Your experience will be rotational and dynamic, reflecting the realities of fieldwork, weather, animal needs, and ongoing conservation projects. Some days may be research-heavy, while others may focus on wildlife care, enrichment, trail work, field skills, or jungle-based exploration.

On the research side, interns may participate in camera trap deployment, maintenance, data retrieval, and image review; primate monitoring and monkey follows; biodiversity surveys; wildlife observation; night walks; moth and insect light trapping; field data recording; and exposure to ecological monitoring methods. Interns may also learn practical field skills such as using a GPS, navigating forest trails, maintaining trails, and safely using a machete for fieldwork and site maintenance.

Interns also gain exposure to Hoja Nueva’s broader applied conservation and community work. Our conservation model extends beyond the forest and rescue center into surrounding communities of the Las Piedras region, where we support environmental education, community infrastructure, waste management, water solutions, and One Health initiatives. Recent work includes helping build the first secondary school serving several remote communities, supporting environmental education programs, developing an arts and sciences room and library, and participating in community health efforts such as dog and cat deworming, vaccination, and rehoming campaigns.

Intern participation in community-based work depends on timing, project needs, and local schedules. However, these initiatives are central to understanding conservation as it actually happens on the ground: through wildlife protection, research, education, public health, and long-term relationships with local communities.

On the wildlife rehabilitation side, interns support the daily work of our rescue center. Immersive interns typically go to the rescue center four mornings per week, where they may help prepare species-specific diets, design and build enrichment from natural jungle materials, clean and maintain spaces, observe animal behavior, and support the care of non-releasable sanctuary animals. This allows interns to contribute meaningfully while respecting Hoja Nueva’s strict ethics around rehabilitation, rewilding, and minimizing contact with animals that may be candidates for release.

The internship also includes weekly presentations or discussions led by members of the Hoja Nueva team. These may cover topics such as tropical ecology, wildlife rehabilitation, camera trapping, rewilding, conservation challenges in the Amazon, animal behavior, field methods, or applied conservation work.