Zoo Work Experience/ Placements and Volunteering Opportunities
If you are passionate about wildlife conservation or zoology, Battersea Park Children's Zoo offers opportunities for work experience placements and volunteering.
About our placements
Please read this section before applying and consider carefully if a placement is right for you.
It is our aim to show the reality of being a zookeeper in a modern zoo. You will assist in many tasks relating to animal husbandry and zoo upkeep. These tasks may include the following:
- Cleaning enclosures (this takes up the majority of the day)
- Zoo upkeep - this will include washing windows, weeding, bark chipping, leaf collecting and pond cleaning.
- Helping to prepare and distribute food. This also includes sorting food deliveries.
- Maintaining our keeper areas eg. feed rooms, yards and hay barn.
- Preparing, distributing and cleaning enrichment devices.
- You may get the chance to observe training sessions, basic veterinary care, health monitoring (eg. weighing). These opportunities do not always arise and cannot be guaranteed.
We mainly care for animals that do not enjoy or tolerate close human contact - if you are expecting to be handling, grooming or playing with animals then this is not the placement for you.
Zoo keeping is a physically demanding role and you must be prepared to be on your feet for the majority of the day. Elements of the role require heavy lifting and so a moderate level of fitness is required. You must also be prepared to be outside in all weathers and occasionally may have to work in areas with high temperature and humidity.
We work in an environment that exposes us to many known allergens including (but not limited to) nuts, wheat, eggs, crustaceans etc. This also includes environmental allergens such as pollen, hay, dust, animal fur etc. Please consider this in your application.
How to apply
We have a limited availability for work experience, and therefore placements are subject to an application process.
- For Autumn term volunteering (September to End December) Deadline: April 1st
- For Winter term volunteering (January to End April) Deadline September 1st
- For Summer Term volunteering (May- End Aug) Deadline January 1st
We also occasionally consider government industry placements (one day a week for a year) but this is subject to interview and is not always available.
To apply for a block placement, please send:
- A CV
- A selfie style video which lasts no longer than 1 minute, where you answer the following questions:
- Why do you want to do a placement at Battersea Park Children's Zoo?
- What are your career aspirations?
Please note we only accept video applications, no cover letters accepted.
Please apply via email containing a link to the video (we only accept applications directly from the applicant) to animals@batterseaparkzoo.co.uk Lizzy Humphries
GDPR: No videos will be downloaded and emails will be deleted within 30 days of receipt.
We receive a high volume of applications so if you have not received a reply within one month of the deadline for the season in which you are applying, then please assume your application has been unsuccessful.
Sign up to our newsletter
Join our mailing list in order to keep up to date with Zoo news and special offers.