Looking for an unforgettable experience in the Amazon Rainforest that will give you practical skills for a career in the environmental field? Discover our six month conservation internship…
It’s 4.30am and the blackness of the forest engulfs eighteen-year-old Ruth Trainor as she leads a volunteer away from camp and into the Amazon jungle.
Their head torches illuminate the trail ahead but the volunteer still slides and stumbles in the sticky earth. Ruth’s feet trudge steadily, knowing every rock and root.
Despite the early hour, beads of sweat trickle down their faces as light gradually finds its way through the forest canopy and into the understory.
As the darkness slowly slips away, the forest’s creatures decide to turn up the volume. The eerie quietness of the rainforest soon becomes a cacophony of noise as hundreds of different frogs, birds and monkeys come together in a morning chorus.
By now, Ruth has already begun her Avian and Mammal Transect (AMT) survey. It’s four months into Ruth’s six month internship and her hard work has paid off. She has learnt to decode the sound of the jungle.
When others listen to the twerps, tweets, bleeps and squawks of the Amazon waking up, it sounds like a bizarre din of indistinguishable noises. Whereas in just a few short months, Ruth has learnt over 150 bird songs and can pinpoint each tweet to a species.
The volunteer is poised with a clip board and as Ruth calls out species names after species name they frantically scribble their best guess at the spelling.
Suddenly Ruth stops in the trail, she stands motionless for a long moment, before a great big grin spreads across her face and she excitedly waves her fists in the air. One of the tweets or twerps is a species that she’s been dying to hear.
What you gain from an environmental internship
Ruth decided to spend her gap year living and working at the Manu Learning Centre (MLC), a research field station run by the Crees Foundation, based in the remote south-eastern corner of Peru.
“I wanted to take a year out between doing my exams and starting university”, explained Ruth. “I was quite fussy about what I wanted. For example, I wanted it to be long term so more than three months, I wanted it to be conservation and wildlife related, but most importantly I wanted to be assured that it was not going to take jobs away from local people, as I know that a lot of volunteer and tourism projects do that. The programme that Crees offers ticked all the boxes.”
Like all interns, Ruth was trained in a variety of different survey methods and field work techniques – from monitoring amphibians and reptiles, to collecting data on butterflies, to carrying out wetland habitat restoration. But there was no question that she’d specialise in AMT.
“It’s just such a lovely survey”, said Ruth. “You go out early in the morning and you watch the sunrise, you walk slowly through the forest just listening to the dawn chorus. Then when it’s done, you sit and have breakfast by a stream. The first time I did it, I completely and utterly fell in love.”
This passion for her work turned Ruth into a confident survey leader, with an in depth knowledge that’s helped her develop a deeper appreciation for our natural world.
“I’ve grown up loving all animals but nothing in particular,” said Ruth, “it was just a general fascination with nature. But by coming here I have actually learnt specifically about amphibians and reptiles, about birds and butterflies. Knowing more definitely gives you a much better appreciation for wildlife and shows you the importance of why they’re here, why we’re studying them and why we should conserve them.”
For Ruth though, the learning doesn’t stop at survey methods and field work.
“You’re meeting people from all different cultures across the world”, she said “and they all have different ideas, both about conservation and interesting discussion points about life that you can debate while you’re walking through the forest.”
The MLC is home to about 20 to 30 people, a mix of international and local Peruvian staff, interns, volunteers and tourists. It’s a close-knit group who live and work together 24-7.
“One of my favourite things about being here is just feeling part of the community”, said Ruth. “It’s like one big family; you feel so loved and accepted.”
Ruth’s advice to anyone thinking about joining us here in the Amazon is simple:
“Do it, just do it.”