Training

Throughout the week I am able to watch and help train a variety of animals at the zoo.  Training is meant to alleviate stress during medical procedures, hoof trimming and other new situations as  well as to provide mental stimulation to the animals during their daily routine.  On string 1, I have helped with giraffe training, where the tasks involved and level of training vary from animal to animal.  Our most well trained giraffe responds to voice commands to move her shoulder or body in, and will pick up her hooves which allows for non-restrained hoof trimming, a rarity in zoos.  With other giraffes we work on target training and body movement commands.  For example, hands on the hips means to move back to our pushy giraffe, and the command is used to allow us personal space.

On string 2 the tortoises are almost all target trained, and some are being taught the open mouth command, in order to preform non-sedated mouth and jaw x-rays.Many of the other reptiles, such as the monitor lizard, are also in the process of being target trained, and taught other cues as well.  Training is always done at the animals discretion and if they are interested in food or treats, they will often participate and are eager to do training, those less food motivated often opt out.  I find this to be very important because unhappy and unwilling animals often make very poor subjects to train, and are even more resistant to future training.