Animal Keeper Summer Volunteer, Greater London

The Living Rainforest is inviting applications to work as a summer volunteer with our Animal Department to gain experience within a zoological environment. We are pleased to offer a placement from June 2026 until September 2026, with some flexibility with dates.

The Trust for Sustainable Living is a registered charity based near Newbury, Berkshire. At our visitor centre, The Living Rainforest, the animal collection is contained within three tropical glasshouses and consists of more than 60 species, including callitrichids, toucans, turacos, snakes, chelonians, stingrays, dendrobatids, and invertebrates.

• The primary role of the intern will be to learn daily husbandry and routines of our animal department, including feeding animals, maintaining enclosures, daily record keeping, diet preparation, and animal health checks.
• You will learn how to train and supervise existing volunteers, and participate in training new volunteers and work‑experience students.
• You will receive training and participate in keeper experiences.
• You will have the opportunity to gain knowledge of veterinary treatment, enclosure design, and record keeping.

• This is a voluntary summer volunteer placement for a registered charity, beginning in June 2026.
• This placement is unpaid; however, we can assist with reasonable travel expenses.
• Hours are 8:30 am to 5 pm, five days a week on a rota basis, possibly including weekends and bank holidays.
• It is necessary to have your own transport to get to and from The Living Rainforest each day, as public transport is infrequent in this area.

We aim to be an equal opportunities employer and we are determined to ensure no applicant or employee receives less favourable treatment on the grounds of gender, age, disability, religion, belief, sexual orientation, marital status, or race, or is disadvantaged by conditions or requirements which cannot be shown to be justifiable.