March 28, 2008
· Filed under Ed-zoo-cation, Tena Tails of "Wild" Adventures · Tagged Roger Williams Park Zoo, Tena Davis, Tena Tails
I’ve been working on this entry that replied to some of the comments I have received, but that will have to wait until another day – I just got inspired! After work I went for a walk around the park. Not on zoo grounds, in the park. I took the path by the lake. I was not alone. There was a pair of muskrat frolicking in the water. That’s right, muskrats. Rats that have webbed feet and waterproof fur and spend most of their time in the water. And there they were, the first ones I’ve seen this year. Frolicking even. The grackles are back from their winter stay in the south. They are in the park (and zoo) by the hundreds. A noisy lot they are too! The red-winged blackbirds have made their way back to the park and zoo as well. Both these and the other birds that have come home are beginning their nest preparations. Conveniently the flamingos are starting their spring molt and many of these birds will line their nests with bright pink flamingo feathers!! I saw my first mockingbird of the season too. Mockingbirds are a favorite of mine as they are the state bird of Tennessee, which is where I’m from. And mockingbirds truly mock – there was one that spent a few days in a tree outside my window giving a dead on impersonation of my cat Pudge’s meow. Finally, as I was finishing my walk and heading back to the zoo to get in my car and go home a huge red-tailed hawk flew from a tree and soared right over my head. He was taking the remnants of his final catch of the day back to the nest with him. All I could do was stand there and say, “Wow”!
Often we think we have to go to far away places to see cool wildlife. All we really have to do is go outside. Walk around your neighborhood. Take the entire family to one of the many fantastic Audubon refuges in the state. Go to a pond or wetland – the turtles and frogs will be back and visible soon. Just get outside and discover all the wonderful wildlife we have right here!
March 7, 2008
· Filed under Ed-zoo-cation, Tena Tails of "Wild" Adventures · Tagged education, Environmental Education, Providence, RI, Roger Williams Park Zoo, Tena Davis, Tena Tails
So, last week I trained a fish – Stevie. Yep, that’s right. I trained a fish. Perhaps I should start at the beginning. When I first started thinking about training the program animals here I researched various animal training workshops. The Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) offers one every February at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Last year it was full. This year I made sure I was one of the first one’s to turn in my application. So for the past year I’ve been eagerly awaiting this workshop that would help me tweak and hone my meager training skills. Finally the week had come.
Day one we meet our instructors – some of the best known animals trainers in the world. It was a little intimidating I must admit but they were all wonderfully down to earth and inspiring. The excitement happened at the end of the day when we found out what animal we would be training for the week. We had all been anxiously wondering about this all day. There were three different species that were being trained: rats, alligators (baby), and fish. I got the fish.
At first I was not excited. I think I was a little overwhelmed by the question, “How in the world do you train a fish?” Quite honestly I was afraid I would not be able to do it. We got our natural history sheets and went back to the hotel assigned with the task of coming up with a training/shaping plan for the behavior we would attempt to train our animals. After reading about our fish (a couple of different species of cichlids) I came up with my behavior: at the very least I would target Stevie (our animals were all named after our first crushes, by the way) to a laser, my dream ultimate behavior was to cue him through a hoop. The first day’s lecture had prepared us to come up with realistic plans based on the animal’s life in the wild. I was cautiously optimistic.
To make a week-long story a little shorter, Stevie was fantastic. He went right to the laser and was consistently targeting to the laser and following the laser on the first day. We added the mesh tunnel and he went right into it. Stevie actually seemed to enjoy the tunnel. Every morning when I came in he had moved the tunnel to a different place. I did have trouble figuring out how to make Stevie understand going through the tunnel on cue because he kept wanting to go through the mesh to get to the target instead of through the tunnel to get to the target. My wonderful training mentor, Michelle, helped me work through any problem I encountered. I made the mistakes I always make when training and she helped me see how easily these could be avoided. In the case of little Stevie, tunnel re-arranger and mesh-pusher that he was, we came up with the plan of pushing the tunnel against the front of the tank and weighting it with rocks. This way he couldn’t move it around during a training session and it took away the option of going to the front of the tank and trying to follow the laser through the mesh. It worked! Little Stevie started going through the tunnel to get to the laser and food that were waiting for him in the middle. I started moving the laser and food back little by little. We were almost there! Stevie would soon go through the tunnel just by my shining the laser at the far end. Then, Stevie stopped eating. And got a little green around the gills. And this happened right before our final presentations. The staff took Stevie and put him back in the aquarium he had come from so he could recover from whatever was ailing him. Little Stevie was written out of the fish group’s final presentation.
You would think that the ending of the week would have put a damper on the whole fish training thing. But it so didn’t. I had trained a fish. I knew it. I didn’t need to show it off. And in the process I had learned so much from all the wonderful instructors and the other participants in the class. My original goal for taking the class was to get more technical training knowledge but I came back with so much more, including more confidence in my training skills and a training process I could use for every animal I work with. I’ve even been practicing with my cats at home – the same cats that for years have been training me instead of the other way around. Stay tuned for more training footage and updates. I’m sure there will be lots of these now that I’ve trained little Stevie.
