Training Updates featuring Giraffe, Capybara and Wallabies

Hello, in this blog I will be giving some more updates on the training going on at the park and how everyone is getting on. 

Capybara 

Our lovely capy’s have been undergoing recall training since they arrived at the park last year. This is a signal used to get them to come over to the feeding area, in their case a bell. This is rung each time they are fed so they know to come back to the house enabling us to health check them throughout the day. They now have access to the large lake so being able to recall them is very beneficial for us.  

They have also been trained for scales which they are very good at now and take part in monthly weighing to monitor their health.

Giraffe

Our newest members of the tower, George and Henry, have taken well to training and are both very confident which makes learning new behaviours much easier as they are not fearful of new objects. George had no hesitation of coming into the training straps and has started to improve with his target training. At first, he tried to wrap his tongue around the target stick and eat it! But he is now gently holding his nose to it and awaiting the clicker – which is really good! 

Henry has heaps of confidence and is normally very difficult to get out of the training room! So, we had no problems introducing him to new training objects such as the hoof block. I started with the small step as he wasn’t big enough for the block, and he soon learned how to lift and roll his hoof so we can get a good look. After a few months he has shot up in height and now big enough for the block, his practice with the small step paid off and he had no trouble lifting and rolling his hoof onto the big block, remaining on there very comfortably for several minutes on each foot. 

Lynx 

Roots has always been quite a shy cat and quite aversive to coming into the house. I started a training plan with Roots to build his confidence around the keepers and being inside the house. He is normally more active in the evenings, so his sessions start from 4pm onwards. This started off quite slowly by getting him to follow me along the fence with rewards along the way. We then started to go towards the house, waiting patiently for him to make that first step into the house, at which point he got a large jackpot! By continuing this daily for several months he now goes straight into the house following the keepers and is fed in the house each evening. This was a huge milestone for him and he continues to grow in confidence. 

Mandrills

Our group of mandrills have being getting scale trained by myself and deputy head of primates, Holly, and it has been a long journey for them. We started with only one being confident to go on the scales, Olive. The other 5 were very aversive of the scales so a lot of work was needed. It is important to have weights of the animals both to have an ideal weight for them and for working out medication doses. We tried putting woodchip on the scales to make them less shiny and ‘scary’ which worked quite well. This and lots of sessions later has led to 5 of the group now confidently being weighed. Just Shenzi they youngest female left to go, who has touched them briefly but still needs some persuading that the scales aren’t evil! 

Cheetahs and jaguars

Our cats are focusing on blood draw training at the moment and continue to train excellently. All training is of course voluntary and it is up to them if they want to take part, but it is very rare they miss a session! You may have noticed we have small lengths of fence running along the inside of the enclosures, these are training barriers and allow us to position the cats sideways to the fence. Once the cats are laid down in their training barrier, the cats are trained to allow us to carefully hook their tail through the mesh and hold it in place to allow for conscious blood draws, where a small area will be shaved and sample taken from the large vein in the tails. Meanwhile they receive tasty rewards and normally don’t bat an eyelid to what’s going on with their tail. The more we can do without sedating the animals the better as the procedure can be done quickly and stress free. 

Bennett’s wallabies 

I recently started scale training the Bennett wallabies who were quite nervous of going near people but with some persuasion from their favourite snacks (willow and sweet potato), they started to come closer and towards the scales. It took several weeks to get them to take a step onto the scales but now 3 adults will stand on them. 

Pigs 

Max and Achilles have been doing some station training as a form of enrichment, they are intelligent animals and giving them stimulation and something to think about is great for them. Max has the blue station and Achilles is red, they need to make their way to the correct colour and wait at them until they hear the clicker, rewarded with a yummy treat. They have learnt this very quickly and it was enjoyable watching them work it out.