Category Archives: Animal Care

Student Case Study: Shore Crab Research Intern

 

Name of Student:  Madeline Kirby

Degree Subject:  BSc Marine Biology

Job Title: SCP6015 Shore Crab Research Intern

Company Name:  University of Exeter

Type of Internship:  Student Campus Partnerships (SCPs)  

What were your key duties and responsibilities during your internship?

Assisting with fieldwork in the intertidal environment. Transferring data from the IUCN redlist to an excel format.

What was your biggest achievement on your internship?

I personally became more confident with identifying European Green Crabs, and learned a lot about the scientific process and how to conduct research. As I was working with a PHD student, the work I assisted with won’t be published for a few years yet.

Were there any challenges and how did you overcome these?

Catching covid in the first week of my internship was inconvenient, but we adapted by shifting to online tasks. Other challenges were trap placement and how to maximise our catch, so we played around with the methodology until we found the best practise.

Skills Learnt: 

  • Ability to Work Under Pressure
  • Organisation
  • Time and Workload Management

Attributes Developed:

  • Logical thinking
  • Confidence
  • Creative thinking
  • Professionalism

Your message to other students considering a similar job role, organisation or sector?

My internship experience was really positive. Working with a postgraduate student was really exciting as I felt I was learning a lot about the scientific method and gaining loads of skills I will be able to take into my own research career. I also felt included and the informal approach made me feel comfortable to ask questions. I loved being able to take a more active role in research and meet other people in the field. I have also secured a part-time internship extension with the team which is exciting.

Student Case Study: University of Exeter

Name of Student:  Amelia Southern

Degree Subject: LLB Law

Job Title: Animal Behaviour Intern

Company Name: University of Exeter

Type of Internship: Student Campus Partnerships (SCPs) 

What were your key duties and responsibilities during your internship?

To assist with masters’ students’ research.

What outputs and outcomes did you deliver for your employer?  

Helped collect data and analysed videos for the publication of a master’s student’s project.

What was your biggest achievement on your internship?

There was a situation where the video analysis software was not showing consistent measurements. To overcome this, I tried to find alternative video analysis software. As a result, we found a better software that we used for the duration of the project.

What did not go so well on your internship? How did you overcome any challenges?

To begin some of the equipment we were using did not stay in place so we found alternative ways to fix the equipment so that it would not move.

Skills Learnt: 

  • IT
  • Teamwork and Collaboration
  • Problem Solving

Attributes Developed:

  • Confidence
  • Perseverance
  • Motivation
  • Creative thinking
  • Independence

Your message to other students considering a similar job role, organisation or sector?

“I thoroughly enjoyed my internship and felt that I learnt a lot from the experience. From day one I was assisting with data collection and helping with data analysis. I enjoyed participating in the project throughout and found it exciting so see all the developments taking place. I really enjoyed being part of the research team and learning new skills such as video analysis.”

Employer Case Study: Cornwall Wildlife Trust

Name of Organisation: Cornwall Wildlife Trust

Description of Organisation:

Cornwall Wildlife Trust is one of 46 Wildlife Trusts working across the UK. With the invaluable support of our volunteers, members and corporate supporters we manage over 50 nature reserves, including an island for wildlife and people in Cornwall. We also work with other organisations and landowners to protect and connect wildlife sites across the county and inspire local communities and young people to care for wildlife where they live.

We want to create safe havens in which wildlife can thrive and from which it can spread. We need to inspire people to love and care for the natural environment, and enable more people to experience, enjoy and understand it. We are a charity and rely on membership, legacy gifts and donations from our supporters and on the efforts of our 300 regular volunteers to help us make Cornwall wilder. Our vision is to bring about a Nature Recovery Network to bring back Cornwall’s wildlife.

Name of Employer: Abigail Crosby

Job Title: Marine Conservation Officer

Internship Scheme usedAccess to Internships (A2I)

Feedback:

“Our intern became an extremely valued member of the team, as she efficiently carried out her duties within the Marine Stranding’s Network project. As a result of her work, the project now has a well-recognized and highly followed social media presence including Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

She also played a key role in the production of our annual 2019 MSN report. She helped process thousands of MSN records. The student created several monthly Mailchimp newsletters to help communicate with our network of trained volunteers. I also really appreciated the intern assisting me with the training days, it was a massive help. A huge thank you to our intern for her fantastic work.

I would highly recommend the internship schemes The University of Exeter has to offer. The process was fairly effortless and for little administration we were able to support a fantastic student who carried out some incredibly useful work for the Trust. She was a brilliant support to the team, and we are very grateful for her time.”

International E-Marketing – Cinderhill Farm

What were your main roles and responsibilities during the course of your internship?

My main responsibility was to research the potential market in the Netherlands. I had to research different routes to market as well as who the consumer would be, if there would be a demand for this kind of product and any potential competitors.

What would you say was your biggest achievement over the course of your internship?

As the internship was taken remotely, working independently for 8 hours a day was something I struggled with but ultimately managed to achieve.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

I believe I provided my employer with a solid foundation to explore the Netherlands as an export opportunity.

What skills were you able to develop through the internship?

Organisation, time and workload management, strategic planning

Cognitive Abilities of Grey Squirrels Intern – University of Exeter

What were your main roles and responsibilities during the course of your internship?

Coding videos and preparing the different nuts for the experiment and placing the cameras and replenishing the nuts in the apparatus.

What would you say was your biggest achievement over the course of your internship?

