Stephanie and Zoe the coyote at AVWS
We’d like you to meet our new panda intern, Stephanie McMahon. Stephanie will be arriving in Ya’An March 19th and will be working on the mate preference study.
Stephanie has always had a passion for animals (especially bears!) and conservation. A large part of her experience is in the field of veterinary medicine and animal welfare. While completing her B.Sc. in wildlife biology, she volunteered with a number of veterinary clinics and worked at a humane society. This past summer, she spent some time at Aspen Valley Wildlife Sanctuary (AVWS), which is not only a wildlife rehabilitation centre, but also a home to a variety of animals who cannot be released to the wild for various reasons. At this sanctuary, she gained a newfound interest in another area of animal health: behavioral enrichment.
During her last semester at university, she stumbled across the PDXWildlife internship posting while looking for positions that would help her gain experience in the field of conservation biology. She is excited to contribute to the giant panda breeding behavior research program because it combines her love of bears, conservation, and animal behavior.
As always, we excited to welcome Stephanie to the team!
-Meg
P.S. Our interns are awesome and highly qualified undergraduate students looking to become conservation biologists. Though we’d love to fund them, currently their experiences are self-payed. We hope to change this in the future with contributions and donations from our followers and supporters. If you’d like to contribute to our intern program donate here.
