Training Opportunities

The Wildlife Center of Virginia is a teaching hospital and offers a variety of hands-on training opportunities in veterinary medicine, wildlife rehabilitation, and education.
 
There are a variety of ways to gain hands-on opportunities at the Wildlife Center.  
 

 

Veterinary Training
The goal of the veterinary department is to advance the mission of the Wildlife Center by [1] providing professional medical care to injured, sick, and orphaned wild animals, with the goal of returning them to their natural environment; [2] training veterinarians, veterinary externs, and veterinary technician students in wildlife and conservation medicine; [3] conducting health studies on the diseases of free-living wildlife; and [4] disseminating information on health issues in wildlife to the public and policymakers.

Rehabilitation Training
Wildlife rehabilitation is the process of rescuing, raising, and arranging for the veterinary medical care of orphaned and injured wild animals, with a goal of releasing them back to their natural habitats. The Wildlife Center offers on-site training opportunities, including externship and internship programs, for those interested in gaining hands-on experience in the field of wildlife rehabilitation.

Education Outreach Training
The goal of the Center’s outreach department is to teach the general public, both in-person and online, about wildlife and to share the stories and mission of the Wildlife Center. The outreach department presents hundreds of programs each year in schools and libraries across Virginia and at the Center; the team also presents dozens of online classes through the Center’s Critter Cam and moderated discussion. The conservation themes we emphasize in these programs are drawn directly from the stories of the animals that arrive at the Wildlife Center’s doorstep every year in need of care. Education training includes an education outreach externship program, which provides students with in-depth, practical experience.

Wildlife Care Academy
Our training classes and programs provide comprehensive instruction on a wide array of topics, including wildlife rehabilitation, wildlife medicine and diagnostics, capture and restraint, as well as related disciplines regarding conservation education and organization management. The Wildlife Care Academy offers training and continuing education courses for wildlife rehabilitators, licensed veterinarians, veterinary technicians, animal control officers, biologists and law enforcement professionals, and others who may have reason to capture, transport, or care for any wildlife animal in a captive situation, either short-term or long term.