I learned a lot in terms of analysis of data collected from animals and in particular using a Behaviour Observation software which has made me more confident in my ability to analyse different types of data in different circumstances.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

I managed to help with creating a buffer of chopped nuts so that more time could be spent for marking the squirrels and analysing the information, I completed a third of the video analysis of the project which alleviated the workload of the other team members by leaving them to do only two thirds of the analysis.

What skills were you able to develop through the internship?

Teamwork and collaboration, ability to work under pressure, IT

What attributes were you able to develop through the internship?

Confidence, initiative, motivation

Research Support Intern – University of Exeter, Penryn

What were your main roles and responsibilities during the course of your internship?

Maintaining incipient termite’s colonies by adding wood to feed them, and water and moist cloth to keep the colonies from drying out. I monitored them as they grew, changing their containers when needed.

What would you say was your biggest achievement over the course of your internship?

Until recently, I had never had to independently maintain a study species in the lab before outside of my own degree. I had a lot of responsibility on my shoulders, and I did not take this lightly, taking steps to plan in advance when I was away or as colonies developed to make sure they were stable.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

They now have stable lab kept termite colonies for use in their research, which may not have been possible without me due to their commitments over this summer.

What skills were you able to develop through the internship?

Assessing and managing risk, decision making, degree specific skills

What attributes were you able to develop through the internship?

Perseverance, independence, work ethic

Animal Care Assistant – RSPCA

What were your main roles and responsibilities during the course of your internship?

Monitoring the welfare of all animals in the care of the RSPCA Cornwall branch. This included dogs of many different breeds, cats, and wildlife. I was also responsible for maintaining a high standard of cleanliness in various kennels and cages. I helped to carry out health checks, pre-adoption checks and sat in on vet rounds. I was also involved in enrichment for the animals, which involved walking the dogs and playing with the cats and kittens.

What would you say was your biggest achievement over the course of your internship?

I was able to learn what it was really like working in the animal sector, which has really helped me to think about my future career. I feel I became more independent over the course of my internship, finding I was able to take initiative if faced with a problem.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

The staff are stretched very tightly at the moment and I feel I was able to make the hours when I was there less stressful for them. Some days I was responsible for cleaning entire blocks by myself which meant that the member of staff who would usually do this was able to sort out any problems or urgent paperwork.

What skills were you able to develop through the internship?

Ability to work under pressure, organisation, time and workload management

What attributes were you able to develop through the internship?

Initiative, independence, work ethic

Research Assistant – University of St Andrews

What were your main roles and responsibilities during the course of your internship?

My role was to assist primarily with the data collection aspect on a project studying working memory in New World monkeys. Every day I tested brown capuchin monkeys on their ability to remember the location of food items in the specialist research facility at Edinburgh Zoo. I also assisted with reliability coding of data already collected for different projects and collected long term, observational data on chimpanzees.

What would you say was your biggest achievement over the course of your internship?

I learnt how to work with capuchin monkeys in close proximity and conduct experimental, cognitive research with them. This is an extremely valuable skill for me and is a very rare opportunity to have. It will aid me immensely with a future career and further education in the field of primate research.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

As I was responsible for the data collection on this project, this allowed the principle investigator (PI) to have more time to carry out other tasks he would otherwise not have had the time to complete. My presence was also beneficial when the PI was unable to carry out data collection himself due to time away from the research site. I also spent a lot of time entering data on another project which no one had time to do before I joined.

What skills were you able to develop through the internship?

Assessing and managing risk, IT, research

What attributes were you able to develop through the internship?

Confidence, initiative, perseverance

Animal Care Assistant – The Flicka Foundation

horse

What were your main duties and responsibilities during the course of your internship?

I was responsible for making up feeds and administering medication to horses and donkeys, and turning out and bringing them in from fields. I also did general yard tasks such as mucking out stables and sweeping. My other tasks included assisting with office work, putting together adoption packs for supporters, discussing ideas for improving the site, recruiting new volunteers and the upcoming open day. I helped out in the tea room when needed. I groomed and picked out hooves which is important for maintaining hoof health. I helped train new volunteers and work experience students, particularly in health and safety, important points about the running of the site and handling horses/donkeys. I also gave site tours and leading a group visit to the site from NCS, as well as welcoming visitors to the site, showing them round and talking to them about the animals.

What would you say was your biggest achievement over the course of your internship?

I became more confident in teaching others how to work on site. This will be extremely beneficial when running the Flicka Volunteering Project associated with FXU in the coming academic year.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

I was able to lighten the workload by being an extra pair of hands around the yard. I was also responsible for training new volunteers so this allowed the yard manager to get on with her own jobs.

Marine and Freshwater Intern – Zoological Society of London

marine

What were your main duties and responsibilities during the course of your internship?

To support the Marine and Freshwater ZSL team, on the Penryn campus. Projects included literature review on the distribution and species of marine turtles in the Philippines; PET plastic bottles literature review and general support for the #OneLess project; Mangrove and beach forest medicinal properties; Artificial reefs and coral transplantation review for the Philippines.
I also attended a Marine conservation conference at the Penryn campus and a Marine Management Organisation Meeting with the ZSL team during my last week.

What would you say was your biggest achievement over the course of your internship?

I learnt and improved essential skills needed to work with an environmental NGO, such as networking, building relationships, organisation, managing work load, communicating with international environmental groups and promoting work via social media. It was great to gain experience within an office based team, instead of out on the field, which is the majority of my experience.

What benefits did your internship bring to your employer?

I was able to support ZSL Marine and Freshwater by completing small, but essential pieces of work as well as contributing to larger projects. This lightened the work load for my colleagues in Cornwall, London and the Philippines.