Page 122 - Zoo Animal Learning and Training

94 5 What Is There to Learn in a Zoo Setting?

VetBooks.ir with evidence of these ‘extremely clever’ 5.5 Conclusions
forms of animal learning (with the obvious
disclaimer of a species bias, judging animal
skills relative to human abilities, Rowe and ● This chapter is a whistle‐stop tour of some
Healy 2014), zoos need to ask themselves the of the learning opportunities available to
following questions: ‘What have our animals zoo animals, and their practical implica-
learned? But more importantly what could tion for the management of those animals.
they learn?’ It is not intended to be an all‐inclusive
review, and readers are encouraged to read
fundamental animal learning texts for
5.4.7 Learning Across a Lifetime greater detail on the mechanisms involved
Recent research has found a positive rela- (e.g. Byrne 2017; Mackintosh 1994; Pearce
tionship between animal ‘personality’ traits 2013; Shettleworth 2010).
such as boldness and aggressiveness, and ● Zoo environments are neither static nor
learning ability (Carere and Locurto 2011). devoid of learning opportunities. Learning
For example, in cavies (Cavia aperea) there can begin before birth and continues until
was a strong positive correlation between the death; zoo managers therefore need to pro-
speed of learning a food acquisition task, and vide optimum environments at every life
three different personality measures: bold- stage and pay particular attention to the
ness, activity level, and aggressiveness importance of the maternal environment
(Guenther et al. 2014). This suggests that and time‐sensitive imprinting phases in
individual differences in learning may persist early life.
fairly predictably throughout life; some indi- ● Learning through play and exploration allow
viduals will generally have a higher aptitude animals to practice important skills and seek
for learning than others. From a manage- new information; these unstructured learn-
ment perspective, it is useful for zoo staff to ing opportunities should be fostered in a zoo
identify learning differences in their animals, setting in order to place an animal in charge
if this knowledge can help customise enrich- of its own learning processes.
ment or training programmes. ● In addition to unstructured learning
Some learning outcomes may be pre- opportunities (play and exploration),
dicted by ‘personality’, but not all learning structured learning opportunities should
stays consistent over an animal’s lifetime. be provided to animals in zoos. These take
I wrap up this chapter with a brief consid- the form of positive reinforcement training
eration of what happens to learning as zoo sessions, and cognitive enrichment involv-
animals inevitably age, especially consider- ing complex problem solving.
ing that many animals in human care exceed ● The vast majority of formal animal learn-
their natural lifespans due to a lack of pred- ing studies have been undertaken under
ators and excellent veterinary care (Krebs highly controlled laboratory conditions,
et al. 2018). The bulk of research on the but there is no reason why the findings
topic of ageing and learning comes from should not be applied to animals living in
laboratory animals and humans; from this zoos. For example, if we discover a particu-
we know that learning ability generally lar species possesses a particular learning
decreases with age in vertebrates (Kausler skill, we should endeavour to facilitate the
1994; Riddle 2007). In their review of caring expression of this skill in captivity. We still
for aged zoo animals, Krebs et al. (2018) have much to learn about how most zoo
state the importance of giving geriatric ani- animals learn, but cognitive studies are
mals extra human assistance to learn new becoming more commonplace under the
things, whereas long‐term memory may be remit of modern zoos being viable sites for
impacted less. research.