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Program Animal Handling Guidelines >> Interpreting with Live Animals

From Meerkats to Mickey:
Interpreting with Live Animals

By Vik Cowan, Kris Whipple and Jackie Ogden

Abstract

Many facilities with living collections use live animals as ambassadors for communicating their educational messages. Both the San Diego Zoo (SDZ) and Walt Disney World [Disney’s Animal Kingdom (DAK) and Discovery Island Zoological Park (DI)] use diverse collections of live animals to communicate conservation messages to their guests. One thing that makes these facilities unique is an audience that includes a large number of tourists, including many international guests. This session will review the goals of these programs, animal acquisition and collection plans, animal training and protocols, and the themes and programs utilized at these institutions.

Key Words: animals, zoos, protocol, training, themes, animal ambassadors

Introduction

Facilities with living collections range from those that classify themselves as museums, zoological parks, and theme parks. The common element among these institutions is the role of live animals as ambassadors for communicating their educational messages. Many such facilities further use “handleable” animals as part of presentations to convey these messages. There is substantial literature that indicates that the use of live animals increases the effectiveness of communicating educational messages and influencing attitude change (e.g., Morgan and Gramann, 1989). Both the San Diego Zoo (SDZ) and Walt Disney World [Disney’s Animal Kingdom (DAK) and Discovery Island Zoological Park (DI)] use diverse collections of live animals to communicate conservation messages to their guests.

Departmental structure

Each facility has structured their departments in a way that meets their specific programming, animal and staffing needs. At the SDZ, the Education Department and Children’s Zoo have a long-standing relationship. One section of the Children’s Zoo includes animals utilized specifically for education purposes. Animal keepers maintain the area and train both the animals and the educators who handle them. The animal keepers also present animals for various programs. At DAK, all of the education animals are cared for by animal keepers located at Conservation Station, where most animal presentations for park guests occur. These keepers are also responsible for handling and training the animals, as well as actually performing the presentations. The education department at DAK is allowed to handle a very select group of animals that has been acquired solely for student programs and is housed separately. At DI, education animals are cared for by keeper staff but are trained and handled by the education staff.

Acquisition and Collection Plan

The education animal collections at these facilities include a variety of exotic and domestic animals. These animals are acquired in a variety of ways, in each case following their institution’s animal acquisition policy. For example, animals may be donated to our facilities by organizations that have confiscated illegally owned or transported animals; these organizations might include the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) and the Department of Game and Fish. Further sources for collection animals include wildlife rehabilitation organizations, private breeders, and facilities that have been accredited by the American Zoo Association. Animals may be acquired that have been hand-reared, either at our facilities or elsewhere; these animals may be unable to return to their social groups and/or may not be necessary to the respective collection.

In all cases, keepers provide input into the acquisition and collection planning process. At each facility, this process includes criteria such as availability of appropriate housing and programming needs. At DAK, the collection planning process has identified additional acquisition criteria including: 1) safety (e.g., both in terms of individual characteristics, and the ability for the animal to be used/handled by more than two people); 2) conservation message value (e.g., either a local species or naturally found in critical conservation areas; 3) representation of a variety of taxa, with mammals not primarily featured; 4) that acquired animals be behaviorally comfortable in a stage setting; and 5) that they be capable of demonstrating an interesting and educational natural behavior during a presentation.

At Discovery Island, a collection plan was recently established for the education collection. This plan included the development of collection goals that are tied into the education mission, as well as acquisition guidelines and protocols. This plan insures that all acquisitions will help effectively promote Discovery Island’s education mission, while also meeting their specific programming, staffing and housing needs.

Training

Each facility spends considerable time evaluating a new arrival and initiating handling procedures. The animals used as handleable animals in these programs are conditioned to be comfortable around people. Formal conditioning, or training, is used more infrequently. The majority of animals may be glove, leash, and/or crate trained. Of these facilities, only DAK regularly includes more formal training for their handleable animal presentations. At DAK, training action plans are developed for each animal, by groups that include keepers, managers, the Curator of Conservation Station, and the Curator of Behavioral Husbandry. Some of the formal behaviors that may be trained include training for A-B behaviors (i.e., moving from point “A” to point “B”), or training an animal to perform natural behaviors such as opening of wings, opening a beak, raising feet to show foot structure, and so on. Alternatively, at SDZ and DI, “handleability” is the sole focus. That is, the goal is for the animal to be comfortable while in interpretive situations, as opposed to training for formal, show-type behaviors.

