Shelby Calvin: Baby Mom Intern, Vervet Monkey Foundation, South Africa
By Josh Zaffos
Shelby Calvin approached her final year of school knowing she wanted a hands-on experience working with wildlife. As a Fish, Conservation, and Wildlife Biology major and Anthropology minor (2025), she was especially interested in studying primates and she found what she was looking for at the Vervet Monkey Foundation in South Africa.
Calvin spent six months in South Africa, Fall 2024-Spring 2025, coinciding with the season when baby monkeys are born. As an intern, “I supported the rehabilitation of sick and injured orphaned monkeys with hands-on care, syringe feeding, medication management, and close monitoring to help them recover. Once stable, I worked with the integration team to gently and safely introduce them to new monkey moms who could give them the bonds and social structure they needed.” Calvin also trained volunteers and contributed media updates.
Vervet monkeys are native to southern Africa, and researchers often observe and study them as a nonhuman primate model for understanding genetic and social behaviors of humans, including anxiety and hypertension.
Most rewarding experience
So much of this experience was rewarding, but if I had to say one thing it would be watching a lifeless broken individual slowly grow into a ball of energy. Some of the job is heart breaking, but it’s stories like this that make it all worth it.
What I gained from my internship
This internship was perfect for my studies because it allowed me to get course credit and hands-on experience doing exactly what I want to do in the field. You will never learn so much about a specific species until you work with those animals. I lived in rural South Africa with a troop of wild Vervet Monkeys, and took in rescues from all over South Africa. I now feel like I know the species pretty well! With that being said, there is still so much more to know about them and I am excited to go back and get to know them more!
From a broader view, this internship showed me that I can adapt and grow in all different situations. It taught me that I can be a leader and accomplish hard things. I can communicate and build relationships with people from all over the world. More specifically, I gained some really useful skills in rescue and rehabilitation that I can use with other animals at different establishments. I have so many connections and so many more places to go to now for this type of work.
Advice for other students
I think that everyone should take risks and do the things that are hard! It will change your life forever and ignite a fire inside of you.