“Working at the centre was amazing and incredibly rewarding. As to be expected there is little to no direct human to animal interaction unless you happen to be working with the baby monkeys. This is because the main goal of the centre is rehabilitation of these animals so they can hopefully return to the wild. Not being able to touch the animals did not diminish my experience in the slightest as I really appreciated the amount of effort the staff goes to in order to make sure everything accommodates the animals’ needs rather than their own or even the volunteers. Just being able to enter a cage full of 5 howler monkeys and closely observe their behaviour was something I never thought I would get to experience and I was happy to do my part to help these amazing animals.
I didn’t find the work too demanding and never felt overworked. I found that I had plenty of free time that I, and the other volunteers, would fill with trips to the dock or bonfires or just walks around the gorgeous area. It is worth mentioning that there is actually no internet available at the reserve but I found this a nice change and we went into Flores twice a week if we did need to use the internet. I stayed at the reserve for 4 weeks but I could have stayed longer and I would recommend this experience to anyone.”
Wildlife Rehabilitation Internship in Guatemala
