Wildlife Conservation Society's (WCS's) Clinical department offers six- to eight-week externships in zoological medicine and surgery for senior veterinary students at AVMA-accredited veterinary schools. The externships take place at the Wildlife Health Center on the grounds of the Bronx Zoo. Students will also participate in rotations at the Central Park, Queens, and Prospect Park zoos. Externships expose students to a variety of clinical cases, including fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and terrestrial and marine mammals. The students will observe all facets of wildlife health care, including preventive medicine, daily medical and surgical care, clinical rounds, anesthesia, medical record-keeping, quarantine procedures, clinical pathology interpretation, and broader captive and free-ranging population conservation issues. During the rotation, students may be invited to prepare and present a topic to the Wildlife Health Center staff.
WCS's Zoological Health Program has agreements with several educational organizations to cooperate with them for their students to participate in our Externship Programs on an ongoing basis. However, as of 17 November 2022, WCS's Zoological Health Externship Programs made a decision not to enter into new externships, internships, placements, training or similar agreements with any university, college or other educational institution with which it didn't already have a pre-existing agreement or with which we will not be establishing an ongoing cooperation. Before applying for an Externship with WCS, please confirm your eligibility by checking to see whether your educational institution requires a written agreement with WCS, since such a requirement will, if the agreement was submitted after this date, result in your ineligibility to participate in an Externship at WCS. The two foregoing sentences do not apply where a pre-existing written agreement exists between your educational institution and WCS or where a new ongoing cooperation will be developed. If your school requires a signed agreement and indicates that they have an existing agreement with WCS, please contact Meredith Barton (mbarton@wcs.org) before applying for a Zoological Health Program Externship, so that WCS can confirm that an agreement is in effect.
Requirements:
- Be in your Junior year of veterinary school applying for rotations in your senior year
- Commit to 5 days per week for 6-8 weeks. Only in special cases can we accommodate students for shorter or longer periods
- Show interest in zoological, wildlife, or conservation medicine in your career
- Provide own housing and transportation
- Provide own boots or work shoes; coveralls will be provided
- Be eligible to work in the United States; if you are not eligible to work in the United States, no stipend can be provided
- To fully participate in our program, once accepted, students must provide proof of health insurance, current negative TB test, and proof of current tetanus, rabies, and COVID-19 vaccination.*
Externs who successfully complete this internship will be eligible to receive a stipend of $600-$1,200, depending on rotation duration. US work authorization is required for stipend eligibility.
*Although not required as a condition of participation, we highly recommend participants in this program have an up-to-date TB test and current vacinnations for rabies, tetanus, and COVID. If documentation of receiving these tests/vaccinations is not provided, there will be limitations in participants' ability to fully take part in the experience, including not being able to have close contact or work with some species that we care for.