Animals and Their Trainers: A Good Team

By Sara F. Shacter

Ever wish you could speak to a sparrow, chat with a cheetah, or babble to a baboon? Then think about becoming an animal trainer. Brett Smith is a trainer at Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo. He says training animals is almost like talking to them.

In a zoo or aquarium, an animal and its trainer are a team. Trainers learn to read their animals’ behavior to figure out what each animal wants and needs. Animals learn to cooperate with their teachers. This teamwork makes it possible for each animal to live comfortably and get the best care.

For everyone’s safety, trainers need to teach animals how to behave during a checkup. Do visits to the doctor’s office make you squirm? Imagine trying to examine a squirming, trumpeting elephant! Elephants learn how to place their feet so veterinarians can check them. Dolphins learn how to place their tails so veterinarians can take blood samples.

At some aquariums, dolphins are taught how to protect themselves from humans’ mistakes. Sometimes people drop things into the dolphins’ tank. In the water, a plastic bag looks a lot like a squid. But a dolphin could die if it eats the bag. So these dolphins are trained to bring stray objects to the trainers.

Because trainers and their animals spend so much time together, their bond of trust is strong. This bond helps trainers do important research. For example, a trainer might be able to get up close when a mother is feeding her new baby. That’s something most wild animals wouldn’t allow.

Fun and Rewards
How do trainers teach animals? Ken Ramirez is the head trainer at Chicago’s John G. Shedd Aquarium. He says that animals and people learn best the same way: through fun and rewards.

Mr. Ramirez doesn’t punish. He wants the animals to have a good time. When the animal does what it’s supposed to do, it gets a reward. Often the reward is food, but it can be something else. Belugas (white whales), for example, love having their tongues tickled.

Trainers believe that it’s also important to give animals the chance to play. New sights, sounds, and experiences keep animals’ minds and bodies healthy. At the Shedd aquarium, dolphins enjoy watching their reflections in mirrors. One dolphin looks at herself for hours. At the Lincoln Park Zoo, lions play with piñatas. The lions rush up, smack their prey, and jump away. Once they’re sure the piñatas won’t fight back, the lions rip them open. They find the food or bone inside and make shredded paper their new toy.

Training animals takes time and patience, but the rewards are huge. Ken Ramirez says a trainer is an animal’s “parent, doctor, playmate, and best friend.” Animals may not speak our language, but they have much to tell us.

Who’s Training Whom?
Ken Ramirez once worked with a dolphin that could always find a piece of trash in his tank, even when the pool looked clean. The dolphin earned a fish reward for each piece of trash he turned in.

Soon the trainers became suspicious. They began saving everything the dolphin found, from bags to newspaper scraps. When they noticed that the newspaper scraps fit together, they realized what was going on.

The dolphin had found a little nook in the tank, perfect for storing trash. When he wanted a snack, he’d grab some garbage and turn it in for a treat.

Smart dolphin!