Tropical Mammal Technician Internship

Want to learn more about Neotropical large and small mammal species, mammal census techniques, and mammal field work? Want to spend time living and learning about the jungle in the beautiful country of Belize? Want to learn field ecology skills from professional wildlife biologists, and tracking skills from local hunters and trackers? Then this is the internship for you!

The goal of this internship is to give the student various experiences in tropical mammalian field studies that will aid the student in developing their skills for a variety of future education and employment opportunities. The main component of the project will be to work with Ecorana tutors and T.R.E.E.S staff in establishing a long-term mammal monitoring project (observational surveys through track counts and remote camera sensing techniques, capture-mark-recapture for small mammals). For applicants with a current rabies vaccination, this internship can be focused mainly on bat sampling and the intern will be trained in the capture, handling, and identification of bats using mist-nets and harp traps. These baseline data will contribute to future ecological studies on mammal diversity, movement and population abundance on the T.R.E.E.S property and elsewhere in the adjacent protected areas in the Maya Mountains. Ultimately these data will feed into Belize’s National Biodiversity Monitoring Program and the Central American Wildlife Biological Corridor project.

In addition to the survey work to be conducted at the T.R.E.E.S Research Center, the intern(s) will also have the opportunity to visit other mammal conservation projects in Belize and volunteer for a few days on them, including with the University of Belize/Panthera joint project working on the Central Belize Wildlife Corridor project. In working on this project the intern will have an opportunity to trap and capture various species of mammals to be fitted with radio-collars, and practice radio-tracking them.

We are looking for interns who are independent yet willing to work in a team environment. Applicants should have a certain level of mammal identification and tracking skills and should be interested in improving their techniques for proper identification and survey methods applicable in the tropics. Applicants should have a desire for learning about the incredible biodiversity of Belize through systematic field surveys and data collection.

 Tasks

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In addition, for 2021 we are hosting two Neotropical Bat Capture and Acoustic Survey Techniques Workshops, details can be found in the corresponding poster below.

Please email your resume, application form, and a thoughtful cover letter to: info@ecorana.ca (international students) OR info@treesociety.org (Belizean students)

Application Form: Internship Application Form

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