We would like to welcome some new faces to the PRC’s Volunteer and Intern Team this summer.
Sierra Cleveland, a biology major at Duke University, has joined our animal care volunteer crew and has been working with us on Sundays. We’re so glad she’s helping us out this summer while she’s home from school!
If you are interested in being considered for a volunteer position, just follow this LINK to learn more about our exciting volunteer program.
Joining us from Elkhart, Indiana as one of our interns this summer is Tori Himes. Tori is a graduate of Santa Fe College Teaching Zoo in Gainesville, FL where she earned her degree in Zoo Animal Technology. Tori also volunteered at the Ashton Biological Preserve while in school, and aspires to someday work for a primate rescue facility. In her free time, Tori enjoys reading, running, trying new beer, and listening to new music. Since Tori lives on-site at the sanctuary in our chimp house apartment, she has really enjoyed having a bird’s eye view from her apartment window of the chimps in their playroom and listening to their various calls and vocalizations. Tori has excelled at making delicious recipe items for our primate resident’s lunch and dinner, and has taken a liking to female long-tailed macaque Ciera because she makes such interesting and fun facial expressions!
Another intern with us for the summer is Maire O’Malley, who is originally from Dayton, OH. Maire is an Animal Sciences major and is currently in her junior year at the University of Kentucky, where she also belongs to the Chi Omega fraternity. Maire aspires to someday work in wildlife rehabilitation, and enjoys running, hiking, traveling, and photography in her free time. So far, Maire’s favorite things about being at the PRC are watching the primates interact and respond to the care staff, and observing the primates as they run into their enclosure and discover all the new toys and treats after it has been freshly cleaned and enriched. Maire also really likes watching young rhesus macaque George with his seemingly endless amount of energy and playfulness, and how he interacts with his new monkey friend Saidah.
We’re so delighted to have both Tori and Maire represent the PRC as interns this summer, and hope that they can enjoy their time here and learn many skills that will help them in their future careers helping animals.
Anyone curious about our internship program should follow this LINK to learn more and see if the program could be a good fit for you!