Wildlife Caretaker Volunteer

I’m a fourth-year veterinary student from Peru, and I discovered RAREC through a friend. I could only stay for a week, but I truly wish I had stayed for at least two!

From the moment I arrived, the staff at RAREC were incredibly welcoming, and I was impressed by how well-organized everything was. One of the things I valued most was meeting other veterinary students from around the world who shared my interests. Working alongside them on different tasks throughout the week allowed us to bond and learn from each other.

Beyond the hands-on experience, there were also fun activities after the workday, like a bug walk—where I surprisingly lost my fear of insects!

For anyone planning to go, I highly recommend wearing long sleeves and long work pants regardless of the weather—mosquito bites can be relentless if they decide they like you!

Overall, RAREC was an amazing experience, and I would highly recommend it to any vet student looking for hands-on wildlife experience in a supportive and engaging environment.

If you want to gain experience and work with wildlife animals rehabilitating, being part of releasing programs, support researches and take care of the animals, this program is for you. Since you show up, you will feel welcomed by everyone, people here is so welcoming and you will feel part of the rarec family. We work with values and all of us have the same goals to achieve. It is the best experience you can have. the knowlegde you will get is really important. Also we work with the communities about environmental problems and how they can minimize the impact

I volunteered at RAREC for a month. I was supposed to stay three.
Let me start by saying, almost none of the staff members there are happy. I think 1 or 2 are, and the rest are not. Most everyone leaves early.

Unprofessionalism:
-The directors will talk about firing a staff member to a different staff member, instead of addressing the issue with the member they are having an issue with. They have done this in front of numerous other workers while the worker they were talking about wasn't present.
-The communication with John and Katthya is terrible. For some reason while I was working there, Katthya would almost never communicate things to me that were important, she would instead communicate them to another staff member to then relay it to me. This caused some frustrating issues.
-General followthrough is really lacking in most areas at RAREC. This made doing my job difficult at times. You cannot trust that anything will get done that they say they will do (and you will hear this comment as a warning from many staff members).

Unsanitary conditions:
-Up until just before I left, our dinner would be cooked at lunchtime (11am/12pm) and left sitting on the counter in a warm room until we ate between 6 and 6:30. Chicken, beef, rice, etc, all left out unrefrigerated.
-While I was there, everyone got super sick (fever, throwing up, diarrhea, extreme fatigue, sleeping all day) and not once did anyone go to the doctor to get checked out. There was something at RAREC making all the staff/volunteers sick and John suggested it's because we were just adjusting to the environment. That is impossible, because a lot of those people had already been there for months, and people were dropping like flies one after the other. One person who was sick went home and was positive for e coli. AKA poop in the water. We asked them to sample the water and they lied and said they took the water sample but they actually never did. They promised to have it by a certain date, and over 10 days later, still no results. When me and the volunteer coordinator asked about it (separately) we were ignored until I followed up again.
-A rat lives in the kitchen
-The water they use to wash vegetables to be cooked or used in salads comes from the sink which comes from the lake (where our sewage drains directly into) which I was told by the director John is not treated with chemicals. In his words, the lake has thousands of gallons of water in it and tons of rainwater, essentially diluting it and making it safe.
-We also wash our hands, bodies, and plates with this water.

The animals:
-A lot of the animals are in cages that are too small for them. RAREC puts so much money into the monkeys that are likely to never be released. They don't put enough money into the animals that have a much higher chance of being released.
-I heard from the vets that they often didn't have enough food for the animals by the end of the week.
-The monkeys have been fed dog food, which I was told by vets is not good for them
-There is often not enough enrichment at all in the cages. The animal team needed rope to hang up leaves for the animals and had asked for it more than a month before getting it. This was after I brought it up and John laughed and said they don't need rope to hang leaves. Are they supposed to put them on the floor then? Shortly after this meeting he did go out and buy some rope and the staff/volunteers were finally able to hang up the enrichment.
-The animals' medicine is kept in a fridge in a place where the backup generator doesn't reach. The electricity goes out a lot and sometimes for a whole day. I was told by the vets that this medicine is no longer useful at all (according to peer review studies) after it's been unrefrigerated for a long time. This is a huge issue.

Other:
-They are not transparent with their expenses. They will not share their budget AND actual expenses with everyone. Everyone wonders where all the money goes. Some people are paying thousands of American dollars to be there and yet it took months to get simple locks for the monkey cages so they wouldn't escape.
-The director's family have a VERY nice living space on site, while ours is awful. We wonder if they pay to live there?
-If you are a long term staff member, you will have the worst of the living accommodations. Mold is on your mattress and it will grow on your backpack, clothes, etc. The short term volunteers get the much nicer rooms. Not a big deal, but still makes you scratch your head.

I stayed at the RAREC for 1 week and thoroughly enjoyed my time. The staff ( and John) were very welcoming and made us feel right at home. I got stuck in with training Johns three ponies that he had at that time, l also bottle fed a manatee. We had a couple of adventurous walks in the forest, If you get to go into the forest for a walk or two I recommend lots of bug spray! You can never have too much. This is an experience that I’ll never forget. I would recommend this project to anyone who has a love for the world we live in.

I stayed at RAREC for 2 months and I had the time of my life. This program makes a serious effort to better the world around us and to help those who can't always help themselves. Amazing people, amazing animals, a once in a lifetime adventure. The staff teaches you how human beings and wild animals can interact wonderfully together and make you understand their personalities and quirks. Never thought I'd swim with a giant river otter, get to play with monkeys and bottle feed a manatee. It has been a year since I've been to RAREC and I am amazed by all the progress they have made. I will most definitely be back to volunteer again!

I stayed at RAREC for a month and I really loved it. It was my first time volunteering and I enjoyed it a lot. RAREC is an organisation doing their best to protect the rainforest - wildlife conversation activities and wildlife rescues. Kathya, John and the team are very awesome and made me feel like home. This made it hard to leave in the end. It was a life changing experience and I am very thankful that they made this possible. It was greatful to get to know the way of living in the rainforest and support a local organisation which has great projects and ideas to take care of the environment and the animals around it. I really enjoyed working with a lot of different animals that I did not know much about before. The stuff had so much knowledge on every single animal and they knew what was needed to help them. There were so many activities like preparing the food, caring for the animals, cleaning the cages, monitoring behavior and so on. Nevertheless, one day was not like another. I am very curious about the next projects RAREC will inititate and how they will develop over time. I really hope to come back one day and see the growth they made!

We stayed a week at Rarec in May of this year to volunteer and had a great time. There are a lot of different animals that need daily care, like feeding, cleaning of the cages, collecting leaves, etc. Next to that, some of the animals really like it when you play with them. So for example we went swimming with Daniel, the otter, which was a really great experience!  The animals are amazing!

The permanent staff is very helpful and friendly and take the time to explain everything about the animals and the work that has to be done. They really do a great job and make the volunteering fun!  We learned a lot, thanks!

I spent around 3 weeks at RAREC and really loved my stay. John and Kathya, the couple running RAREC are the kindest people and really make you feel welcome. The place itself is beautifull and quiet and you really are in the middle of the jungle. No traffic no noise. They are still expanding and growing trying to make the best of the place. As caretaker you get quite a lot of freedom, they put faith in the volunteers and that feels really nice. You have some free time left in between the feedings and they really give you freedom to use this however you want as well. You can do your own thing but very often you'll still be wanting to take care of the animals. In my case 'Daniel the giant river otter' was still very young and since river otters are very social animals who need a lot of interaction most of the time was spent entertaining him :) which was al lovely thing to do and seeing him grow up trough social media is just a delight.