Laboratory Animal Behavior Intern

Laboratory Animal Behavior Intern

Location: Lincoln, NE

Internship Summary: This internship is structured to accelerate your development as a laboratory animal clinician/scientist with a behavioral lens. By the end of the program, you will have built meaningful hands-on experience inside one of the world's leading animal health companies — and you will have contributed to it in a real way. Your project, grounded in the clinical application of behavior and animal welfare, will be a direct expression of Zoetis's purpose: nurturing our world and humankind by advancing care for animals. What you learn here, and what you leave behind, will matter.

Internship Job Duties:

• Complete a mentored project focused on a clinical behavioral welfare challenge or project of your choosing—developing a practical solution and presenting your findings to the program team.
• Observe and participate in behavioral welfare assessments alongside supervising laboratory animal veterinarians, learning to identify species-typical vs. abnormal behaviors in rodents, companion animals, agricultural animals, and other laboratory species.
• Shadow and assist with the evaluation of environmental enrichment strategies and low-stress, positive reinforcement-based handling protocols under direct veterinary supervision.
• Participate in clinical rounds with the veterinary team, gaining exposure to behavioral assessments, humane endpoint recognition, and welfare-based clinical decision-making.
• Assist in the collection and organization of behavioral welfare data using digital tools, contributing to program metrics that support continuous welfare improvement.
• Participate in staff enrichment and training activities, gaining experience communicating behavioral science concepts to animal care technicians and husbandry teams.
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Internship Qualifications:

Education and Experience (required):

• PhD in Behavioral Animal Science
• DVM or VMD degree from an AVMA-accredited institution.
• Demonstrated interest in laboratory animal medicine, including eligibility or intent to pursue ACLAM board certification; prior laboratory animal medicine coursework, externship, or clinical rotation experience is a plus.

Knowledge and Skills (desired):

• Foundational knowledge of animal behavioral science, including normal and abnormal behavior patterns in common laboratory species.
• Interest in the clinical—rather than purely research—application of behavioral medicine: welfare assessment, enrichment, low-stress handling, and patient-centered care.
• Basic familiarity with behavioral welfare assessment frameworks such as the Five Domains model or grimace scale methodology.
• Experience using digital tools and applications including, but not limited to, Microsoft Outlook, Excel, Power BI or comparable platforms for data organization and presentation.

The following hourly pay rates reflect the anticipated base pay for this position:

If the selected candidate is a student pursuing an Associate-level degree: $16.00 per hour

If the selected candidate is a student pursuing an Undergraduate-level degree: $22.00 per hour

If the selected candidate is a student pursing a Graduate-level degree: $32.50 per hour

If the selected candidate is a student pursuing a Doctorate-level degree: $36.00 per hour

The following hourly pay rates reflect the anticipated base pay for this position if a selected candidate were to be located in California, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Illinois (Chicago area), Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Washington (Seattle area):

Student pursuing an Associate-level degree: $17.00 per hour

Student pursuing an Undergraduate-level degree: $24.20 per hour

Student pursing a Graduate-level degree: $36.40 per hour

Student pursuing a Doctorate-level degree: $40.30 per hour

Full time

Regular

Colleague

Any unsolicited resumes sent to Zoetis from a third party, such as an Agency recruiter, including unsolicited resumes sent to a Zoetis mailing address, fax machine or email address, directly to Zoetis employees, or to Zoetis resume database will be considered Zoetis property. Zoetis will NOT pay a fee for any placement resulting from the receipt of an unsolicited resume.

Zoetis will consider any candidate for whom an Agency has submitted an unsolicited resume to have been referred by the Agency free of any charges or fees. This includes any Agency that is an approved/engaged vendor but does not have the appropriate approvals to be engaged on a search.

About Us

At Zoetis, our purpose is to nurture our world and humankind by advancing care for animals. As a Fortune 500 company and the world leader in animal health, we discover, develop, manufacture and commercialize vaccines, medicines, diagnostics and other technologies for companion animals and livestock. We know our people drive our success. Our award-winning culture, built around our Core Beliefs, focuses on our colleagues’ careers, connection and support. We offer competitive healthcare and retirement savings benefits, along with an array of benefits, policies and programs to support employee well-being in every sense, from health and financial wellness to family and lifestyle resources.

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