At each facility, training programs also include training the people that will be working with the animals. In all cases, animals are classified according to the difficulty of handling. For example, at SDZ, the keepers have devised a ranking system for animal usage, from A-E, with A being the easiest to handle. At SDZ, the keepers train the individual educators to use the animals. The education department budgets two hours each week per educator to maintain animal handling skills and information. At DAK, new keepers are trained by other keepers, as well as the area manager. At DI, both animal and educator training is usually completed by the education curator and coordinator. Designated keepers assist with training educators in advanced animal handling skills and with those animals that have special training requirements.

Protocol

Due to the variety of animals, handlers and programs, handling and other safety protocols have been established at each facility to ensure the well-being of animals, staff and guests. These include an animal check-out sheet to track animal usage. At SDZ, this also includes the completion of a request form to get keeper approval for presentations taking place outside of the Children’s Zoo. Each facility has specific guidelines for media events and off-site presentations. At Walt Disney World, anyone requesting an off-site animal presentation (which includes events at other WDW locations) must complete an exotic animal request form 10 days prior to the event. All off-site presentations must have a conservation theme, meet facility guidelines and be approved by the WDW animal activities coordinator. Further, at DAK, guidelines have been developed to guide the use of animals in media activities, including that the media event does not conflict with our overall conservation messages, and that the keeper must always have primary control over the animal (e.g., on-camera personnel cannot “hold” the animal without a keeper’s assistance).

Programs and Themes

Each facility utilizes their education animals for a variety of presentations. Specific themes are based on each facility’s programming and audience needs. At the SDZ, animals are utilized for school, scout, zoo member and convention groups, VIP tours, parent-child classes, on-site meetings and parties, sleepovers and Children’s Zoo presentations. General themes include adaptations and natural history. Specific programs/themes include nocturnal animals, rain forest animals, zoo babies and Asian animals. At DI all animals must fit into a predetermined theme or message as part of the education animal collection plan. Therefore the theme determines the animal collection. One theme that all facilities focus on is that exotic animals do not make good pets. This is an extremely important message any time live animals are handled in public and one that all handlers must support not only through their words but through their actions. There is a fine line between demonstrating that you care for an animal and between treating it as you would a pet; this line is observed every time animals are presented to our guests. At DAK, there are a variety of animal presentations throughout the park. The majority of animal encounters occur in Conservation Station, an area of the park which provides our guests with a variety of interactive means of learning about issues related to the conservation of animals and wild places. At Conservation Station, animal encounters occur on two stages, with over 27 presentations occurring daily on an indoor stage, and 15 on an outdoor stage. Additionally, animal encounters are found in four other locations in the park. These presentations have a variety of themes. Each presentation on the indoor stage focuses on the natural behaviors of that species, where it is found, and a particular conservation message related to that species. In each case, presentations are concluded with what an individual person can do to make a difference in the environment. The presentations on the outdoor stage as well as in the other locations in the park are more formal in nature, and range in theme. For example, one presentation - in Dinoland, the part of the park that focuses on primitive and extinct life forms - focuses on animals that are either presumed to be, or are scientifically thought to be, related to dinosaurs, and is presented in a very entertaining and engaging way.

Conclusion

Live animal presentations provide us with an unparalleled opportunity to raise guest awareness and communicate key conservation messages. Appropriate policies regarding animal acquisitions and training and the development of themes and messages are essential for the safety and well-being of animals, staff and guests and to ensure that our presentations are effective.

References

Morgan, J. Mark.; Gramann, James. H. 1989. Predicting effectiveness of wildlife education programs: A study of students’ attitudes and knowledge toward snakes. Wildlife Society Bulletin, 17: 501-509.

About the Authors

Vik Cowan
Education Department
San Diego Zoo
P.O. Box 551
San Diego, CA 92112-0551
619-231-1515 ext. 4594
vcowen @ sandiegozoo.org

Kris Whipple
Curator of Education, Group Programs
Walt Disney World Animal Programs
P.O. Box 10,000
Lake Buena Vista 32830-1000
407-939-7355
Kris.whipple@.disney.com

Jackie Ogden
Curator, Conservation Station
Disney’s Animal Kingdom
P.O. Box 10,000
Lake Buena Vista, FL 32830-1000
407-938-2831
Jackie.ogden@.disney.com