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8.2 Starting Assessment 149

VetBooks.ir realise that these discussions can become up to and across a platform of lattice work
that was just below the surface of the water
highly emotional. Don’t shy away from these
discussions just because they may be a little
iour enabled aquarists to get a close look at
uncomfortable. You need to give people the for their regular feed. This one trained behav­
space to express their feelings and concerns, the animals on a regular basis. The platform
even if they are not in alignment with your could be easily raised up to the surface to
knowledge and/or experience. It is important gain full access to the animals for physical
to keep these discussions out in the open so examinations and other procedures, when
that you know how a team is feeling about necessary. After a procedure, the rays were
the training. These conversations keep the still very willing to swim back onto the plat­
focus on the animal’s welfare, not to mention form for their food. Training this behaviour
if you don’t allow these discussions to occur, opened up the opportunity for a level of hus­
they will simply be driven ‘underground’ and bandry that was not possible prior to invest­
could undermine your programme later. ing in training.
In a different example, initial training pro­
gress was slow, but after a simple change,
8.2.7 Time Commitment
rapid progress was made. In this situation, the
Undoubtedly, you have noticed many of training goal was to shift a very large
the aforementioned suggestions for effec­ American crocodile (Crocodylus acutus) from
tive programmes are time‐consuming a pool, across a dry corridor exhibit space,
endeavours and, of course, the use of time and into a back area. The constraint for this
should be guarded because it is one of the team was that they had to do their training
most precious commodities that we have. sessions in the morning before guests arrived
That said, time spent in strategic develop­ at the park. After a month, with twice‐weekly
ment up front can avoid troubling time sessions, the crocodile was making little pro­
commitments on the back end. Time is one gress and the length of training sessions were
of the top reasons why there may be push long, waiting for the animal to respond. When
back against embracing a training pro­ the time of day restriction was lifted, and ses­
gramme from either senior management or sions were moved to afternoons when the sun
the people working directly with the ani­ had warmed up the animal, very rapid pro­
mals. Training does take time – there is no gress was made at every session. Without the
way around that. You need to consider time time of day constraint, the team was able to
realistically and know that moving people take advantage of the natural history of this
effectively through a change process is going species and training sessions became more
to take a lot of time. In most cases, the ini­ efficient.
tial time invested will ultimately save time In summary, your training programme and
and other resources in the long run. vision will need to be customised to your situ­
Training animals can take a variable ation and prioritised by the animal’s needs.
amount of time, depending on both the indi­ You may not be able to do everything you and
vidual animal and staff involved. With this your team would like to at once. Always keep
initial investment of time can come a large in mind how much capacity people have in
payoff in the future daily husbandry, non‐ their daily workload for any additional train­
routine husbandry, medical procedures, your ing requirements, as well as how much change
ability to train individual animals for addi­ the individual team members can handle at
tional behaviours, and emergency response. any given time. Slow, consistent progress is
For example, a large group of cownose rays better than pushing for large, initial progress
(Rhinoptera bonasus) living in a very large only to watch it degrade over time because it
multi‐species aquarium were trained to swim never took hold in the first place.