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. 
• Implementation of enrichment and training 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.
  
• Gathering of natural food for the rescued animals, such as fruit from the plantations and insects, development of the observation and feeding of crickets 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 12 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. 

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.

IMPORTANT: 

As a rescue and rehabilitation center, the species that are found at the time you choose to come will not always be the same as they were at other times, nor can we promise that you will find a specific species in rehabilitation.

We provide help to other rescue centers where there are other species, carrying out environmental enrichment for these animals in other projects.

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 adult animals need them. 

In the afternoon, after lunch, the feeding for the animals and the exercise of environmental enrichment are repeated. Only in the case of calves, recently introduced in the adults area, the feeding is repeated more times 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.

Some days we also go to nearby communities to carry out environmental education, until our Education Center is ready in a few months. After the inauguration we will also be able to provide environmental education, English classes, dance, computers, etc. to the children and young people of the communities, with the help of our volunteers.

For now, if you like, you can also support us with the painting of various animal and nature designs in our next education center.

The schedule is from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m., when the volunteers wish, they can take days off for tours, they should only tell us to schedule the tasks in advance.