We have quite some projects over the past 15 years therefore it is very difficult to choose between all of them. There are some that are bigger stand outs than others because they did more than just showing what we are able to do. These projects had a bigger impact in the animal training world as previously thought. We are excited to share some of these with you.
Striped Pyjama Squid
This is actually one of the newest projects that I have been involved in. Maybe it is not necessarily a project because I’m employed by this incredible company, Sea World Australia as their Curator of Behaviour Husbandry. A couple months ago the team asked me if we could train the pyjama squid to eat a different food source. Now at first I didn’t know what this animal was to be honest. I did a little research and discovered that a Pyjama Squid is a small 7-10 cm squid living in the Indo-Pacific Ocean. Cute little things. The goal was to increase their nutrition intake by teaching them to accept and eat different food sources. At first they just ate small orange amphipods which was their only diet. This was the diet we had to increase.
Our Goal
Our goal was to have multiple different food sources, but we had to think about a couple things at first. These amphipods were orange while the other food sources had a different colour. Beside the colour the pyjama squid had to be conditioned to different textures. So how did we go about it?
The Game Plan
Step 1 was all about giving 1 food source to 1 animal. This meant that the trainers had to work some motor skills for themselves. When this was established we then went over in looking for a specific behaviour from the squid. This could be anything before the food was delivered. Think about eye movements, or movement in the sand by their body etc. We then stepped it up to use differential reinforcement to even more specific behaviour to the feeding device. The feeding device was a 30-40cm pipet. Then from here we changed the food source and it’s texture. If we would freeze the food source first and then give this to them that would change the structure. We still used the orange amphipods. Then we went to a new source and backed it up with a successful food source. So far it has been great success! The question now is “What else can they do”?
This in return made us more aware about their behaviour and their potential intelligence. We are brainstorming about how we can make this project become part of a husbandry manual and how this project could increase other collections welfare at the department.
This is an ongoing project and couldn’t be done without the Team, Pablo, Zoe and Jade!
The Lion Emergency Recall
A great project which took us a couple months to complete. The question “How can we get a pride of lions to come inside whatever happens outside as a safety procedure?” Easily said than done you would say but mind you we have been training behaviours like this for years at marine mammal facilitates. Especially where they house dangerous animals like Orca’s. It wasn’t all that new. Could we bring the training techniques from the orca training system to the lions was the question? I had worked with orcas previously so I knew how that would look like. The lions were always asked to come inside at the end of the day. What we started to do was reinforce them for doing so at the right time.
The Criteria and The Call Over
We wanted to work towards a criteria time of 1 minute where they heard the signal and were inside. Reinforcing them for coming inside helped us with getting them to come in within 30 minutes to about 5 minutes. While criteria time was 1 minute we first needed to get it to that time. Therefore we trained a call over signal as well. This signal meant come to the trainer where ever you are which was different to the emergency recall which meant go inside where ever we are. Because of the call over we could bring pride a bit closer to the indoor exhibit to get easier to the 1 minute criteria. Then we changed the reinforcers we used. From here the time change came in.
The Distractions
The most difficult part was training them all these distractions they had to ignore. The goal was to get them to come inside whatever happens. Each practice had a different and a bit bigger distraction as previous ones. Think about smells, sounds, food sources, enrichment devices etc. The team planned each Emergency Recall practice so it would be different every time. Through planning and proper executions of the approximations laid out the team reached the goal quite quickly.
The Aftermath
The success we created brought a wave of excitement throughout the Zoo. More and more departments wanted to train this behaviour. Over time we were able to do this with our 21 Chimpanzees, our 4 Asian Elephants, Birds of Prey, Camels, Asian wild asses, Meerkats, Capybaras, Tigers, Asian wild dogs, Brown bears, you name it and we tried with great success. After sharing what we did it with the world this behaviour created a world wide change where zoological facilities started to think more about the importance of this behaviour. Anytime we see an emergency recall we get very excited!
A Fever of Eagle Rays
Back in 2023 when I was consulting for Sea World Australia we decided with the Shark Bay team that we wanted to increase the training program at their department. We added 7 eagle rays to the program who were housing at the predator pool in shark bay. Quite a challenge because there were many safety rules for the trainers involved. We were not allowed to pass the shallow areas to the deep end. We were also not allowed to feed the animals while diving. The big question was how are we going to do this. This exhibit was a big mixed species exhibit with a lot of different shark, ray and fish species.
The Blue Boat
We brought out the big blue boat at feeding time, all we did was using thongs to try and only feed the eagle rays. This ended up in the boat being the cue for the eagle rays to come over. From here we started to build. We added some pool noodles and a float to the boat. The reason was simple, this would help the eagle rays not to come to the blue boat at all times. Why was this important? They used this boat when they had to dive as well. We didn’t want the rays to be at the blue boat at all times. We had to make a discrimination for the rays.
Transferring the Float
These floats helped us transfer from the boat to the goal position which is a little beach at the end of the exhibit. We parked the boat next to the beach. Took the floats and slowly transferred ourselves to the beach and faded away the boat. Now we only had to fade away the floats and add a recall signal which was a metal dive rattle.
From here we started to teach them specific swim patterns. We continued them for an A-B onto the beach. The other swim pattern was to send them straight of the beach without A-B. This means that the ray either goes on the left side past the trainer or on the right side to the other trainer.
Where are we now?
At this point we can ask all individuals into a stretcher through targeting where we can touch them and inspect them. They can be given medication if needed and we can do ultrasounds. This increased the motivation from the team to see which other species could be trained. Since then more have followed with success. At this point we went from 13 individuals to 30+ new individuals who are part of their training program.
This obviously wasn’t possible with a n incredible team of trainers who keep on increasing the behaviour repertoire of these amazing animals Tara, Taylor, Amelia, Rachel, Brooke and Siobhan!
Creating More Consent With Birds of Prey
I always wondered how it is to train birds of prey. I’ve never worked with them but I had the chance to help and change the program in Sweden. They housed 2 different type of falcons, 9 harris hawks, 3 Eurasian Eagle owls and 2 Southern Ground Hornbills. Most had the little jesses on their anklets.
Motivation Techniques
As they explained me how this works I wondered if we could just change this whole process and get rid of these little things to keep the bird with you. We implemented a system based on what I knew. Motivation was the main strategy. A bird flies off means that the motivation to stay is to low. We took away all the baiting and luring practices and implemented the idea of that the bird never knew what it would get.
Stations instead of Arms
Beside that we started to think about why we have the birds on our arms? Can we just send them from station to station? With some incredible trainers who were willing to get into these ways of training they changed the whole program where animals had more options, more consent and greater opportunities. This lead into stronger relationships and a training program where we started to listen more to the animals to see what motivated them to do what they did.
Recall with Birds
To cover the risk off fly offs we used a transport box as recall. You show the box and put it down was the signal. When you went in a great reinforcer came they just didn’t know what it was.
At Zoospensefull we have a whole list with a variety of different experiences. We have worked with many species and coach trainers through challenges. These 4 are just a small handful of the experiences we have. We hope to share more of them with you in the future.
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