Zoo Internships and Summer Camps

[RatioTile]

Here in the US large zoos have education departments with community outreach programs and also summer camps for elementary, middle, and high school students interested in animals. I’ve done several when I was in high school and I really enjoyed the experience. I’ve also done zoo internships and volunteer programs that taught me a lot of animal husbandry and daily keeper responsibilities. Also there are programs for docents, where people can volunteer as tour guides in the zoo; many docents are retirees. This allows for civic participation in zoo activities and generates good publicity as well.

However, a friend said zoos in Belgium and the Netherlands, maybe in more of Europe, don’t have zoo summer camps. Is this true? And how common are education departments, summer camps, internships, and docent programs in zoos outside the US?

 

[Mo Hassan]

(UK-based with some experience of European zoos)

I don't know of any European or British zoos with summer camps. Summer camps in general are seen as an American thing (in my opinion, at least).

Education departments are common in larger zoos, and school field trips are very common. Volunteers are found in all zoos large or small in the UK and probably in Europe too, but without formal titles like "docent" or "intern" in my experience. For example, I was a volunteer and then member of the education department of WWT London Wetland Centre for a few years, which although not really a "zoo" as such, is typical of many zoos I've visited in having such resources for education.

To be a volunteer, you generally have to seek it out yourself, look for opportunities on social media, word of mouth etc, as would also apply to getting paid work.

 

[RatioTile]

(UK-based with some experience of European zoos)

I don't know of any European or British zoos with summer camps. Summer camps in general are seen as an American thing (in my opinion, at least).

Education departments are common in larger zoos, and school field trips are very common. Volunteers are found in all zoos large or small in the UK and probably in Europe too, but without formal titles like "docent" or "intern" in my experience. For example, I was a volunteer and then member of the education department of WWT London Wetland Centre for a few years, which although not really a "zoo" as such, is typical of many zoos I've visited in having such resources for education.

To be a volunteer, you generally have to seek it out yourself, look for opportunities on social media, word of mouth etc, as would also apply to getting paid work.

So growing up y’all across the pond never went to summer camp by the lake and learned archery, paddled canoes, and climbed ropes courses?

 

[Strix]

So growing up y’all across the pond never went to summer camp by the lake and learned archery, paddled canoes, and climbed ropes courses?

In the UK, we do these kind of things on long (more than a day) school trips, and never did anything related to zoos, although I had a couple of one-day zoo school trips when I was younger.

 

[Mo Hassan]

So growing up y’all across the pond never went to summer camp by the lake and learned archery, paddled canoes, and climbed ropes courses?

I did something similar I suppose but it was organised by the school and during term time so not really "summer camp" per se. Also we never called it that, in fact, I don't remember what it was called, lol.

 

[Jana]

In Czechia, each zoo is a little different.

Maybe 50% of zoos (Usti, Zlin, Decin, Pilsen..) offer summer camps for children and those places are so highly coveted that parents book all of them within minutes they go online.

Docent programs are rather a new thing, Prague started with it first, maybe 15 years ago, still majority of zoos don´t offer this. It is usually paid by minimum wage as a part-time job for uni students. Regular volunteering is very uncommon and unknown, zoos don´t want people like that at their premises due to legal reasons.

Internships do exist and most larger zoos offer them, but they are tied to formal vocational programs (3-4 years long) that educate future animal keepers and vet nurses. They are organized by the school.

Education departments exist at every zoo because this is one of the formal requirements of Czech zoo licence.

And overall, summer camps are still popular in Czechia, but not as much as during my childhood during commie time. I have attended military oriented summer camp every year since I turned 6 till start of secondary school.

 

[Jana]

A little off topic, but we have even summer camps for zoo employees. It is run under UCSZ (Union of Czech and Slovak zoos) for around 25 years. Every member zoo has a quota of employees they can send there, they form teams who fight against each other in silly games, similar to "Jeux sans frontières". Very low-cost and low tech, but people have their fun and it helps to foster informal ties across the whole zoo community here.

 

[Andrew Swales]

And how common are education departments, summer camps, internships, and docent programs in zoos outside the US?

In the UK, I have never heard of a zoo summer camp. They exist in other leisure areas (or did pre-Covid). Both of my children went on them when at school. Extended school trips happened annually when I was at secondary school, and I personally went mist-netting on the Calf-of-Man and glacier surveying in the north of Iceland, in the summer holidays. Most years there were skiing trips in the winter, usually to France. All of this is history of course.
Docent and internship programmes are very patchy, depending on legal advice largely.
Formal classrooms, education programmes and education officers have to be provided by law, even though their use declines markedly every year,and of course they have not been used over the last year at all. We'll have to see it the Zoo Licencing system is amended to take account of this trend and dramatic halt.

 

[HOMIN96]

Regular volunteering is very uncommon and unknown, zoos don´t want people like that at their premises due to legal reasons.

With all due respect, this is simply not true, many zoos here use volunteers for a whole range of jobs...some advertise it on their website, some don't, but if you ask, there is a solid chance that they will use you in some way...

 

[Jana]

With all due respect, this is simply not true, many zoos here use volunteers for a whole range of jobs...some advertise it on their website, some don't, but if you ask, there is a solid chance that they will use you in some way...

I tried +20 years ago with no positive outcome. You probably know better how current situation looks like.

 

[TinoPup]

So growing up y’all across the pond never went to summer camp by the lake and learned archery, paddled canoes, and climbed ropes courses?

Do Americans outside of tv/movies do that??