Animal Training and Conditioning Marcia Salverson

Wild Sea Precinct Manager

Welfare within Zoos Victoria

•Zoos Victoria Welfare Code 2009 Five Freedoms: 1. freedom from hunger and thirst; 2. freedom from discomfort; 3. freedom from pain, injury and disease; 4. freedom to express a healthy range of natural behaviour;

and, 5. freedom from fear and distress. • Focus on the ”state” within an animal-what it experiences

subjectively, emotionally or affectively. Changing to determining animal’s state of “happiness”

• Considered other Animal Welfare Codes, charters and

Strategies including the WSPA Universal Declaration on Animal Welfare.

ZV Animal Welfare Code aligned with animal welfare

documents of key organisations.

• Housing and facilities (enclosures, exhibits,

environment) • Nutrition (diet, water) • Animal health care (preventative health, surgery,

treatment) • Group management/social needs (single animals) • Enriching lives (enrichment, training/conditioning) • Reproductive management (breeding, supporting

decisions) • Animal encounters (ensuring welfare is met) • Duty of care (life-long plan, euthanasia) • Monitoring and evaluation (information systems) • Expertise (training, resources)

• (All of the above are included in the ZV Welfare Code)

Cornerstones of Animal Care

What Is Animal Training and Conditioning?

Developing a relationship between humans and animals to make their life (in captivity at MZ) as comfortable as possible

Teaching animals to live in the environment we have created for them e.g. where they get

their food and water from, go off exhibit etc.

What Do We Use It for? • Primary reasons-Exercise, Mental

stimulation and Husbandry (cooperative behaviour)

• Secondary reasons-Education, Research,

Conservation, Entertainment, Work animals and Sport

• In a captive environment, the most

important training tools for keepers are for medical purposes and to reduce manual handling

Capture and Restraint

Necessary skill for zookeepers •Emergency situations •Catching for general anaesthetic or medical reason •Assist feeding •Reproduction •Measurements

•Can be challenging for large animals-manual handling, health issues •Can cause injury to humans or animals

How Do We Do It? Knowing our animals:

natural history, personal history, biology, diet, behaviour, environment

Animal training involves two-way communication: studying and understanding the animal’s behaviour and trainers communicating clear messages about their expectations to the animals.

Keeping good records

BUILDING A RELATIONSHIP BASED ON TRUST

Using Operant Conditioning Techniques-a type of learning in which the frequency of occurrence of behaviour is modified by its consequences

Positive Reinforcement We use positive

reinforcement as our main training tool

Primary reinforcers include food, water, warmth-(something the animal needs to survive)

Secondary reinforcers are conditioned, such as praise, petting, play, enrichment.

Types Of Training

1. Target training-touch some part of the body or hand to an object

2. Station training-animal needs to move to a defined position for a reward

3. Scanning-watching natural behaviours and bridging/reinforcing when you see a behaviour you’re looking for

4. Mimicry-imitating

Training Equipment Treat pouches Clickers Leashes Whistles Crates Falconry equipment (gloves, lures)

Where Is It Used at MZ/Zoos Vic?

EVERYWHERE-Conditioning occurs daily eg. Aviaries, night yards etc.

Presentations (high animal training): BOP Birds Seals Elephants

Medical Examples

CASE STUDY-Tree Kangaroos

• Natural habitat high in trees greater than 2m • Started training in 1998-by 2000 established • Difficult to manage marsupial young when in pouch • Health checks, weighing, pouch young

CASE STUDY-Seals

All Seals •Blood draws, mouth checks, health checks, x-rays, weighing •Currently training to place cone over head to resemble cone of anaesthetic machine

CASE STUDY-Seals

Tarwin •Plaque build up on teeth •Mouth open, lead to brushing teeth •Recurring problem with spine, restricts mobility Silva •24 years old-in captivity since 1988 •Eye issues, resulting in cataract surgery on L eye in 2011 •Trained for eye pressure tests-required instrument to be placed directly on eye •Trained for pre and post drops-3 kinds 3 to 4 times a day

CASE STUDY-Elephants

Bong Su •Male, 38 yrs, 4800kg. All elephants now worked in protected contact situation • First major health issue in 1994, problems with foot-bone in toes, surgery to correct in 1995. Post surgery required changing foot bandage 2 x day and putting a boot on his foot. Had to present foot for keepers to work on foot • Elephant semen very valuable for species, all captive institutions able to try collecting were encouraged to do so-began in early 2004 at MZ •Semen collection intensive and involved putting him into a chute, cuffing his feet, being behind the animal, then collection itself •In late 2004 MZ granted permission to bring 3 females from Thailand to enter cooperative breeding program • Bong Su conditioned to be in with females but apparent quickly he would not breed naturally • Females had to be trained to insert semen, involved being up on 4 platforms, inserting a 2m tube for semen • Pregnancies to follow included ultrasounds and physical checks on babies, training for births also important

CASE STUDY-Orangutans

Maimunah •Female in one of 2 groups on display at MZ •Lives with male Santan, offspring Malu and Dewi (juvenile) •Has peridontal disease, has regular surgeries and recovery time •Conditioning to separate Dewi from mum for long periods of time •Training of Dewi has begun in separate situations (all orangs have health checks and know up to 30 behaviours) •Training of Maimunah for hand injections for EUA Camille •Camille injury on finger-tendons show osteomyelitis •Needs disinfectant put on wound 3 x day •Needs x-rays every 2 weeks •Training for presenting finger and holding still for application of medicine and target training of finger over x-ray plate.

High intelligence, need stimulation and exercise Spitting water-where is the food/water?

Training Game Need a volunteer to

be the animal Leave the room