Thursday Abstracts
Thursday Videos (Requires login)
Thursday Papers
Cooperative Care in Vietnam-
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Seasonal Behavior ManagementRyan Walker Bristol Zoo Full Abstract
Seasonality is a huge part of an animal’s world. Many species are seasonal breeders and a lot of our work as animal professionals is knowing at what time of year we can expect to see courtship or nesting behaviours and how best to help our animals during these periods. But do we spend enough time looking at other seasonal behaviours and the changing environmental cues they are in response to? This talk focuses on three mammal species at Bristol Zoological Society: European brown bear (Ursus arctos), South-American fur seal (Arctocephalus australis) and pygmy slow loris (Nycticebus pygmaeus). We will look at what seasonal changes would be happening in their wild lives and how we could be replicating these to better support wild behaviour in a captive environment throughout the year. Seasonal diets in bears are nothing new and this talk will use our ongoing study with our four brown bears to talk about the seasonal changes in the northern hemisphere that drive bear feeding behaviour changes. We will then expand this concept to talk about fur seal seasonal diets, what their behaviour in the wild would be for breeding and how we should let the seals guide seasonal diet changes. This talk will then ask the question ‘what species are we neglecting?’ We have recently completed a research study into encouraging slow loris seasonality, a tropical species that exhibits torpor behaviours in the wild but is currently managed in a very seasonless manner in captivity. |
Featured Speaker
On the Path to Empathy:
Best practices in fostering empathy
for conservation action
Jess Thompson
Henry Vilas Zoo
Empathy can be a powerful tool in advancing positive social change. Current research shows that there is a strong connection between people feeling empathy for animals and their likelihood of taking action on behalf of wildlife. Since 2018, the Advancing Conservation through Empathy (ACE) for Wildlife Network has brought together a small group of zoos and aquariums to pool best practices for intentionally fostering empathy. We’ll explore what it really means to foster empathy for wildlife, and how the Henry Vilas Zoo is incorporating these practices into everything from interpretives to exhibit design to animal chats.
Live Animal Demonstration
Cincinnati Zoo
Julie Grove
Live Animal Demonstration
Tulsa Zoo
Marcie Tarvid
Chimps, mobile cardio exams
Marcie Tarvid
Chimps, mobile cardio exams
Live Animal Demonstration
Dallas Zoo
Shannon College
Tigers
Dallas Zoo
Shannon College
Tigers
Thursday Papers (cont.)
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Use of a prolonged Targeting Behavior
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How to Choose ChoiceTiffany Ploehn
National Eagle Center Full Abstract
“No, I don't want to!” Familiar words to any parent but also a familiar experience for many animal trainers. As animal caretakers, when we need an animal to do something, we have a choice: we can impose our will or give the animal the option to not engage. At the National Eagle Center, we have chosen to do just that, give the eagle a “choice”. The intent of this presentation is to share some of our experiences and important lessons learned to help others implement “choice” training for the birds and other animals within their organization. With a step by step process, I hope to help guide front line staff along with their management to embrace change and growth together by implementing "choice" into their policies in order to ensure the best practices, care and life for the animals in their charge. |
Dialogue Not Distraction- How to maintain long duration, voluntary participation with an adjustable rate reinforcementAmy Schilz and Dr Susan Friedman
Cheyenne Mountain Zoo Full Abstract
At Cheyenne Mountain Zoo, we too strive to advance intentional and enlightened behavior strategies to improve the lives of the animals in our care. We do this creating a training dialogue with them. By dialogue we mean 2-way communication in which both trainers and learners use their behavior to dynamically influence one another, including the rate of reinforcement. This approach has resulted in reliable participation in particularly long and/or sometimes uncomfortable husbandry and medical procedures such as voluntary stem cell treatments, blood collection/banking, ultrasounds, and curative hoof care. Given the dynamic nature of the rate of reinforcement that results from this dialogue, the typical textbook definitions of simple reinforcement schedules (continuous, intermittent, variable duration) appear to fall short. This approach may also give the impression that we are simply distracting our learners with a deluge of free food. However, that description also falls short of the mark as it misses the subtle changes in animals’ behavior that communicate the benefit of increasing or decreasing the rate of reinforcement delivered by the trainer, moment by moment. In this presentation, we will describe this strategy from the ground up starting with how we train each component skill in the targeted chain of behaviors with a clear ABC contingency on a continuous reinforcement schedule and then move to an adjustable rate of reinforcement in the maintenance phase to accomplish otherwise difficult behavioral goals. |
Creating Optimistic Patients Cooperative Care
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