Cambridge University Veterinary Zoological Society

Preclinical and Clinical EMS Ideas

CUVZS is currently putting together a database of places to see preclinical and clinical EMS relating to exotic species. Below are a few ideas, with reviews from people who have been on the placements in the past. If you would like any more information on the placements, please email us, and we will pass on what information we have.

If you have been on a placement involving exotics, please let us know and we will add it to our database.

Preclinical exotic placements

Woburn Safari Park - "This counts as preclinical farm work. They're really great, look after you well, tell you loads of interesting stuff and give you some responsibility."

Whipsnade Wild Animal Park - "The placements are a minimum of two weeks, and you will be put in one section to work with the keepers. The keepers tell you lots of useful stuff".

Chester Zoo - "This is the best zoo I've seen. They're very professional and really into conservation around the world. Minimum placement wwith keepers is one month and the put you on a single section. Apply well in advance!"

OuTrop - "I spent the summer of my second year working with OuTrop, an orang-utan conservation group working in the jungle of the Sebangau National Park, near Palangka Raya in Borneo. They run 6-week volunteer programmes every summer, and I was allowed to count 4 weeks of it towards my preclinical EMS quota. Most of the work is jungle ecology monitoring, including surveys to count orang-utan nests, plot work to assess forest regrowth, and biodiversity studies on beetles, butterflies, small mammals etc. They also have wild orang-utans and gibbons in the Sebangau, and the ones near camp are habituated so behavioural data can be collected, and volunteers may have a chance to help with that too. From personal experience it would come highly recommended!"

Clinical exotic placements

Edinburgh Vet School Exotics Dept - "You join the final year students on their exotics rotation, and get to spend one day a week at Edinburgh Zoo with the vet. Thoroughly recommended."

Great Western Referrals, Swindon - "An avian and exotics first opinion and referral service run by Neil Forbes. There's an emphasis on birds, particularly birds of prey, but you'll also see rabbits, chinchillas, guinea pigs, reptiles etc - anything that's not a cat or dog. Highly recommended."

Whipsnade Wild Animal Park - "You can spend time with the zoo vet as part of your clinical EMS. The clinical students I met while I was there were having a great time, although I haven't been as a clinical student."

Chester Zoo - "Their vet is very well respected so I'd imagine clinical EMS would be really enjoyable but lots of competition with Liverpool vets. They do loads of veterinary stuff (although much of it is PM) so worth doing if you're into that sort of thing."

EcoAfricaExperience - "It's more of a conservation thing, based at a game reserve in South Africa near Port Elizabeth called Shamwari and another near cape town called Sanbona. It's a specific student program, run by a couple of rangers on the reserve who spend all day with you. It's great fun and you get to do some work with the born free foundation and the wildlife vet out there (a bit of game capture but nothing like the game capture school) as well as get time to see bits of SA. Have to be careful though as they might try and talk up the vet side of things and although you will get called to any interesting vet stuff, the majority of what you do is conservation work (everything from exotic plant removal and road repair to rhino darting and elephant monitoring)."

Volunteer Latin America - "There is info about lots of pojects on their website. I've been on a turtle project in Costa Rica, really amazing experience, fantastic time, although actual animal experience/handling limited. But did learn lots about all sorts..."

LAVA/Pfizer scheme for lab animal practice - "Obviously not everyone's cup of tea, and there's quite a bit of paperwork/security checks etc but I found both placements very interesting, certainly something a bit different! It was good to see anaesthesia etc in small furries, the principles are the same in practice even without the fancy equipment they tend to have in lab animal set-ups. The various people I worked with were happy to discuss ethical issues etc as long as approached politely and with an open mind. They will organise a placement for you and there is some funding available for reasonable expenses."

Brisbane Sea World (Australia) - "Takes a few students each year... amazing"