Ape Intelligence

Training is one of the most important and rewarding parts of being a zookeeper. Seeing an individual overcome struggles, and the feeling of pure joy when it all finally clicks is something I hold close in my heart.

All of our great apes are trained to present a combination of body parts. This could be their arms, backs, feet or even their noses. By training these behaviors it means that we can give all our animals thorough health checks and ensure that they have no injuries or signs of illness. We are also working on a range of other behaviors to assist with health checks which can assist during veterinary checkups. For example, open mouth (this allows us to check their dental hygiene as well as the ability to give their teeth a brush), nail clipping, stethoscope training (this allows us to check the heart rate of our animals) and also blunt needle training.

The important thing to remember is everyone’s journey is completely unique to the individual and what one animal might pick up in a few sessions could take another a little bit longer.

Orangutans

For those who have never visited the park or don’t know much about our orangutans here at Wingham, we have 4 cheeky characters. I would argue that the orangutans are the cleverest animal on the primate section and the quickest to pick up any new behaviours we introduce.

With the announcement of Awan’s pregnancy, full preparations were put in place to ensure we could monitor the progress. Awan is still working on her confidence with some training but after just a few sessions, took to ultrasound training perfectly. This was also new territory for keepers and our vet as no one had ever done this kind of training before with an orangutan. But just like everything else in the animal industry, we took it in our stride, sticking our noses into books and watching YouTube videos of other collection’s successes with similar training. We are now able to get images and footage and closely monitor how mother and baby are doing, you can catch a glimpse of this training and footage in action on our YouTube series.

Molly, arguably the biggest troublemaker in the zoo, is always keen for a training session. A key focus for Molly is her injection training which comes in handy when she receives her contraceptive implant every few years. By carrying out this vital training, it allows Molly to be safely sedated and causing as little stress for her as possible. All the training we do with animals is completely voluntary, if an animal does not want to participate, then this is okay, and we always keep training sessions as positive as possible.

Orangutans are a species that can be prone to respiratory infections and heart related problems. Male orangutans will develop large throat sacs when they reach maturity. Our boys, Belayan and Jin, have been trained to allow keepers to touch their chests and throat sacs as well as put a stethoscope onto their chests so we can listen to their hearts.

All 4 of the orangutans are also nebulizer trained which works a little like an inhaler for humans. This allows us to treat any respiratory infections that may be picked up.

Chimpanzees

Training our troop of chimps can be a bit of a mammoth task at times. Being a social species brings its own set of challenges during training sessions, and each member has different needs and goals.

One of the main training goals we currently have with our troop of chimpanzees is scale training. Some sessions are really good, others not so much but every session has its successes, and we can use these sessions to come up with ways to improve.

One of my favourite memories was when I trained Tara, Agatha and Lucas to open their mouths on cue. It was an achievement for everyone and allowed us to carry out regular dental checks to help our vet out.

Soon we will be looking at ways to introduce starter behaviours for our youngest chimpanzee, Margaret, who just at 1 and a half years old is already growing into a really confident chimpanzee and we can’t wait to see what progress she will make in the future.

By Holly, Deputy Head of Primates