Bison and wildlife internship week, Montana

Detailed description:

Experience a BisonQuest wildlife internship week and join a small group of 4 to 8 other like-minded folks during one of our scheduled weeks, or get together a group of your friends and/or family of 4 or more, and set up your own PRIVATE internship week!

There are a number of studies and habitat improvement projects going on here at Wild Echo Bison Reserve. While we love having our "vacation guests", the real work and improvements on Wild Echo Bison Reserve happen during our Wildlife Internship Weeks. Some of these wildlife projects include building exclosures around important wildlife habitat, habitat manipulation, breeding bird censuses, mammal and bird behavioural studies (bison, yellow bellied marmot/golden eagle interactions, cavity nesting bird feeding studies) and bird and mammal population studies on, and near, the Reserve. So, for those of you who want more than a "typical vacation", and want to actually partake in collecting data for wildlife studies, for those who want to make the "wild" world a little better while learning about it, for those who want to be part of something bigger, then our Bison Quest Wildlife Internship Week is for you.

Accommodation: There are 2 cabins (sleep up to 5 people each) and two tipis (sleep 2 each). You will share one of the accommodations with one to three other interns (same sex). Usually we have one cabin for women and one for men. A tipi is available if a couple would like to have a separate accommodation.

At the end of our 3 day work week, we'll take you on a complimentary guided trip to the magical and fascinating place called Yellowstone National Park.

Food: Food is provided while on the Reserve (natural and organic Montana meals and snacks). All interns will be expected to assist with cooking and kitchen clean up. Meals in Yellowstone Park are not included.

You should plan on participating with the wildlife studies and projects for approximately 6 hours daily, Monday through Wednesday, although it may vary depending on weather and other conditions. Most of our work involves hiking to check on, assemble or clean out bird houses (for Kestrels, Saw-whet owls, woodpeckers, Bluebirds, etc.), studying bison behaviour, and participating in on-going wildlife studies here at the Reserve, although we do have plenty of physical work available for those of you who want to try your hand at some of the unusual jobs like cutting rails, piling slash, etc. We will teach you how to identify various plants, birds and mammals, as well as how to use the equipment that biologists typically use to census the wildlife that we work with. All we ask is that you come with a love of wild things, and a desire to learn more about them. We'll teach you the techniques.

After work activities: These may include horseback riding, telescope stargazing, 4x4 evening wildlife safaris, bison interaction experience, sweat lodge, wood fired hot tubbing, etc. (Except for the trip to YNP, the activities offered will be on the Reserve.)

All interns will be picked up from either the Bozeman airport or hotel by 2pm on Sunday afternoon. If your flight is coming in later than that, then we suggest that you fly in on Saturday and stay at a Bozeman hotel where we can pick you up on Sunday. All interns should make reservations with a hotel in Bozeman for their return on Friday evening. We will drop you off there around 6pm upon our return from the Park.

Where do we stay in Yellowstone National Park? During the scheduled weeks, we are able to make reservations far in advance so you will usually be staying at cabins inside the Park. If they are not available for some reason, then we will stay in accommodations near the Park boundary. All accommodations are planned for double occupancy and will be added to the price of your vacation. Single accommodations may be available upon request. We will book lodgings in YNP and will add the cost to your vacation (usually around $50 depending on what accommodations are available when we book)

Itinerary:

Sunday: You’ll be picked up from the Bozeman airport or your hotel by 2 pm and head up to Wild Echo Bison Reserve. To begin your journey into the world of the bison, we will stop for a picnic lunch at Madison Buffalo Jump State Park before heading on to Wild Echo Bison Reserve.

Monday through Wednesday: We will work about 6 hours daily on wildlife and/or bison projects. These studies are varied and dependent on the time of year, but we do keep them fun and none of them will be physically exhausting. We will work on at least one different project daily, so you will be exposed to a variety of studies and types of projects that a wildlife reserve requires to keep it up.

Thursday and Friday: After our 3 days of wildlife studies and projects here on the Reserve, we will take you on our Yellowstone National Park Overnight Tour.

All interns must be 16 years and older and minors must be accompanied by a legal guardian.

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