Research and Evaluation Workshop Abstracts
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Observing to Learn - Learning to Observe Whether animals or people, behavior provides many insights with clear applications across a broad range of contexts. Behavior can inform humans about animal health, animal social tendencies, animal enrichment, animal food/habitat preferences, and overall animal well-being. Behavior can inform humans about humans watching animals, including what to attend to, whether they attend to the animals, how long they attend or stay at the habitat. The primary purpose of this multi-day work- shop is to provide attendees training on and practice with several data collection techniques that can be used to evaluate animal behavior in both spontaneous and enrichment-provided settings. The program will include a presentation on different data collection techniques and the types of questions each technique can address. Prior to the presentation, a survey will be completed by attendees to indicate which techniques they are accustomed to and have utilized at their facilities. The data from this survey will be summarized to provide perspective to the attendees. Attendees will have coordinated opportunities to practice during the training portion of the workshop. Following the training session, attendees will then participate in data collection at SeaWorld San Antonio and San Antonio Zoo.
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Followup
Dr. Heather Hill completed her bachelor’s degree in Psychology at Texas A&M University, College Station with a minor in Oceanography in 1996. She earned her master’s (2000) and doctoral (2003) degrees from the University of Southern Mississippi under the mentorship of Dr. Stan Kuczaj. Dr. Hill spent 3 years working as a research assistant at the Navy Marine Mammal Program in San Diego, CA. Dr. Hill has been teaching psychology at St. Mary’s University, San Antonio, TX since 2007 and is an Associate Professor. Dr. Hill spent the first 10 years of her marine mammal career conducting research on the mother-calf relationship and social development of bottlenose dolphins in human care. She also studied mirror self-recognition and mirror use in dolphins and sea lions. Most recently, she has been studying the social behavior and cognitive abilities of belugas, killer whales, Pacific white-sided dolphins, bottlenose dolphins, and sea lions in human care through collaborations with SeaWorld San Antonio, Georgia Aquarium, Dr. Deirdre Yeater and Mystic Aquarium, Dr. Michael Noonan and Marineland, Dr. Kathleen Dudzinski and Dolphin Communication Project, the Houston Zoo, and several other facilities and collaborators.
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