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Training Reptiles in Zoos: A Professional Perspective
Richard Gibson

Until the turn of the century if you’d asked work; and trained behaviours for public
the average reptile keeper in a zoo whether presentations.
they did any training with their animals you’d Several zoos and aquariums now routinely
have been lucky not to be laughed out of the train tortoises and turtles, crocodilians, and
building. But times are changing. As our many lizards (especially monitor lizards,
understanding and appreciation of the intel- which are widely believed, if not proven, to
lectual abilities of reptiles has grown (see be the most ‘intelligent’ of the lizards) for all
Burghardt 2013), so too has the incidence of the above reasons (see website links
and breadth of training programmes exploit- https://www.cabq.gov/culturalservices/
ing a ‘new found’ (or at least newly recog- biopark/news/training‐with‐reptiles, https://
nised) reptilian aptitude for training. maddiekduhon.wordpress.com/2014/08/07/
That reptiles may quickly habituate to nor- did‐you‐know‐reptiles‐can‐be‐trained, and
mally aversive stimuli has been long appreci- https://nationalzoo.si.edu/animals/exhibits/
ated by many a reptile lover who enjoys reptile‐discovery‐center). The species bene-
handling their charges and indeed by the fitting most commonly from this new found
less‐than‐well‐behaved visitor to the reptile herpetological husbandry tool are probably:
house who discovers, perhaps to their dis- the giant Galapagos and Aldabra tortoises
may, that banging on the window has little if (Chelonoidis niger and Aldabrachelys
any effect upon the ‘lifeless’ reptile within. gigantea respectively) which, owing to their
Such a propensity for desensitisation can be enormous weight and strength, are managed
put to good use in the presentation of suita- and manipulated far more effectively through
bly prepared animals for public displays and training than against their will (see Weiss and
even contact, and for delivery of veterinary Wilson 2003; Gaalema and Benboe 2008);
procedures including visual inspection, claw‐ crocodilians, whose size and potential to do
clipping, ultrasound examination, and even harm, require a ‘hands‐off’ approach to man-
injections and blood draw (e.g. Bryant et al. agement wherever possible (see Augustine
2016; Davis 2006). The addition of operant 2009; Hellmuth and Gerrits 2008); and the
conditioning, employing simple associative world’s largest and arguably most charis-
learning through positive reinforcement matic lizard, the Komodo dragon (Varanus
(most often, but not always, food), greatly komodoensis), which has perhaps seen the
expands the training possibilities to include greatest attention to training – indeed, few
targeting for transfer between enclosures, zoos maintaining this impressive saurian do
crating, safe feeding, exercise, and behav- so without implementing some degree of tar-
ioural enrichment; stationing for veterinary get and/or stationing training – and as a

Zoo Animal Learning and Training, First Edition. Edited by Vicky A. Melfi, Nicole R. Dorey, and Samantha J. Ward.
© 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Published 2020 by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.