Page 120 - Zoo Animal Learning and Training

92 5 What Is There to Learn in a Zoo Setting?

VetBooks.ir did not have prior experience of these scent may enter the zoo grounds to take advantage
of plentiful food supplies, warmth and shelter.
cues. Similarly, it has been found that the calls
of birds of prey elicit alarm calls in captive‐
may learn to recognise the same or similar
born Geoffroy’s marmosets (Callithrix geof- Aside from conditioned taste aversion, they
froyi). The fact that prey animals have these ‘good food’ cues as zoo animals do (for exam-
types of responses to potential predators, ple rattling keys), how to beg or steal food
which require little learning experience from zoo visitors or animals, and to avoid
(Hollén and Manser 2007), means that we dangers such as electric fences and traps.
should be cautious when designing zoo exhib- To end this section, I discuss the zoo ani-
its where predators and prey are living close mal learning mechanism used to deal with
to each other (Stanley and Aspey 1984; stimuli which are not dangerous, such as reg-
Wielebnowski et al. 2002). ular visitor presence and noises made by car-
Other responses to danger require more egivers that do not signal the impending
active learning through teaching. Meerkat arrival of food. Habituation is defined as a
adults teach pups how to handle live prey such decrease in responsiveness to a stimulus that
as scorpions through observational learning; is presented repeatedly over time (Blumstein
furthermore, teaching methods are responses 2016). It is known to occur across the entire
to changes in pup begging calls, making the animal kingdom, and saves animals the
learning process very efficient (Thornton and energy of responding to harmless stimuli.
McAuliffe 2006). Knowing which species have Habituation is a relatively simple form of
sophisticated teaching strategies should be learning and can readily occur in response to
taken into account for zoo reintroduction pro- enrichment which lacks novelty. For exam-
grammes (see Chapter 12). ple, octopuses (Octopus dofleini) habituated
Finally, other fear responses may be learned within the first trial of exposure to a plastic
more gradually, as and when required. Naive object (Mather and Anderson 1999), and
vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus pygerythrus) captive great apes are particularly well known
learned to avoid the electric fence of a new for rapid habituation to enrichment (Clark
enclosure in a matter of days, which the 2011). The opposite of habituation is sensiti-
authors believe was due to trial and error sation; this is an increased response to a
learning (Weingrill et al. 2005). Conditioned repeated stimulus. For example, the job of
taste aversion refers to when an animal learns the zoo vet can become incredibly difficult if
not to consume a food after experiencing an an animal becomes sensitised to their mere
adverse effect such as illness or pain; ulti- presence, manifesting in behaviour as run-
mately this helps animals avoid foods which ning away or becoming stressed. To combat
are poisonous. The animal forms an associa- sensitisation towards aversive but vital vet-
tion between eating the food (e.g. berries) erinary and husbandry procedures, positive
and the negative experience (e.g. vomiting). reinforcement training can be used to habit-
Forthman and Ogden (1992) proposed that uate the animal (Young and Cipreste 2004).
conditioned taste aversion could be used to
control pest species in the zoo, in other 5.4.6 Solving Complex Problems
words by laying down bad‐tasting food to
warn them away from other food supplies. So far, I have considered how animals learn
Whilst I am on the topic of ‘pest’ species in skills for their survival, but also for more rou-
zoos, it is worthwhile taking a moment to tine needs such as learning regular food pro-
consider what non‐zoo animals can learn in vision cues. It could be argued that selection
the zoo. By this I am referring to the many pressures imposed on zoo animals are sig-
thousands of cockroaches, rats, mice, nificantly weaker than those imposed on
pigeons, seagulls, coyotes, and foxes which their wild counterparts; even though animals