volunteers wish, they can take days off for tours, they should only tell us to schedule the tasks in advance.